MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors
Encyclopedia
MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, the original novel
that inspired the film MASH
and TV series M*A*S*H, was written by Richard Hooker, himself a former military surgeon, and was about a fictional U.S. Mobile Army Surgical Hospital
in Korea
during the Korean War
. It was originally published in 1968.
Hooker followed the novel with two sequels. There was also a series of "sequels" of rather different and lighter tone listed as being written by Hooker and William E. Butterworth
, but actually written by Butterworth alone.
unit 4077. On the way, they also share a bottle and discover that, although they come from different parts of the U.S., they have much in common. Upon arrival, rather than report to the commanding officer, they have lunch in the mess tent, where they run into Lt. Col. Blake anyway. They are assigned to work the night shift, and billeted with Major Jonathan Hobson, a Midwestern preacher and surgeon.
The two new surgeons exhibit exceptional surgical skills and commitment to their job, and gain the respect of their colleagues. However, they become annoyed by Maj. Hobson's devotion to prayer, so they complain to Henry, who reluctantly agrees to have Maj. Hobson rebilleted. Seeing that Henry is a bit of a push-over, they also request a chest surgeon for the unit. Friction mounts between the major and the new captains. Major Hobson's prayers begin to annoy everyone and Henry arranges to have him sent stateside.
Weeks later, the new chest surgeon arrives, Captain John McIntyre. He evades everyone's attempts to get to know him, and stays hidden inside a parka stocked with cans of beer and martini olives. For days Hawkeye has a nagging feeling that he's met McIntyre before. McIntyre is a fantastic surgeon, but still won't talk to anyone until Hawkeye suddenly remembers playing football against McIntyre in college. Hawkeye introduces McIntyre to everyone as Trapper John.
The Bachelor Officers Quarters (BOQ) tent occupied by the three surgeons, known as The Swamp, becomes a popular hang-out, serving cocktails at 4. One of the regulars is Father Mulcahy, the Catholic
chaplain
. The boys aren't religious, but they like the Father, calling him "Dago Red" because of his red hair. However, as Duke is an avowed Protestant, he requests a Protestant chaplain. The nearest Protestant chaplain is Shaking Sammy, who lives in an engineering outfit, and is so named because he loves to shake hands. The Swampmen come to dislike him because he tends to send letters to the families of fatally wounded soldiers saying all is well. After one too many of these letters, they lash him to a wooden cross and make him believe they intend to burn him alive.
Captain Waldowski, the dentist known as the Painless Pole
, who has a pool table and a poker table (open 24 hours), suddenly becomes depressed and decides to commit suicide. (He's chronically depressed and has a fit of depression every month.) Duke gives him a "black capsule" to knock him out, a mock Last Supper is arranged and everybody bids him farewell. The next day he is feeling better and ready for a game of poker.
The Swampmen begin to have personal conflicts with Captain Frank Burns, a rich, arrogant surgeon from the day shift. He trained for two years with his father, who was himself not a trained surgeon. However he considers himself a better physician, and officer, than Hawkeye, and constantly harasses enlisted men. When one of his patients dies he claims "it's either God's will or somebody else's fault." He blames Private Boone for the death of a patient, reducing Boone to tears. These actions result in a physical assault by Duke and then by Trapper. The arrival of the new Chief Nurse, Major Margaret Houlihan, at first restores order. However, being Regular Army
, she dislikes the Swampmen and sides with Burns. Henry decides to appoint a Chief Surgeon, and the job falls to Trapper, being the best surgeon in the unit. Burns and Houlihan conclude that the Swampmen are evil and Henry their puppet. They prepare a report for Gen. Hammond and later get together in her tent, where Frank stays until 1:30 am. The next day the Swampmen tease Burns and Houlihan about their late-night meeting. Trapper John calls Houlihan "Hot Lips" and Hawkeye provokes Burns into a fight. Henry is finally forced to send Burns stateside. "Henry," Duke comments, "if I get into Hot Lips and jump Hawkeye Pierce, can I go home too?"
Ho-Jon, the Korean houseboy
working in the Swamp, is drafted into the South Korea
n army. After being wounded, he arrives at the 4077th for treatment. After rehabilitation, he resumes his position as Swampboy. The Swampmen, who are very fond of Ho-Jon, arrange to have him sent to Hawkeye's old college. To raise funds, Trapper grows a beard, dresses up like Jesus Christ
, and autographs thousands of photos which the Swampmen sell for a buck apiece.
