I gave blood during the blood drive at work today, because I know that my type O blood is always appreciated. I try do this minor civic duty on a regular basis, so I went out and I gave a pint of blood when the blood van visited our company. This brought back many memories of when I started giving blood back in the 1970s, when I was serving in Viet Nam. The military medics were always requesting blood, so I gave blood a lot in those days.
When I gave blood on the USS Chicago in Viet Nam
Shortly after coming aboard the USS Chicago CG-11, where I began serving as a DS3 in the CIC, one of my supervisors was leaving the Navy and headed home and was flown inland to catch a plane. He had done his required six years, and he was getting out and going home to Wisconsin! He was taken to Da Nang by helicopter, where he would wait for a plane to take him back home to his wife and young child. However, while he was dismounting from the helicopter, the base was hit by a mortar attack and he was fatally wounded.
Back on the Chicago, they put out a call for blood donations in his memory. I think that this was the first time I remember giving blood. I went into the sick bay, and they hooked me right up and took a pint of blood.
When I gave blood on the USS Chicago in Hong Kong
The most memorable time that I gave blood was when the USS Chicago CG-11 pulled into Hong Kong Harbor. For several days before we were due to come in to port, everyone was talking about the wonders of giving blood in Hong Kong. Everyone admired the beautiful nurses in their crisp uniforms, with tight tops and short skirts, who always came on board the ship to take our blood. So of course, when the day for giving blood arrived, I was one of the first ones to get to the sick bay. When I got there, a pretty redhead invited me in. Her dress was really short, and the top barely covered her upper parts.
She had to almost get into the bunk with me to get the needle in my arm and get the blood flowing. Once she got the blood flowing, she moved on to the next sailor, whom she put in the bunk above me. Of course, she had to climb on my bunk to start his blood. Then she did the same thing for the top bunk. What a view from the bottom bunk!
Giving blood today in Texas was a little tamer, of course. The nurses here were dressed in perfectly ordinary uniforms. And after we gave blood, we each were given a decaffeinated soft drink or water.
In Hong Kong, we always had a little bottle of whiskey or bourbon after our donation, which, of course, was an extra incentive to give blood for many of the crewmembers After I had made my donation, I walked through a crowd in the passageway, all loudly looking forward to the chance of donating blood. Our quiet little blood van in Texas seemed very tame by comparison.
Ways giving blood has changed
One thing that seems to have changed from my experience in Hong Kong is that now, while they are testing your blood, they take a sample and put it in a machine, which chugs along for a moment or two to test your and to indicate if you are an acceptable donor. In the old days they held your finger over a bottle of fluid and coaxed a drop of your blood into the bottle. They would then watch the blood drop descend and that would somehow determine if you were acceptable.
Guess my memories are just another sign that times have changed!
Links:
The organization in Austin where I gave blood is We Are Blood.
