Patriot Brigade Blood Drive

Fort Polk, La. -- Blood products are used for reasons ranging from cancer patient treatment to battlefield injuries. According to the American Red Cross, every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood. Soldiers from across 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, volunteered their time to donate a pint of blood on May 5, 2015, during the Patriot brigade blood drive.

"I had a friend of mine who had a really bad accident at a ski resort." said Specialist Benjamin Summers-Milne, Headquarters Company 3rd BCT, 10th Mtn. Div. blood drive donor. "He needed a blood transfusion to save his life and since then I've been an advocate for donating blood."

Summers-Milne said he has donated blood as frequently as possible from that day forward.

The food and Drug Administration limits storage of refrigerated red blood cells to 42 days. Though the World Health Organization reports an increase of 8.6 million blood donations from 2004 to 2012, the demand for whole blood is always higher than the supply.

"There is always a shortage of AB Negative, B Negative O Negative and O Positive blood." said Sandra James, Team Lead with the LifeShare blood donation team. "That's why we come to Fort Polk, to make sure that if a Soldier is wounded or something happens in the field, there's blood available for you."

James said the blood they LifeShare collects in its service area can and has been shipped anywhere in the world for Soldiers wounded in combat.

LifeShare also supplies blood components to more than 100 medical facilities and hospitals throughout Louisiana, East Texas and South Arkansas and is a member of the American Rare Donor Program, which provides blood to patients with complex blood compatibility issues.

"When I was on my first deployment to Iraq in 2003 they were often talking about there being a shortage of blood supply over there." said Major Ivan Miller, Headquarters Company, 3rd BCT, 10th Mtn. Div. Brigade Fire Support Officer. "The problem we ran into was that Soldiers down range were ineligible for donation due to having been inoculated for the deployment."

Miller said he feels the main reason Soldiers should donate blood is because they never know who's life they will save. They could potentially be saving their own life.

"People don't really understand the importance of donating blood." Said Natalie Powell, Blood Donor Recruiter with LifeShare. "One donation saves three lives so if one person donates then that's three lives you've saved in twenty minutes. I don't know any other way of volunteering that has that kind of impact."

Although they did not reach their goal for donations this time, Powell says raising awareness on the ease and significance of donating blood may be the key to increasing donor turnout.

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