Quote Originally Posted by 1168 View Post
Not really. Dude gets told what he gets told, and expects it to be correct, then never thinks about it again, because he’s definitely never getting shot. And you don’t really walk into sick call with a complaint of “I just want to know”.

As for typing everyone again just to confirm, not too long ago that was not commonly done. I don’t really understand why not; don’t shoot the messenger. This includes apical SOF.

On another continent last year, I asked a conventional dude about his walking blood bank program. They had sent samples for everyone to get confirmed, but the samples got damaged in transport, so he was only able to get a partial list made. We worked on some stuff to mitigate that, but it happens.

Bottom line is, no one is getting (non-universal donor) blood based on ID tags. That’s not an accepted source of confirmation.
I have been out of the service for a minute, but when did it become policy to not type everyone at boot? Or am I misreading (very possible)? That used to be the practice; EVERYONE (in the Navy and Marines at least, can't speak to the Army and AF) got typed in boot with dog tags reflecting. And we did at batt level in the deployment work-ups. If someone's tag was wrong (rare, but it's the military), we'd issue new tags, and always issued new red allergy tags. No one gets blood based on tags, everyone gets O- until role/echelon 2. But we did use the info on the tag for forward a "hold up" if the person was something like AB or B-.

Currently SF is typing for their walking blood bank (WBB). I was working week before last with some folks from 3rd group with this program. The deltas have excel with the types on their ODAs, and the info is distributed in several areas so there's always a back up. They are getting type-specific blood. This is going all-SOCOM; the idea is it will go army wide in some protocol (don't know if type-specific or generic O-) like TCCC did.

WBB is an interesting concept. I may be presenting at a conference in the fall on it if I can get my shit together and submit in time.