Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1943-11-18
YOUR BLOOD
CAN HELP WIN
THIS WAR
BIZ Miss EmaiLu BLandford

"A small American submarine
chaser, on Atlantic patrol, ran into
a U-boat woolpack during a pitch
black night some months ago. The
small craft and its crew fought
back vaiiantly for two hours until
shells and machine gun bullets
from the submarines virtually
blew it from the water.
One member of the crew never
got much of a chance to fight back,
but he'll get his chance soon
enough, thanks to the miracle of
blood plasma. That manor should
we say, boy-who might be your
son or brother or sweetheart-is
nineteen year old Gunner's Mate
Third Class Nelson Halt of Weeks
bury, Kentucky. Nelson was
member of gun crew whose gun
station was destroyed by an enemy
shell before it could fire a shot.
Nelson Halt was hit by shrapnel
and machine gun bullets, and later
by shrapnel again. He was wound
ed in forty-two places. He fioated
four hours in the water until he
was picked up. Hours later he
reached a hospital. Life was slow
ly ebbing from him, bleeding away
from forty-two wounds when Navy
doctors literally pumped it back in
to him in the form of two pints of
life-saving blood plasma. Two pints
Of the life-saving golden liquid
which will give Nelson Halt a
chance to fight back.
We are not telling you this story
just because it's good story.
There are better stories-tales Of
men who received as many as
forty three plasma transfusions be-
fore they were fully recovered. We
are not telling you this story be-
cause it illustrates what science has
done through the processing of
blood into dried plasma, dried
|plasma carried on every American
fighting ship with a doctor or
pharmacists mate aboard and by
every Marine and Army medical
corps unit.
l am telling you this story be-
cause it is perfect example of
how you and / can help win this
war by sending our blood to the
battlefronts. This is one thing you
and can do for our country that
won't cost us cent, and won't take
more than an hour of our time.
Painless and resulting in no harm
full after effects, contributing blood
to the Red Cross is one way you
and l can fight side by side with
our boys overseas-we can save the
lives of our sons and brothers and
sweethearts by sending our blood to
war.
On November Both the mobile
unit of the American Red Cross
Blood Donor Service will visit
Rockville. 1t will be here from
nine-thirty A. M. through two
forty-five P. M. By contributing a
pint of your blood at that time,
you can save the life of one of our
fighting men. Make your appoint
nent to be blood donor today by
calling one of the committee whose
names appear elsewhere in this
issue of the Sentinel.
In the first landing at Casablanca,
one of our transports caught fire.
Four hundred of our soldiers were
seriously burned. Most of them
would have died, if this had hap
pened during the last World War.
But this time, according to a re-
port by the Surgeon General of
the United States Army, all but
six were saved. Three hundred and
ninety four American boys are
alive today who probably would
have died twenty-five years ago.
According to the Surgeon General,
this remarkable medical achieve
ment can be credited "largely to
plasma".
We don't think it's necessary to
give any more reasons why we
should contribute our blood to the
Red Cross Mobile Unit. The Army
end Navy have asked for four mil
lion pints of blood to be processed
into dried plasma in 1913. Our
share in meeting this quota is one
hundred and fifty pints of blood, to
be contributed while the Mobile
Unit is in Rockville.
Since Pearl Harbor, millions Of
pints of American blood have been
contributed to the American Red
Cross, but they are not enough. The
Army and Navy want four million