As we honor our first responders this September 11th, the cadets at the Air Force Academy are doing there part to give back by helping service members worldwide with an annual blood drive.
Fear of the needle is nothing for this group of brave souls offering up their arm and a pint of blood.
It's part of the annual Armed Services Blood Drive at the Air Force Academy three days dedicated to collecting 1,200 pints of blood.
"My class is less than a year from going active so it's a big reality even if we're not in Afghanistan it really has an impact," John Patton, Air Force Academy Cadet, class of 2013 said.
Blood goes bad every 42 days so what's collected over Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will be sent to the men and women fighting overseas and used within the week.
Each pint of blood is extremely important because in medevac situations it can take bags of blood to get a soldier back home safely.
"For example I'm O-positive, so if I were to get hurt I'd need 40 O-positive donors to come donate," Catherine Tharpe, Armed Services Blood Program, donor recruit said.
Anyone who donates will have to meet a set standard of requirements that include restrictions on: height, weight, travel, and tattoos.
Now the general thought is that you can't donate blood within a year of getting inked but that's not the case if you get the work done in Colorado.
"Think about the long term implication of what you're doing and how many people you'd be helping and that'll tell you to suck it up there's worse things," Patton said.
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