Trapper receives orders to rush to Kokura
, Japan
for a medical emergency. Trapper and Hawkeye depart immediately with their golf clubs. The "emergency" turns out to be a routine operation; the anesthesiologist
turns out to be "Me Lay" Marston, an old friend of Hawkeye who works at Dr. Yamamoto's Finest Kind Pediatric Hospital & Whorehouse ("Finest kind" becomes one of Hawkeye's catchphrases). The two Swampmen qualify for a golf tournament and play against a good-humoured British
colonel. Trapper, still resembling Christ, attracts a lot of unwanted attention. After the tournament, they have dinner with Me Lay. Me Lay asks the boys to look at a sick baby, whom they take back to the army hospital. When the hospital's commanding officer, Colonel Merrill, tries to get in their way, he is abducted, sedated and blackmailed. Me Lay adopts the orphan baby.
Business picks up at the 4077th and Trapper and Hawkeye return immediately to find the unit overwhelmed by casualties. A constant flow of wounded soldiers pours into the hospital for two weeks and all personnel work around the clock performing operations far beyond their training. At the end of the two weeks everyone is exhausted and irritable. The unit's efficiency sags, and the tremendous loss of life begins to take its toll on the surgeons. They turn to heavy drinking and start harassing the nurses, particularly Maj. Houlihan. Fed up, she again complains to the General, who comes down on Col. Blake. The Swampmen intercede on behalf of the Colonel and smooth things over with the General.
Summer arrives and the 4077th is hot and overworked. The work slacks off and while Henry is sent to Tokyo
for three weeks, Colonel Horace DeLong fills in. Col. DeLong finds Hawkeye at the poker game and demands that he start surgery on a patient in the preoperative ward. Hawkeye says that the patient is receiving blood and that he will do the surgery at 3:00am. At 2:45, while scrubbing for surgery, Hawkeye explains that the waiting period was necessary for the patient to become fit for surgery. When the Swampmen get bored, to get away for a few days they lead DeLong to believe they need psychiatric evaluation. At the 325th Evac, they escape and the psychiatrist, accompanied by Henry, finds them at Mrs. Lee's (a nearby whorehouse).
Meanwhile, General Hammond has assembled a football
team composed of ringers and is making tidy profits betting on his squad with other Korean units. The Swampmen organize a team to play against Gen. Hammond's team. They tell Henry to request neurosurgeon Oliver Wendell Jones, once a pro ball player known as Spearchucker. Henry becomes the coach, certain that he'd be a better coach than Hammond. Spearchucker scouts Hammond's team and finds out the general has three pros on his team. They devise a plan to get the running back out of the game, and wear the two tackles out as early as possible. Their plan is successful and they win the game 28-24, although only by using a trick play to score the winning touchdown, and by using Radar's phenomenal hearing to eavesdrop on the opponents' tactical discussions.
Time drags for Duke and Hawkeye as they wait for their active duty deployments to expire. They start to disappear for days at a time. To keep them busy, Henry has them train the new recruits, Captains Pinkham and Russell, in the short-cuts of "meatball surgery." The recruits do well, but Capt. Pinkham's wife has a mental breakdown and he is sent home.
When the time finally comes for Duke and Hawkeye to go home, everyone crowds into The Swamp for a farewell drink. The two continue to drink and cause trouble all the way home by feigning battle fatigue to scare new recruits, impersonating chaplains to get out of working short-arm inspection
and harassing an airline stewardess. They part ways in Chicago and rejoin their families.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
that inspired the film MASH
MASH (film)
MASH is a 1970 American satirical dark comedy film directed by Robert Altman and written by Ring Lardner, Jr., based on Richard Hooker's novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. It is the only feature film in the M*A*S*H franchise...
and TV series M*A*S*H, was written by Richard Hooker, himself a former military surgeon, and was about a fictional U.S. Mobile Army Surgical Hospital
Mobile Army Surgical Hospital
The Mobile Army Surgical Hospital refers to a United States Army medical unit serving as a fully functional hospital in a combat area of operations. The units were first established in August 1945, and were deployed during the Korean War and later conflicts. The U.S...
in Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. It was originally published in 1968.
Hooker followed the novel with two sequels. There was also a series of "sequels" of rather different and lighter tone listed as being written by Hooker and William E. Butterworth
W. E. B. Griffin
W. E. B. Griffin is a writer of military and detective fiction with 38 novels in six series published under that name. He has also published under several pseudonyms....
, but actually written by Butterworth alone.
