- UNITS OF BLOOD AVAILABLE IN SOUTH VIETNAM, BY MONTH, JANUARY 1965-DECEMBER 1970 1 1Includes shipments from the continental United States, the Pacific Command, and blood collected in South Vietnam. Source: Report, U.S. Military Whole Blood Program in support of Combat Operations South Vietnam, 1965-1970, prepared for the Deputy Surgeon General, February 1971.
The first guiding principle was that a source of whole blood outside Vietnam and the Pacific Command was essential. Donor resources in the Pacific could not meet the demands for whole blood during the buildup. Second was the establishment of a central depot in Saigon where all whole blood shipped from Japan could be received, transshipped, and distributed for use in the field. Third was the need for a system of forward mobile blood storage subdepots operated by the Army and colocated with hospitals and medical units in the Army, Navy, and Air Force along the South Vietnam coast.
A single American hospital in Vietnam, the 8th Field Hospital, administered all whole blood transfusions until the spring of 1965. Every 10 days, 10 units of universal donor low titer group O blood were shipped to the hospital from Japan to meet the small demand for transfusions. Seldom did the demand for blood exceed the supply, and even during the surprise attacks by the Vietcong at Qui Nhon and Pleiku, in February 1965, the 406th Mobile Medical Laboratory bled local donors to supply the needed 123 units of whole blood. After the 3d Field Hospital arrived in Saigon in May 1965, it became the central blood depot in Vietnam, and the 406th Mobile Medical Laboratory, a satellite of the 406th Medical Laboratory in Japan, was charged with distributing whole blood to all U.S. forces in Vietnam.
