Pennsylvania National Guard leaders in town to observe training made a special stop at the Blood Donor Center at Fort Bliss, Texas, in late January, to donate blood and blood products.

The trio, Col. Stu James, the 1st Army senior Army advisor to the Pennsylvania National Guard; Lt. Col. Christopher Mclaud, the PAARNG state mobilization officer; and Maj. Carmen Toscano, the PAARNG deputy state mobilization officer, were in town to visit the more than 1,000 2nd Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment Task Force Paxton Soldiers currently training on the Fort Bliss Training Complex before they deploy later this year.

Annually, approximately 75,000 active duty, Reserve, and National Guard Soldiers train at Fort Bliss with its more than one million acres of training space.

James returned to Bliss for the first time since he served as its garrison commander from 2019 to 2021. The 2-112th INF is historically known as the “16th Pennsylvania” and can trace its lineage prior to the Civil War.

The Fort Bliss Blood Donation Center directly supports the Armed Services Blood Program, a DoD-supported iniative to streamline donations from the American homefront to the frontlines and overseas mililitary medical centers to support troops or their family members.

Encouraged by the training they observed of their troops, Toscano said the trio made the impromptu stop at the center becausre of the ASBP’s mission of supporting those at the front.

“I believe there is mission that is a bigger than the individual Soldier,” Toscano said. “We are all in this together and it takes all of us.”