View Full Version : how come Hawkeye, Bj and Trapper were only Captains?
HBARleatherneck
06-08-2012, 14:58
Since they were all drafted, why was Frank a Major, Henry a LT. Colonel, but Spearchucker, Hawkeye, BJ and Trapper, were only Captains? The amount of time served during the draft, should have been about the same. Also, the show was on for a decade and Hawkeye never gets promoted. WTF?
UncleDave
06-08-2012, 15:05
Funny. But in all seriousness, Henry was in the reserves if I remember right. There was an episode where they were sitting around the still talking about hoe Henry got to be CO. Frank was also reserves or in ROTC or something that is why he had a higher rank, that and he was a suck-up. What about Hogan's Hero's? How did Shultz ever get to be a Sargent?
UncleDave
06-08-2012, 15:06
Come to think of it why was Potter only a Colonel? It was his third war, and he was a career man?
Zundfolge
06-08-2012, 15:17
Keep in mind that MASH was meant to be an anti-war/anti-military political statement, so clearly all the "cool guys" wouldn't be "Army Material" and thus wouldn't have raised up the ranks whereas Frank Burns (and to a lesser extent Margaret Houlihan) was an archetypical right wing, jingoistic American douche so of course the evil Army would promote him.
The only reason Blake and Potter were Colonels (and still sympathetic characters) is because they needed to have someone in charge.
UncleDave
06-08-2012, 15:32
You are corrcect. However I was taking this as more of a tongue in cheek discussion.
Zundfolge
06-08-2012, 15:50
You are corrcect. However I was taking this as more of a tongue in cheek discussion.
Ok, I'll take my Mr. Serious hat off. [Tooth]
Great-Kazoo
06-08-2012, 15:53
Drinking, womanizing, illict drug use??
HBARleatherneck
06-08-2012, 16:07
and Hawkeye and Margaret, never earned enough rotation points. After a couple years, they would have both moved on. Even with Houlahan being regular army, she wouldnt have stayed in a front line unit forever.
Zundfolge
06-08-2012, 16:17
and Hawkeye and Margaret, never earned enough rotation points. After a couple years, they would have both moved on. Even with Houlahan being regular army, she wouldnt have stayed in a front line unit forever.
Yeah but the real Korean War ran only three years ... MASH ran for eleven.
Obviously they were stuck in some sort of temporal bubble.
palepainter
06-08-2012, 16:50
Wouldn't they also have to have received a Bachelors prior to enlisting as a surgeon or med tech?
SuperiorDG
06-08-2012, 17:03
Wouldn't they also have to have received a Bachelors prior to enlisting as a surgeon or med tech?
WTF are you talken about?[Ban3]
HBARleatherneck
06-08-2012, 17:06
yes, thats why they are officers. they have degrees as medical doctors.
obisean68
06-08-2012, 17:37
If it was like it is today, and MD joining the military straight out of medical school would be an automatic O3, Captain. With experience, they could have been given higher rank. This is probably why Blake and Burns were higher rank, having been in practice for a while. BJ was doing his residency as was Hawkeye, I believe. Col. Potter was enlisted in the military first, then went to med school to become a doctor, thus his officer time was less.
Scanker19
06-08-2012, 18:24
Yes Potter was Enlisted Cav.
They were only captains because many of the plot lines wouldn't work otherwise.....
palepainter
06-08-2012, 18:27
WTF are you talken about?[Ban3]
Just curious if they let guys become meds with out the bachelors. Poor wording. Sorry.[Swim]
KevDen2005
06-08-2012, 18:35
Ok, I'll take my Mr. Serious hat off. [Tooth]
I thought it was a great analysis, personally.
You get an 'A' in my class...
UncleDave
06-08-2012, 18:36
Potter was in the cavalry in WW1 lied about his age. Then college med school through the Army, surgeon in WW2 and Korea he was about to retire.
KevDen2005
06-08-2012, 18:42
Potter was in the cavalry in WW1 lied about his age. Then college med school through the Army, surgeon in WW2 and Korea he was about to retire.
Wow, you know way too much about MASH
SA Friday
06-08-2012, 21:05
Just curious if they let guys become meds with out the bachelors. Poor wording. Sorry.[Swim]
No. You have to have a Medical Degree, PhD equivalent in medicine.
UncleDave
06-08-2012, 21:08
Wow, you know way too much about MASH
Yeah loved that show when I was a kid. Only 5 channels not a lot of choices. [Beer]
El Caballo Loco
06-08-2012, 21:26
I think the real question here is who in the hell let that many officers loose in the same room?
I mean, have they never heard of the compounding good idea fairy theory?
This is how enormous balls of hail containing pain, frustration, sweat, long nights, and pointless days are created and then blasted down to earth.
El Caballo Loco
06-08-2012, 21:27
On a more serious note, I have some good friends that are Os, as well as some that have really taken care of me, including a few on this board.
Just to clarify so no one thinks I'm a woman hater.
Suicide is Painless.
Watching Alda was painful. [ROFL2]
theGinsue
06-09-2012, 03:29
I do the 3-tone Sutherland/Hawkeye whistle all of the time and nobody gets it.
Loved the movie. Enjoyed the series until Alda screwed it up.
Im lost
Not a good thing to hear from a pilot.
UncleDave
06-09-2012, 06:54
Yeah once Alda became the exec. producer it all went in the crapper. Although a buddy of mine's grandfather was a Marine in Korea. He told me that the portral of the MASH units in the movie and the early yesrs of the series was very accurate. He looked like Radar too, but that I am sure was not related.
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