Blood Drive

For the last several years every semester there has been a blood drive on campus. Every time it would come up I didn’t even bother going down because of traveling to Ethiopia. This semester however it’s been over a year since I’ve been in Ethiopia. Because of this I decided to give the blood drive a shot.
I went down yesterday about noon and got myself in line. They took my info, took a prick of blood to do an iron test, took my blood pressure and my pulse. Everything was looking fine. I went and filled out a questionnaire pertaining to possible health risks and after I was done a nurse came and looked at the results. Ethiopia, as expected, was a bit of a stopping block, but after looking into it for a while she figured out that it was fine. Going to the UAE wasn’t a problem so 2/3 possible problem spots had been resolved.
Then came #3. Not even something that I thought of: “Were you a member of the military, civilian employee of the military, or a dependent of a member of the military between 1980 and 1996 in Europe?” Having been born in Germany in this time of course I said yes. Malaria and Yellow Fever issues in Ethiopia I thought would get me… being a dependent of my dad in 1985 was not something I thought would.
Which brings up a question that the nurse didn’t really answer for me… What were they doing with people in the military in the 80s….? Dad you have some explaining to do.