‘Now away the walking blood bank!’

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Back on this post, David shared this blood-donation experience:

Props to you for donating blood Brad! When I was abord Navy ships
and we would do battle training, one of the things that would be called
away during battle exercises would be:

"Now away the walking blood bank!"

This meant that all able-bodiedAp070525015049
seamen not otherwise directly
engaged in combat operations were to muster at sickbay to donate blood
so that it was on hand and ready for use as casualties were taken. I
always thought this was a pretty cool thing.

Blood is a life-saver, combat or not.

David

And so it was that when I was searching for something in the AP archives and ran across the above photo, I had to share it. Here’s the caption:

Some of the 750 crewmen of the aircraft carrier Boxer fill beds and line up in the wardroom of the ship to give blood for the wounded in Korea in San Francisco on Jan. 26, 1951. The 27,000-ton Essex class carrier has seen considerable action in the Korean War and is presently being overhauled in the navy yard in San Francisco. (AP Photo/FX)

We should all take a moment and write a note to thank Al Gore for inventing the Internet. It’s way cool. You can find almost anything on it.

For instance, below we have Elvis signing up to donate in Germany in 1959…

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2 thoughts on “‘Now away the walking blood bank!’”

  1. David

    Wow! Glad to be of service.
    Most of my sea stories make peoples’ eyes roll back in their heads, so this is a treat.
    Also, I hadn’t thought about walking blood banks in a long time, and hadn’t considered that soldiers, sailors and airmen were still doing this today in the present conflict. As I mentioned on that other string: Combat conditions force and enable warriors to do things we wouldn’t normally consider as civilians.
    Thanks for a reminder about what our fighting men and women are doing for us.
    David

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