Col. Kevin Johnson, deputy director of Air Force Materiel Command’s Air, Space and Cyberspace operations and chief information officer, was among the first to arrive Oct. 27.
“I’ve known Colonel Phillips for more than 20 years and recognized this was a great opportunity to help someone else out,” Johnson said.
Base leaders filled the lunch-hour slots Tuesday with Col. Patrick Miller, 88th ABW commander; Col. Paul Burger, 88th Mission Support Group commander; and Phillips taking the donation chairs.
All colonels stationed at Wright-Patt were tapped via email by Phillips, who encouraged them to donate blood. Included were registration links.
The scheduling links were organized by the 88th Medical Group Armed Services Blood Program to streamline the registration process.
“Registration is through a site called Military Donor. It’s an easy way for us to create blood drives and track the donors,” said Senior Airman Bradley Hucks, 88th Medical Group medical lab technician. “We can set up how many spots we have and the hours by 30- and 50-minute increments. Once we create the blood drive on the website, we can send out links for registration.”
The constant need for blood donations was a part of Phillips' motivation to create the colonels' blood drive, he said, but the lifting of certain restrictions played a big role as well. Personnel who have been deployed to specific locations were exempted from donating due to potential exposure to mad cow disease and malaria.
“We’ve had a lot of regulations change recently for donor criteria regarding who can and cannot donate,” Hucks added. “The (Food and Drug Administration) has changed a lot of these rules, which has allowed many of these colonels to donate.”
If you’d like to donate blood, visit www.militarydonor.com and click the “Donate Blood” tab to reach the “Blood Drive Search” for local donation sites, or contact the Wright-Patterson Medical Center Blood Donation Center between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. at 937-257-0580.
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