Throwback Thursday: In 1987, $88,000 Spent on Defective Navy ‘Bloodmobile’

The U.S. Navy spent more than $88,000 in 1987 — $222,714 in 2022 dollars — on a “bloodmobile” that was a “bloody mess for the Navy and for the taxpayers,” Democratic Sen. William Proxmire said in giving the military branch a Golden Fleece award.

The vehicle was “so poorly designed and so badly built that the vehicle can’t be operated safely, has numerous defects and has been gathering dust in a Bethesda Naval Hospital for the last three years,” Proxmire said in 1987.

The dangerous vehicle’s brakes didn’t work properly, with the front wheels leaving the ground “like a bucking horse” when applying the brakes, the senator said.

And the vehicle wasn’t built with space for two important laboratory-style blood separation units. “That’s like building a house without a doorway,” Proxime said.

The Navy put some of the blame on the Defense Department’s contracting procures in Indianapolis for the 23 deficiencies that were found in the vehicle’s first inspection in 1983.

The weight was dangerously and improperly distributed, fans and mufflers were missing, water leaked from the windows and doors, brake lines were poorly routed, the rear tires were overloaded, there was faulty wiring, among many other issues, Proxmire’s report found.

“This thing would probably lead to more bloodshed than blood collection,” the senator said.

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