Blood center part of tri-service drive Published Feb. 8, 2012 By Steve Pivnick 81st Medical Group Public Affairs KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Teams from the Keesler Blood Donor Center recently returned from a tri-service blood drive at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and Fort Gordon, Ga. Five BDC members comprised the Air Force contingent among the 73 active-duty military and 25 civilians from the 12 Air Force, Army and Navy bases who participated in the Jan. 9-12 West Point drive, an annual event hosted by Fort Gordon. Following the drive, three additional Keesler BDC staff traveled to Fort Gordon to process the 1,828 units that had been collected. Tech. Sgt. Debra Hafner, NCO-in-charge of the blood donor center, said, "This single blood drive supplied enough blood for two weeks worth of critical shipments from these 12 bases for support of forces in Southwest Asia." The Keesler team was also singled out by the Joint Blood Program Officer Forward for helping meet a State Department request for increased blood products. Members of the West Point team were: Hafner, a lab technician; lab technologist Larry Bank, lab technician Kevin Nguyen and phlebotomists Rachel Necaise and Amber Lee. The Fort Gordon team was comprised of medical laboratory technicians Staff Sgt. Jason Venable, Airman 1st Class Michael Brown and Nancy Evans. The West Point blood drive followed a similar program held in September at the Air Force Academy. The Keesler Blood Donor Center is located in the 81st Medical Group's Arnold Medical Annex, opposite the Meadows Drive tennis courts. They collect donations in the facility and on blood drives across base and throughout surrounding states. The BDC 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, officer in charge of Keesler's BDC, explained BDC personnel and their donors play a key role in ensuring the DOD ships more than 1,000 units of blood to more than 50 US 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." For more information or to schedule an appointment, call 376-6100. Donors are also accepted on a walk-in basis or during blood drives at units across the base.