Plot summary
Radar O'Reilly, while playing poker, listens in on a conversation between Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake and General Hamilton Hartington Hammond and announces the forthcoming arrival of two new surgeons. Captains Duke Forrest and Hawkeye Pierce share a jeep to MASHMobile Army Surgical Hospital
The Mobile Army Surgical Hospital refers to a United States Army medical unit serving as a fully functional hospital in a combat area of operations. The units were first established in August 1945, and were deployed during the Korean War and later conflicts. The U.S...
unit 4077. On the way, they also share a bottle and discover that, although they come from different parts of the U.S., they have much in common. Upon arrival, rather than report to the commanding officer, they have lunch in the mess tent, where they run into Lt. Col. Blake anyway. They are assigned to work the night shift, and billeted with Major Jonathan Hobson, a Midwestern preacher and surgeon.
The two new surgeons exhibit exceptional surgical skills and commitment to their job, and gain the respect of their colleagues. However, they become annoyed by Maj. Hobson's devotion to prayer, so they complain to Henry, who reluctantly agrees to have Maj. Hobson rebilleted. Seeing that Henry is a bit of a push-over, they also request a chest surgeon for the unit. Friction mounts between the major and the new captains. Major Hobson's prayers begin to annoy everyone and Henry arranges to have him sent stateside.
Weeks later, the new chest surgeon arrives, Captain John McIntyre. He evades everyone's attempts to get to know him, and stays hidden inside a parka stocked with cans of beer and martini olives. For days Hawkeye has a nagging feeling that he's met McIntyre before. McIntyre is a fantastic surgeon, but still won't talk to anyone until Hawkeye suddenly remembers playing football against McIntyre in college. Hawkeye introduces McIntyre to everyone as Trapper John.
The Bachelor Officers Quarters (BOQ) tent occupied by the three surgeons, known as The Swamp, becomes a popular hang-out, serving cocktails at 4. One of the regulars is Father Mulcahy, the Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
. The boys aren't religious, but they like the Father, calling him "Dago Red" because of his red hair. However, as Duke is an avowed Protestant, he requests a Protestant chaplain. The nearest Protestant chaplain is Shaking Sammy, who lives in an engineering outfit, and is so named because he loves to shake hands. The Swampmen come to dislike him because he tends to send letters to the families of fatally wounded soldiers saying all is well. After one too many of these letters, they lash him to a wooden cross and make him believe they intend to burn him alive.
Captain Waldowski, the dentist known as the Painless Pole
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, who has a pool table and a poker table (open 24 hours), suddenly becomes depressed and decides to commit suicide. (He's chronically depressed and has a fit of depression every month.) Duke gives him a "black capsule" to knock him out, a mock Last Supper is arranged and everybody bids him farewell. The next day he is feeling better and ready for a game of poker.
The Swampmen begin to have personal conflicts with Captain Frank Burns, a rich, arrogant surgeon from the day shift. He trained for two years with his father, who was himself not a trained surgeon. However he considers himself a better physician, and officer, than Hawkeye, and constantly harasses enlisted men. When one of his patients dies he claims "it's either God's will or somebody else's fault." He blames Private Boone for the death of a patient, reducing Boone to tears. These actions result in a physical assault by Duke and then by Trapper. The arrival of the new Chief Nurse, Major Margaret Houlihan, at first restores order. However, being Regular Army
Regular Army
The Regular Army of the United States was and is the successor to the Continental Army as the country's permanent, professional military establishment. Even in modern times the professional core of the United States Army continues to be called the Regular Army...
, she dislikes the Swampmen and sides with Burns. Henry decides to appoint a Chief Surgeon, and the job falls to Trapper, being the best surgeon in the unit. Burns and Houlihan conclude that the Swampmen are evil and Henry their puppet. They prepare a report for Gen. Hammond and later get together in her tent, where Frank stays until 1:30 am. The next day the Swampmen tease Burns and Houlihan about their late-night meeting. Trapper John calls Houlihan "Hot Lips" and Hawkeye provokes Burns into a fight. Henry is finally forced to send Burns stateside. "Henry," Duke comments, "if I get into Hot Lips and jump Hawkeye Pierce, can I go home too?"
Ho-Jon, the Korean houseboy
Houseboy
A Houseboy is typically a male servant or assistant who performs domestic or personal chores. Examples of its usage include:*An American slang term that originated in World War II for a native boy who helped a soldier perform basic responsibilities like cleaning, laundry, ironing, shoe-shining,...
working in the Swamp, is drafted into the South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
n army. After being wounded, he arrives at the 4077th for treatment. After rehabilitation, he resumes his position as Swampboy. The Swampmen, who are very fond of Ho-Jon, arrange to have him sent to Hawkeye's old college. To raise funds, Trapper grows a beard, dresses up like Jesus Christ
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, and autographs thousands of photos which the Swampmen sell for a buck apiece.
