The ASBP is a special part of the Department of Defense and functions as its certified blood collection distribution network. It is the ONLY blood collection agency that directly collects and supplies blood and blood products for the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces, supplying life-giving blood products all over the world.

The Armed Services Blood Program was created at the end of 1951, at the height of the Korean War, through an executive order by President Harry Truman. The idea was to set up a blood collection network where the military donated blood directly to its own, and thus not have to procure and purchase blood from outside civilian sources back in the United States. Thus, the ASBP's mission was to act as a joint-services field operating agency to establish and maintain a secure blood supply network for the military in both peace and (especially) time of war.

Since that time, it has provided millions of pints of life-giving blood and blood services for our people in uniform, during the Cold War, during `special operations' such as the invasion of Panama or Grenada, and of course, though all of our major wars—Korea, Vietnam, Operation Desert Storm, the Iraq War, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and now in Afghanistan and Operation Enduring Freedom. The ASBP was even there on that terrible day of September 11th for the New York City firefighters.

There are only 21 ASBP Blood Donor Centers (BDCs) in the world. Three of them are overseas in Guam, Japan and Germany, and the other 17 are in the United States, located on major military bases. The Eastern Midwest BDC---our center---is based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) in Dayton, Ohio, with the 88th Medical Group. Fortunately, it is close enough for their mobile crew to come to Columbus to conduct blood drives for us.

As expected, most of the blood is collected from military on active duty, and in turn goes to help save the lives of our GIs and Marines deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The military is for the most part, taking care of its own. You see, that's how the ASBP was originally designed to function.

There are two problems though that have over the decades put this blood supply pipeline at risk. For one thing, today's élite military is all voluntary, and as such, is much smaller now than our standing forces were back in 1951, or during Vietnam. So the pool of potential donors is much less than it was.

The second serious problem that developed was because of the discovery that certain dangerous, communicable diseases could be transferred through blood donations. Donors could be a serious medical threat to recipients by introducing exotic diseases via their donations when the patient was physically quite vulnerable. Coupled to this was that fact that, because so many of those in uniform go to medically contagious and hazardous parts of the world, they in turn would become medical risks for donation, Thus FDA guidelines (which cover both military and civilian blood collection policies) ruled that they would be deferred from donating, sometimes for many years. Today, it has been determined that over 43% of those actively serving in the Armed Forces are now actually ineligible to donate to their comrades!

Thus, while the ASBP tries its best to keep adequate stocks of highly perishable life-giving blood supplies on hand to meet the demands of field operations, it cannot always do so, since it relies on the blood donations of just service members and their families. At such times, the ASBP must try to secure and purchase any available additional blood from civilian blood collection agencies at whatever the current market rate is, which is classified (although it varies over time, and is always at least several hundreds of dollars per pint).

Yielding to pressure by our own American Legion Ohio 12th District, the Columbus Dispatch (See sample articles), the Marine Corps Family Support Community (MCFSC) and Sarah Duvall (whose son Aaron Reed, part of Lima Company, was killed in Iraq in 2005), the U.S. Department of Defense in 2007 was mercifully coerced into modifying its 55-year old restrictions to allow civilians to donate to the military in time of war. With three stipulations, though, rigidly adhered to.

First, to maintain quality controls (so critical to the collection and
processing of blood), donations can only be drawn by an authorized
ASBP unit (Our regional blood center as mentioned is out of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base).

Second, as part of the military, any drive for the troops MUST be held on a military base or installation.

Third, by law the ASBP, a part of the Department of Defense, cannot advertise any of its blood drives to the public.

That’s where the American Legion comes in. WE support the event for them. We get the word out on their behalf. On top of the customary snacks and drinks, we get a sponsor (a local VSO) to provide warm food for donors and volunteers. For morning hours, we provide some donuts, pastries, coodkies, pies, fresh fruit, juice, coffee... Later we serve sloppy joes, sandwiches, hamburgers, barbecued chicken, coney dogs, potato salad, chips, baked beans, cole slaw, pies, fruit; sometimes (weather permitting), we have a cookout—no donor leaves hungry. Donors also get a free t-shirt and of course, the knowledge that they have directly helped save the life of someone in the Armed Forces.

All blood collected go to the military, and 3/4ths of what we get is, after being immediately processed, driven across the base at WPAFB, loaded onto a cargo jet, and priority flown overseas right out of the base and in-theatre within a week.

While walk-ins the day of the drive are always welcome, our blood donors are encouraged to pre-register for an appointment with the ASBP (to cut down or eliminate waiting time). This can be done at the following website: https://www.militarylifeforce.com/index.cfm?Group=Home

Enter in the appropriate zip code (U.S. Army Reserve Center is 43213) and the date of the next drive (they're bimonthly: Check this schedule). If anyone wants to know if they qualify to donate, full details of eligibility can be found on the ASBP website at: http://www.militaryblood.dod.mil/donors/can_i_donate.aspx

Points of contact are:

Pete Margaritis
Blood Drive Coordinator and
Commander
American Legion Ohio 12th District Council
614-395-0387

Steve Ebersole
American Legion Ohio 12th District Council
614-783-6862

Please. We need your support. Help spread the word to eligible donors in the general public. Ask them to give a special gift, one literally from the heart. This is a special benefaction that will help save the life of a dying serviceman or servicewoman. Every pint we can get in these drives can save up to three of our troops. Let’s turn to and make sure this event is successful. Next blood drive open to the public, Mid-March 2010, date to be announced in January.

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