Over 100 pints of blood donated for wounded Marine

Over a hundred people showed up to donate blood for injured military personnel last Thursday at Mountain Home AFB.

The blood drive served as one of three in Idaho held in the name of Marine Cpl. Travis Greene, a native of Twin Falls, who was wounded while deployed in Iraq.

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne also announced blood drives in Boise and Twin Falls to further aid the Marine.

At the Mountain Home AFB drive, the number of volunteers who gave blood between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. was 104, according to event organizer 1st Lt. Lindsey Tramel.

"Our goal was a hundred so we were very pleased with the turnout," she said.

Tramel also said the Armed Services Blood Bank, based out of Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Wash., flew in all the medical personnel for the drive.

"They brought in 16 staff members and over 10 beds," she said. "They are a very organized group."

All of the blood collected from the drive will be sent back to the blood collection facility in Tacoma where it will then be distributed to military personnel who are injured in combat.

"The blood will be used for our troops deployed overseas," Tramel said. "Whoever needs it, they'll get it."

The Marine injured in Iraq, Cpl. Greene, was wounded when an explosion took both of his legs above the knee while he was helping to evacuate wounded marines near Ar Ramadi, Iraq on Dec. 7.

After being flown back to the U.S., he went through more than 200 units of blood (200 pints) while receiving treatment at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.

"Each donor here today will be giving a pint of blood, if they can," Tramel said. "The blood will then be tested to see if it's clean before it's shipped off and categorized as a usable unit."

"The entire process takes no more than 30 minutes," she said.

Air Force Cpt. Adam McManing said he was happy to give a pint of his blood to help fellow soldiers.

"It's been a long, long time since I last gave blood," he said. "But it's not really that bad as long as you don't look at it when they're drawing it."

Tramel herself said she gave blood early Thursday morning and had no qualms about donating.

"I've organized these drives for a little over a year now," she said. "And this is probably my fourth time working with the ASBB (Armed Services Blood Bank)."

"They do a great job. Our servicemen are lucky to have them."

Greene, a 1999 graduate of Twin Falls High School, was recently awarded the Purple Heart by President George W. Bush and is currently recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where Gov. Kempthorne met him and his family earlier this month while in Washington, D.C.