Trapper receives orders to rush to Kokura
Kokura
is an ancient castle town and the center of Kitakyūshū, Japan, guarding, via its suburb Moji, the Straits of Shimonoseki between Honshū and Kyūshū. Kokura is also the name of the penultimate station on the southbound Sanyo Shinkansen line, which is owned by JR Kyūshū and an important part of the...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
for a medical emergency. Trapper and Hawkeye depart immediately with their golf clubs. The "emergency" turns out to be a routine operation; the anesthesiologist
Anesthesiologist
An anesthesiologist or anaesthetist is a physician trained in anesthesia and peri-operative medicine....
turns out to be "Me Lay" Marston, an old friend of Hawkeye who works at Dr. Yamamoto's Finest Kind Pediatric Hospital & Whorehouse ("Finest kind" becomes one of Hawkeye's catchphrases). The two Swampmen qualify for a golf tournament and play against a good-humoured British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
colonel. Trapper, still resembling Christ, attracts a lot of unwanted attention. After the tournament, they have dinner with Me Lay. Me Lay asks the boys to look at a sick baby, whom they take back to the army hospital. When the hospital's commanding officer, Colonel Merrill, tries to get in their way, he is abducted, sedated and blackmailed. Me Lay adopts the orphan baby.
Business picks up at the 4077th and Trapper and Hawkeye return immediately to find the unit overwhelmed by casualties. A constant flow of wounded soldiers pours into the hospital for two weeks and all personnel work around the clock performing operations far beyond their training. At the end of the two weeks everyone is exhausted and irritable. The unit's efficiency sags, and the tremendous loss of life begins to take its toll on the surgeons. They turn to heavy drinking and start harassing the nurses, particularly Maj. Houlihan. Fed up, she again complains to the General, who comes down on Col. Blake. The Swampmen intercede on behalf of the Colonel and smooth things over with the General.
Summer arrives and the 4077th is hot and overworked. The work slacks off and while Henry is sent to Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
for three weeks, Colonel Horace DeLong fills in. Col. DeLong finds Hawkeye at the poker game and demands that he start surgery on a patient in the preoperative ward. Hawkeye says that the patient is receiving blood and that he will do the surgery at 3:00am. At 2:45, while scrubbing for surgery, Hawkeye explains that the waiting period was necessary for the patient to become fit for surgery. When the Swampmen get bored, to get away for a few days they lead DeLong to believe they need psychiatric evaluation. At the 325th Evac, they escape and the psychiatrist, accompanied by Henry, finds them at Mrs. Lee's (a nearby whorehouse).
Meanwhile, General Hammond has assembled a football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
team composed of ringers and is making tidy profits betting on his squad with other Korean units. The Swampmen organize a team to play against Gen. Hammond's team. They tell Henry to request neurosurgeon Oliver Wendell Jones, once a pro ball player known as Spearchucker. Henry becomes the coach, certain that he'd be a better coach than Hammond. Spearchucker scouts Hammond's team and finds out the general has three pros on his team. They devise a plan to get the running back out of the game, and wear the two tackles out as early as possible. Their plan is successful and they win the game 28-24, although only by using a trick play to score the winning touchdown, and by using Radar's phenomenal hearing to eavesdrop on the opponents' tactical discussions.
Time drags for Duke and Hawkeye as they wait for their active duty deployments to expire. They start to disappear for days at a time. To keep them busy, Henry has them train the new recruits, Captains Pinkham and Russell, in the short-cuts of "meatball surgery." The recruits do well, but Capt. Pinkham's wife has a mental breakdown and he is sent home.
When the time finally comes for Duke and Hawkeye to go home, everyone crowds into The Swamp for a farewell drink. The two continue to drink and cause trouble all the way home by feigning battle fatigue to scare new recruits, impersonating chaplains to get out of working short-arm inspection
Short-arm inspection
In militaries, the term "short-arm inspection" refers to the medical inspection of male soldiers' penises for signs of sexually-transmitted diseases and other medical problems....
and harassing an airline stewardess. They part ways in Chicago and rejoin their families.
Characters
- Corporal “Radar” O'Reilly - from Ottumwa, IowaOttumwa, IowaOttumwa is a city in and the county seat of Wapello County, Iowa, United States. The population was 24,998 at the 2000 census. It is located in the southeastern part of Iowa, and the city is split into northern and southern halves by the Des Moines River....
