Dog tag says blood type A+ in the Army

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JOERM

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Yep, that's what it said but when I gave blood a while back I found out low and behold my blood type is B -! Sure glad I wasn't shot up in Nam if I was deployed there, which I wasn't, or anywhere while in the Army cause if I needed blood I would be dead! For all you new enlisties...if you don't know what your blood type is and you sign up do not really on the military to give your the correct type. Go get it checked by a civilian clinic...it just may save your life.

This was back in 1971 so maybe today the Army does a better job. Still.....

Anyone else share this experience??
 
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I still wear my tags just in case. I have had several surgeries and blood tests so I am assuming the Army was right in 69.
 
I joined in '82 and found out a couple of months later in a blood drive that I wasn't what they said. Jumped through a few hoops and stood in line while the Army and the Red Cross sorted it out. I got my new tags later. I kept one of the "lost" ones and still have it...........somewhere.....I think.
 
I told the air force I was O+ because the Red Cross told me I was when I donated 3 gallons before "enlisting". June 1970 was not a "good time" to be drafted.
 
While I'm at it they had me listed as Southern Baptist on my Tags. I never listed myself as "Southern" only Baptist.

I never got that fixed but It don't matter other things was more important. :D
 
Mine had O, yet I was O+. The medic explained that O+ was the same as O, and it was a universal donor. Either the medic was too lazy to change it or he was correct. I was volunteered to give blood several times while on active duty.
 
I recall that on, The Lost World the character Finn said that she was O-Negative, the universal donor. If the screenwriters knew their stuff, that infers that O-Positive is NOT a universal donor type.

But it's probably better not to get blood info from TV shows... or, evidently, from the military. There are various reasons why I declined to re-enlist. I'll add this to the others.
 
We tested our own blood for type in Science class in High School. I determined mine to be AB+. When I told the teacher, he made me do it again because he said it couldn't be right since it is so rare (it is actually about 3%, but he really didn't believe it was correct). But I was right and it is my blood type. When I was contracted in ROTC (technically in the Army Reserve), they ASKED me what my blood type was and put that on my dog tags. I don't know if that was ever verified by and of the medical exams I took. But I am also a blood donor and the blood bank loves my blood because it is so rare: AB+ and CMV Neg, which is an additional antibody or something that most people have in their blood, but I do not. It can cause problems for people with immune system problems. Without it my blood is apparently good for cancer patients, preemies, people with AIDS, etc. They break it down into smaller packets than the normal "pint".

Overshare! : )

Rob
 
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Like some of the other guys, we tested our own blood back in 8th grade science class. The results showed I was B+. That was in early 1965. Later, when I enlisted in the Army in mid 1969, they confirmed my early test result, B+. Then, much later, when I was donating blood at work in the mid 1990s, the Red Cross agreed, B+. So, I state with some certainty, I am B+. ;)
 
Many years ago, someone, I forget who, told me my blood was A+, so that is what I put on the medical info sticker that went on my racing helmet. Three concussions later, (probably the reason I can't remember who told me in the first place) I can still check the back of my helmet if I need to know my blood type.
 
My blood type is wrong on my dog tags also. I never noticed until I took off the green tape after I was discharged.
 
Dang, looks like the military should have had better folks doing the blood testing!!

In 1955 my dog tags were stamped as being A+.

A couple of years ago I went to the hospital for surgery and they said I was A-

I don't have a clue as to what difference it makes..............just glad I never had to use it in combat!!
 
I knew I was O+ before I went into the Army from donating blood to the Red Cross. For some reason all the males in my family are O+. At least for the 4 generations we can document.
 
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