Where does the blood come from that is used for transfusions in military field hospitals? For example it would be impractical (I would imagine) to fly units of blood from U.S.A. to Iraq to maintain their stock so I guess military personnel must be the source.
Are they in any way forced to donate or is it voluntary, are any people (such as pilots) exempt from donating?
I have been forced to give blood, but only for tests. I have never been compelled to donate a quart of blood for battlefield medicine purposes, though I would if necessary in spite of my unreasonable fear of needles.
When I was overseas it was requested that you donate so long as it did not interfere with your duties. As I flew every other day it did interfere, so I didn’t donate, but a lot of our ground troops did.
So no, it’s not mandatory.
Plenty of organizations do this.
In Peace Corps Cameroon, we were told “you guys are our blood bank.” We didn’t have storage facilities, but the idea was if something did happen we may find ourselves rushed to the office to donate blood.
While they can’t force us to donate, none of us would hesitate for a second to give blood if somebody needed it. We’re all in the same boat. You don’t join an organization like this without being willing to give what you can for the team.
When I was in the Army you were STRONGLY encouraged to give blood. They lined us up in basic to give blood and no one even knew what we were in line for until they started the process. I’d say at the time about 90% gave blood, after training the blood mobile came around on a regular basis and there was a very large participation. Not giving got you some other duty as everyone else was busy being noble.
I don’t know if they would have put a gun to his head if he refused but my dad was required to make blood donations. Of course he served mostly on a hospital ship in WWII. If they were running low, there weren’t a lot of places to get it other than from healthy servicemen on board.
Now sure how sophisticated blood typing was in those days but dad maintains that having O-negative blood made him quite an asset.
Never been so much as asked nicely in 15+ years, much less compelled.
I was in US Army mid-80’s (~peacetime Army, fwiw), and during school/training post-Basic, we were given option of donating blood when Red Cross or similar visited. LOTS of peer-pressure along with not having to do PT (morning-exercises/run) for three days and getting out of other on-desirable duties were the ‘carrots’ dangled for higher-% participation of troops. Worked out well for everyone, it seemed.
Not mandatory at all, but worth it to those that gave up their blood 
After I gave (for first time in my life), I went home and drank three ‘low-point’ beers, and got wasted drunk. That is hard to do on Okie beer usually, LOL. Apparently, other trainees had the same idea as I heard about it the next day…“no more beer in barracks after blood-donations”, per the First Sergeant. “Causes too many troops to fall down”
I retired about a year ago … no never forced, but there were carrots if you did (sometimes). I was in a position of leadership with I retired and I told my Soldiers they could skip PT the next morning if they gave … the Platoon Sergeants grumbled but a lot of the Soldier’s donated.
I was also working in a Military hospital which had regular blood drives but occasionally they would ask for certain blood types to volunteer because they were critically short …
I was never forced to give blood, nor was there any sort of pressure placed on me to donate. There were regular blood drives, and you were usually given an incentive to donate (usually you got to take the rest of the day off). But no, never compelled in any way.
I should also mention that in the six months I spent in Iraq, we never had a single blood drive.
Never in 23 years.
In the Navy we called this “vampire liberty.”
Ironically, because of my service I now am not permitted to donate blood. I was stationed for several years in Europe, and they seem to be afraid that my blood will give an unsuspecting recipient Mad Cow Disease.
In Iraq, I was part of the biggest mass-casualty event up to that time- something like 85 people injured and dozens dead in one place. They basically grabbed everyone that was walking to the chow hall (which was beside the medical facility) and stuck them in a line. Of course, we all had our blood types on our ID tags, cards, and of course memorized, so this wasn’t a problem.
They stuck a bag and a needle into each person’s arm and then just stuck the same needle right into the casualties. It helps that everyone is tested for blood pathogens before they even deploy, so there’s no worry of HIV or hepatitis or anything. And the people bleeding to death certainly weren’t complaining.
Thinking back on it, I have no idea how they knew what blood type the Iraqis were. I’m sure they had some sort of system. I mean, they must have, right?
Then there was the time that we had a lot of casualties and they broadcast on the PA (over the entire post) that they needed a lot of B+ blood. I’ll be damned if a hundred of people didn’t show up.
You don’t really need to force service members to give blood. They do it willingly.
Me either. Three years in Africa took care of that.
Thanks to you all for your service, whether military or as a donor.
My son the combat medic said essentially the same thing as y’all seem to be doing - he had the opportunity (and always took it) but was never forced.
Regards,
Shodan
I did blood type testing in a biology class in high school, right on the lab benches - we didn’t have the Rh factor test (too expensive I think?), but we tested out our A/B/O factors. I’m sure that your docs had some kind of test available if they weren’t limiting it to O-neg donors.
I’ve never seen a Soldier donate blood outside of Basic Training. I have no idea where the blood comes from, but I’m sure there isn’t any blood at all in any Field Hospital. One would have to be at a pretty large base for their to be blood in the inventory, I’m guessing.
In one unit I was in when they had a blood drive you could either a) donate and go on about your day or b) work the blood drive as a volunteer for an eight-hour shift. Most people chose to donate.
Marines, late 1960’s. When we were advised blood was needed there was no shortage of volunteers.
cough/pint of blood/cough.
I have a vague recollection of donating in boot camp, but I’m not sure I trust the memory. My time in Europe also eliminates me from donating now, a bummer, as it’s nearly 30 years.
As an aside, although I’m not sure what level of coercion the military can impose, I did have a woman, preparing to deploy to Irac, in the ER recently to have her IUD taken out. She told me that it was required of her and now she would have to get a medcal waiver since she’d been unable to tolerate the IUD. I suppose that daily oral contraceptives are both a logistical problem, and a temptation for people not enjoying their deployment. She was married to a serviceman, IIRC.
I know that mrAru and I both donated on base frequently until medications we started taking prevent us from giving blood. Not required or coerced in any way. It was just easy to do - head down to pick him up and stop in and get tapped for blood if they were doing a blood drive that day. It was usually pretty fast, good phlebotomists and usually enough seats that there wasn’t much of a waiting time.