History Fridge / MASH

** According the U.S. Army Center of Military History “…a soldier earned four points for every month he served in close combat, two points per month for rear-echelon duty in Korea, and one point for duty elsewhere in the Far East…The Army initially stated that enlisted men needed to earn forty-three points to be eligible for rotation back to the States, while officers required fifty-five points. In June 1952 the Army reduced these requirements to thirty-six points for enlisted men and thirty-seven points for officers.”

** He wasn't the only one. When Margaret shows Potter a picture of him, he asks who the girl in the picture is.

*** Not to mention that we rarely hear about what happens to the casualties once they've left the camp, but there's no reason that the doctors couldn't have gotten word from the 121st Evac that one of their patients didn't make it. Who's to say that several of Frank's patients don't croak at the evac hospital?

* In "Major Topper", Charles keeps topping whatever stories Hawkeye or BJ tell with better ones, culminating in him claiming to have had a date with Audrey Hepburn. They call bullshit, and he produces a photograph of him with the famous starlet, the implication being that all his stories are true. It's the one before that that gets to me. They run out of morphine, and get the patients through the night with placebos -- Potter's idea. Hawkeye is saying how it was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen, and Charles dismisses that, recounting a story in which he witnessed an operation done without anesthesia, the patient having been put under via hypnosis. Flag on the play; Charles was the one loudly and repeatedly insisting that placebos wouldn't work, that they could possibly work, and then when they do? "Oh, that's nothing, I've seen better." Bullshit. But it actually works for the joke that way. He spins these cock and bull stories, Hawkeye and BJ don't really buy it, but they let it go. Then when they've finally had enough and call him out, that happens to be the one he was telling the truth about, and he has photographic evidence.

** He may be incompetent but not lethally so. So he can perform the needed work but not to the standard of the others, so he may leave excessive scarring, maybe nick an organ or mess something up while working ina way that negatively impacts the patient in a way that doesn't kill them.

*** The best explanation (if in the MASH universe the Army hadn't previously allowed it) is that while the Army didn't necessarily approve it's use, they did tend to look the other way. Then in this episode, the refused to do that any more.

* In "Death Takes a Holiday", Hawkeye, BJ, and Margaret try to keep a soldier alive past midnight (his wounds are fatal, it's only a question of ''when'' he dies) so his family won't have to remember Christmas as the day he died. In the end, they fail, and Hawkeye moves the hands on the clock and they falsify the record. They could have just said, "Hey, let's leave him and go to the party and check him after midnight. When we find him dead, who's to say what time he died?"

** Where exactly does this become FridgeLogic or Fridge ''anything'' for that matter? Anyone with any brains (i.e. not Frank or Margaret) would realize that the Chinese would not go back on a deal like that to knock off or capture a couple of surgeons and corpsmen, what with the damage a betrayal like that would do to their ability to make future exchanges. If they proved by killing or capturing the 4077 crew that was sent, no future exchanges would be allowed. The doctor complaining about being bombed has nothing to do with the issue, and the Chinese troops having guns is reasonable since ''its fifty miles behind their lines and they are making a gesture by handing over the prisoners without demanding anything in exchange.'' Of course its a double standard, neither side has any reason to trust the other. For all the Chinese know the 4077 crew could have a bunch of soldiers with them to "rescue" their wounded and take a bunch of prisoners.

* When Frank gets sent away Duke says to Col. Blake "fair is fair, Henry. If I nail Hot Lips and punch Hawkeye, can I go home?" Well, later on he ''does'' have a tryst with Hot Lips, and he ''does'' get his orders to leave soon after, without even having to punch Hawkeye.

* Hawkeye probably caused Wendell to be sent to prison. Wendell confessed to identity theft - he stole his brother's identification to enlist and Hawkeye reveals this to the [=MPs=] and has Wendell put under guard. Hawkeye then gives him the Purple Heart stolen from Frank, putting Wendell in possession of stolen property that Frank and Margret would certainly report, worsening Wendell's situation as he would also have no explanation as to why he has a Purple Heart when his record would show he was hospitalised for appendicitis, an ineligible non-combat caused wound.

** A less depressing alternative is that they were either transferred to another unit or managed to get discharged and sent home. Since the nurses had the highest attrition rate in the show's run, a reasonable theory would be that some got pregnant from the large amount of sex being had at the 4077, while others were able to simply get enough points to be discharged.
*** This explanation might be an excellent case of fridge logic. Under the points system, the Army had a lot of trouble retaining experienced officers because they were naturally the ones who accumulated the most rotation points. This was especially true of Medical Corps officers, and the number of points a nurse needed to be discharged was significantly lower than a surgeon needed.
*** The Points system was never available to doctors, and all medical personnel starting December 1, 1945. By Korea, Points were long gone. The real reason it was difficult to retain officers was that their requirement - 80 - was lower than the enlisted - 85 - and was lowered further after VJ Day. This is partly why it was discontinued.

*** Since Hawkeye makes reference to an increase in points in one episode, MASH seems to take place in a universe where the point system was maintained for draftees, despite being discontinued in RealLife. The other ideas all seem to hold water.

* When Frank leaves Duke says to Col. Blake "fair is fair, Henry. If I nail Hot Lips and punch Hawkeye, can I go home?" Well, later on he ''does'' have a tryst with Hot Lips, and he ''does'' get his orders to leave soon after, without even having to punch Hawkeye.

** Where exactly does this become FridgeLogic?