, given his nickname for his extremely acute hearing and apparent extra-sensory perceptionExtra-sensory perceptionExtrasensory perception involves reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses but sensed with the mind. The term was coined by Frederic Myers, and adopted by Duke University psychologist J. B. Rhine to denote psychic abilities such as telepathy, clairaudience, and... - Brigadier General Hamilton Hartington Hammond - stationed in SeoulSeoulSeoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
- Lieutenant Colonel Henry Braymore Blake - Commanding Officer, florid, balding, stutters when angry
- Captain Walter Koskiusko “The Painless Pole” Waldowski - from Hamtramck, MichiganHamtramck, MichiganHamtramck is a city in Wayne County of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 22,423. Hamtramck is surrounded by the city of Detroit except for a small portion of the western border that touches the similarly surrounded city of Highland Park...
, Dental Officer - Captain Augustus Bedford “Duke” Forrest - from Forrest City, GeorgiaGeorgia (U.S. state)Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, age 29, under 6 feet tall, red hair, blue eyes, married with two daughters - Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce - from Crabapple Cove, MaineMaineMaine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, age 28, over 6 feet tall, brown-blond hair, wears glasses, married with two sons, six brothers - Major Jonathon Hobson - age 35, general practitioner from the MidwestMidwestern United StatesThe Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....
, committed Protestant preacher, extremely unskilled as a surgeon - Captain “Trapper” John Francis Xavier McIntyre - from Boston, Massachusetts, Chief Surgeon, very skilled at thoracic surgery
- Captain “Ugly” John Black - chief anesthesiologist, limpid-eyed, dark-haired, handsome
- Father John Patrick “Dago Red” Mulcahy - from San Diego, CaliforniaSan Diego, CaliforniaSan Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
, Catholic chaplain, red hair - “Shaking” Sammy - Protestant chaplain from nearby engineering unit, loves to shake hands, tends to send letters to the families of fatally wounded soldiers saying all is well
- Sergeant “Mother Divine” - from Brooklyn, New York, mess tent cook, sells fake deedDeedA deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, or affirms or confirms something which passes, an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions sealed...
s to public landmarks to gullible soldiers - Captain Frank Burns - from Fort Wayne, IndianaFort Wayne, IndianaFort Wayne is a city in the US state of Indiana and the county seat of Allen County. The population was 253,691 at the 2010 Census making it the 74th largest city in the United States and the second largest in Indiana...
, born to affluence, accustomed to authority, adept at cardiac massage, but inept at everything else - Private Lorenzo Boone - age 19, bumbling medical assistant
- Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan - Chief Nurse, Regular Army, blondish, fortyish
- Ho-Jon - from SeoulSeoulSeoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
, age 17, houseboyHouseboyA Houseboy is typically a male servant or assistant who performs domestic or personal chores. Examples of its usage include:*An American slang term that originated in World War II for a native boy who helped a soldier perform basic responsibilities like cleaning, laundry, ironing, shoe-shining,...
and medical assistant, tall, thin, bright, Christian - Dr. James Lodge - from Crabapple Cove, Maine, Dean of Androscoggin College
- Benjamin Franklin “Big Benjy” Pierce, Sr. - from Crabapple Cove, Maine, lobster fisherman, Hawkeye's father
- Colonel Ruxton P. Merrill - Commanding Officer, 25th Station Hospital, KokuraKokurais an ancient castle town and the center of Kitakyūshū, Japan, guarding, via its suburb Moji, the Straits of Shimonoseki between Honshū and Kyūshū. Kokura is also the name of the penultimate station on the southbound Sanyo Shinkansen line, which is owned by JR Kyūshū and an important part of the...
, JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, an unimaginative martinet - Captain Ezekiel Bradbury “Me Lay” Marston IV - from Spruce Harbor, Maine, anesthesiologist, Hawkeye's childhood friend
- Colonel Cornwall - British officer
- Captain Bridget “Knocko” McCarthy - nurse from Boston, Massachusetts, age 35, 5'8”
- Sergeant Pete Rizzo - medical assistant, athletic
- Dr. R. C. “Jeeter” Carroll - from OklahomaOklahomaOklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, surgeon, not very intelligent, 5'8”, 150 lbs. - Roger “the Dodger” Danforth - surgeon, 6073rd MASH, trained with Ugly John
- Colonel Horace DeLong - visiting officer, surgeon
- Lieutenant Rafael Rodriguez - medic, Colonel Blake's secretary
- Major Haskell - Chief of Psychiatry, 325th Evac
- Sergeant Vollmer - from Nebraska, Supply sergeant
- Captain Oliver Wendell “Spearchucker” Jones - from New Jersey, neurosurgeon, played football for the Philadelphia EaglesPhiladelphia EaglesThe Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
, also threw javelin as a track athlete - Captain Emerson Pinkham - surgeon, Ivy League, book-smart but somewhat dense, has a wife who goes insane and is sent to an asylum
- Captain Leverett Russell - surgeon, Ivy League, book-smart but somewhat dense