Keesler team participates in blood drive

Col. Glen Downing, 81st Training Wing vice commander, Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., chats with 336th Training Squadron student Airman 1st Class Victoria Puckett during an Oct. 172011, blood drive at Thomson Hall as laboratory technician Robert Spicer prepares to draw blood. The event accounted for 92 units. The Keesler Blood Donor center conducts between one and three weekly drives. The staff estimates 95 percent of the units collected at Keesler come from mobile drives, mainly from 81st Training Group students. (U.S. Air Force photo by Steve Pivnick)

Keesler Blood Doner Center one of three in Air Force

Published Oct. 26, 2011
81st Training Wing Public Affairs

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- The Keesler Blood Donor Center is located in the 81st Medical Group's Arnold Medical Annex opposite the Meadows Drive tennis courts. The centers collect donations both in the facility and on blood drives across base and throughout surrounding states.

The center is one of only three Air Force Blood Donor Centers. It's part of the Armed Services Blood Program which shares the joint mission of collecting, processing and distributing thousands of blood products for military medical centers at home and in-theater overseas. These units play a key role in the direct medical care of wounded Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors and Marines involved in worldwide contingency operations.

Capt. Heidi McMinn, Keesler BDC officer in charge, explained the center's personnel and their donors play a key role in ensuring the DOD ships more than 1,000 units of blood weekly to more than 50 U.S. military hospitals throughout Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East in direct support of Operations Enduring Freedom and New Dawn. Most of the blood shipped from Keesler reaches the theater less than a week after the day it's collected.

She added, "The donor center always needs AB positive and negative and O negative donors. Products collected from these blood types are in high demand at home and overseas."

Officials note that one pint of blood can save up to three lives.

Drop-in donors are welcome, stop by one of the mobile blood drives held on base or call 376-6100 to schedule an appointment.