I received this image last week and since it was a little too large to put in the newsletter, I thought I’d post it here. Thanks to Jennifer for sharing this really neat piece of her family history–and of U.S. history! Click on the image to enlarge it.
Rellie James Hearn, II USMC in WWII was wounded on Viru Island in the Solomon Islands in June 1943. Subsequently, he needed transfusions. As you can see from the ad, (at the time) fifteen! (What they didn’t say was that he needed fifteen because originally they gave him the wrong blood-type–LOL.) However, I think this is a great piece of memorabilia of WWII, and it’s time of need for blood drives, AND, of course, my grandfather – the HERO!
Jennifer Johnson, Lake Forest, California
Great memorabilia – my mother was an Army Nurse in WWII. After the war she became a Red Cross Nurse traveling to polio epidemics and helping to start the mobile blood bank program. I have a newspaper article from Chicago where she is shown greeting donors from the Lithuanian part of the city. In the article it notes that the Lithuanian donors were amazed at how little blood the nurses drew – the Germans during the war would as much as they could get and not really care much about how it affected their donors.
My mother never what she did was important – because she didn’t go overseas, but she did work with multiple amputee P.O.W.s and then kids in iron lungs — not easy.
Susan-
Your mother was as much a hero as anyone who did go overseas. Many civilians at home needed her skills as much as did the military men and women overseas. There are many ways and places to serve, and serve she did! And continued to do so after the war. She is a hero to me. I would love to meet her and tell her this myself. But would you kindly do so in my stead? Thank you, and thank you for passing along her story. ~Nancy in Minnesota
Since World War Two, I have been a regular blood donor because mine is the universal type (O Neg) that can be accepted by persons of any other type as well. I had always believe that receiving the wrong blooe type would result in the death of the patient.