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American Legion resolves to
support ASBP Margaritis had good reason to see this change. For over two years now, the 12th District has bi-monthly been sponsoring ASBP drives for the Armed Forces. Each of these blood drives is unique, because Columbus is one of the few places in the country that the general public has an opportunity to give blood directly to the U.S. military, a distinction that up until a couple years ago was prohibited by the government. Now that American Legion support has become national policy, and with increasing support from state and city officials, Margaritis hopes to encourage other veteran organizations to set up such drives, not only here in Ohio, but nationally as well. Currently, the only other such non-Legion organization that regularly supports the drives is the Marine Corps Family Support Community (MCFSC). The Armed Services Blood Program is the only agency in this country that collects blood exclusively for the military. A unique component of the Department of Defense, it was set up in 1952 during the height of the Korean War by special presidential directive to establish a reliable blood supply network that could directly control delivery of blood to units deployed, both in peace and in war. Over the years, it has delivered blood products to all branches of the military. It has saved the lives of servicemen and servicewomen through Korea, Vietnam, Operation Desert Shield, the Iraq War, and now today in Afghanistan. |
