Blood chit Blood chit is a notice that is carried by the military , usually aircraft personnel , that displays messages aimed at the civilians that ask them to help the servicemember in case they are shot down . Alternative names are escape and identification flags ( ) . Chit ( also ' chitty ' ) is a British English term for a small document , note or pass ; it is an Anglo - Indian word dating from the late 18th century , derived from the Hindi " citthi " . The idea of blood chit originates from 1793 when French balloonist Jean - Pierre Blanchard demonstrated his hot air balloon in the USA . Because he could not control the direction of the balloon , no one knew where he would land . Because Blanchard did not speak English , George Washington gave him a letter that said that all US citizen s were obliged to assist him to return to Philadelphia . In World War I , British Royal Flying Corps pilots in India and Mesopotamia carried a " goolie chit " printed in four local languages that promised a reward to anyone who would bring an unharmed British aviator back to British lines . The term " goolie " is British slang for " testicles " and was so called ( and still is called by the Royal Air Force ) because , in the areas where the chits were used , local tribesmen were said to turn over aviators to their womenfolk , who castrated the pilots for use as servants . But the British officer John Masters recorded in his autobiography that Pathan women in the North - West Frontier Province ( 1901 – 1955 ) of British India ( now modern day Pakistan ) during the Anglo - Afghan War s would behead and castrate non Muslim soldiers who were captured , like British and Sikhs . In the Second Sino - Japanese War prior to World War II , foreign volunteer pilots of Flying Tigers carried notices printed in Chinese that informed the locals that this foreign pilot was fighting for China and they were obliged to help them . A text from one such blood chit translates as follows : " I am an American airman . My plane is destroyed . I cannot speak your language . I am an enemy of the Japanese . Please give me food and take me to the nearest Allied military post . You will be rewarded . " United States ' armed forces . When the USA officially joined the war in 1941 , flight crew survival kits included blood chits printed in 50 different languages that sported a US flag and promised a reward for a safe return of a pilot . The kit might also include gifts like gold coins , maps or sewing needle s . Many US flight crews that flew over Asia had their " blood chit " sewn to the back of their flight jacket s . Some units added the blood chit to the crew ' s flight suit s while other units gave the blood chit out only for specific flights . Britain ' s armed forces . Examples of blood chits issued to British RAF personnel in India in the 1940s are printed on thin sheets of silk cloth measuring 20 by 11½ inches ( about 50 x 30 cm ) ; they have the Union flag printed at the top left , and the following text in English and French alongside it : The main area of the document is printed in three columns with the same text in 15 Asian languages , including Malay , Burmese , Tamil , Thai and Bengali . Norway ' s armed forces . Norwegian commando ' s ( " spesialjeger e " ) had chits — during the current War in Afghanistan — " in silk , sown on the inside of the uniform belt .