History WMG / MASH

**** It's not that Hawkeye didn't want to get rid of it. He did want to, but he refused to give it to an artillery unit that would just use it to hurt people. This troper always thought that after they sabotaged it, he did give it to another unit.

[[WMG: Series/{{Mash}} and ''TheXFiles'' are set in the same continuity, and either Bill Mulder or the CSM was Major Flagg (Ed Winter's character) from M*A*S*H]]

Also, it is common knowledge that ''M*A*S*H'' and ''TheXFiles'' [[http://poobala.com/crossoverlist.html take place in the same universe.]]

[[WMG: FawltyTowers exists in the M*A*S*H universe]]

And not only that, but MASH units aren't recession-proof either: so much money went to the Korean War effort, that the 4077th fell on hard times, and like any other business that falls on hard times, had to lay off a number of personnel. This is why Ugly John, Boone, Lt. Dish, Ho-Jon, Spearchucker Jones, Margie Cutler, Captain Kaplan, and Barbara Bannerman all disappeared after the first season - none of them had any kind of position or seniority among the camp personnel, and as such, Henry had to let them go. He kept Leslie Scorch a little longer since she was his mistress, and Ginger Bayliss was an efficient nurse and also remained a little longer; Henry laid off Leslie because word of his affair with her was started to spread, and his didn't want it on his military record, while Ginger was later laid off because of too many complaints from Frank. Since the military was Potter's career, the 4077th began to pick back up while under his command, and as such, due to a shortage of help in the O.R., hired a slew of new nurses, including Able (Judy Farrell), Baker (Jan Jorden), Bigelow, Shari, and others.

[[WMG: FawlteyTowers exists in the M*A*S*H universe]]

Now, in Fawltey towers, there is a running gag on how Mr. Fawltey was in the Korean War and how he "killed four men". One time Sybel tells a customer "he was in the catering core, he used to poison them." and Mr. Fawltey often complains of painful shrapnel in his leg...

*** Yet Hawkeye does nothing to actually ''remove'' it from the camp, he just prevents it from being used again, despite being given a list of artillery units who would be more than happy to accept it. And, despite it be ''his'' gun, he for some reason feels the need to creep around at night to disable it, as if he weren't allowed to do anything with it or if it was actively being used by an artillery unit.

*** How does surrendering to a single sniper allow them to treat wounded? And Henry was ordered specifically not to surrender. And how, exactly, were they supposed to know it was just a single soldier with a captured rifle, and not a larger force ready to attack the camp? And the sniper fired at Hawkeye when he tried to surrender (against orders), so how does surrendering help?

*** Yet Hawkeye does nothing to actually ''remove'' it from the camp, he just prevents it from being used again.

*** How does surrendering to a single sniper allow them to treat wounded? And Henry was ordered specifically not to surrender.

**** Or, instead of being sent home, he still has issues resulting in a second breakdown, and is sent to a mental insitution shortly after the events of the finale. Sidney was real and was his doctor in the Korea, he just remembers Sidney well into the '70s.

After the war ended, the American government made a deal with Korea, or had them bug out to a neutral zone, because the group had been chosen as a test group to see how long a bunch of people could be kept in a hostile combat zone before they would be more sad to leave than happy to go. The characters who were removed without being pronounced dead, such as Trapper John, had either figured it out or were throwing off the statistics. There were multiple groups subject to this test, and they happened to be one of the groups that were told the war was over after an extra 12 years, and had a bunch of stuff happen that would test the remains of their sanity (The "chicken" on the bus was a final way of hitting the most upbeat person where it would most hurt their spirit, and why do you think Father Mulcahey wasn't hit by any shrapnel, just a shock wave?) This is, of course, entirely justified by the idea that American government agents are allowed to be sadistic psychologists, if it's [[ForScience in the name of "science"]] (or at least with a decent excuse).
* Alternately, it's not the 70s at all: it's actually a test being done in the future, far enough ahead that they don't actually know the difference between '70s culture and '50s culture. They were (will be) using different sets of clones with the same sets of memories, and the same "title" for each character- Hawkeye for the happy-go-lucky manic-not-depressive surgeon, BJ for his PutOnABus partner and BJ for his replacement, Burns for the belligerent thinks-he-knows-it-all, Hollihan for the snarky love interest. Two of the same O'Reilly series clones (Radar) happened to be used for the groups of the movie and the television series.

*** However, placing an ammo dump in such close proximity to a medical unit would strip the medical unit of it's protected status, which is what led to the bombings in the first place.

** Even more likely to keep Frank from killing the people around him. His tendancy to pull the trigger while aiming at random people has been expounded above, and he even managed to shoot BJ one time.

** Or when he performs unnecessary appendectimy on Colonel Flagg and the colonel in "Preventative Medicine". In the latter, BJ calls him out for it, but this doesn't stop him.
** Hawkeye removing the appendix (both times that he did it) was his attempt at invoking the Zeroth Law, meaning he sought to do the least damage to the least number. He was able to rationalize breaking his Oath by reasoning that he was saving that many more lives. The rationilization was blown up in his face shortly thereafter when BJ informs him of incoming wounded.

** This is actually a common trait amongst staff officers even in the modern military. Medical officers (more often than not) see themselves as doctors first and soldiers second, so they are more lax on military protocol than career soldiers. Flimsy salutes, failure to show proper military regard, and other similar things are commonplace (and would have been evenmoreso amongst draftees) in a war that they disagreed with).

** Just watched the episode in question, "Guerilla My Dreams", and some of the facts are wrong. Hawkeye never insisted that the woman couldn't be a guerrilla, simply that he didn't care whether she was or wasn't. The incident where she tried to kill a soldier was misinterpreted as her being disorientated by the entire camp, not just Hawkeye. At the time Hawkeye tried to evacuate the woman, there was still room to believe she might be innocent and the line about Hawkeye caring more about her life than she did came after that. On the other hand, the episode does rely on a FalseDichotomy, where the only options are torturing her to death or letting her go scot-free. And Hawkeye does seem to be opposed to her being interrogated on principle, even before he finds out torture would be involved.
** The woman, guerilla or not, was his patient. He simply refused to allow his patient to be handed over to torture and certain death on the assumption that she was an enemy. The guerillas he identified in the other episode were more an example of pattern recognition, as he had heard stories about that very same time of incident happening and had likely had it happen to him before. Also, Radar backed him up on that one.

This has more to do with some of the odder events in the camp. Hawkeye comes to a mostly functioning MASH unit and it ends up becoming rather anarchic, but also ends up having one of the most effective survival ratings of any other unit. As a side note, it is assumed that Hawkeye is only barely aware of these abilities if he is aware of them at all. Hawkeyes abilities might only be tied to that area of Korea however, seeing as they seem to not work when he's in other locations, examples as follows:

* Colonel Blake was a friend to Hawkeye, and you'll notice that even when he could (and possibly should) have had the weight of the armys bureaucracy land on him something would bail him out. Hawkeyes abilities though likely have a bit of a snapback effect once you leave their aura, his protection had build up a big debt which was paid over the sea of Japan.
* Also explains Franks Flanderization, in the beginning he was a mediocre surgeon but was still at least mildly capable and while not the hero he imagined himself showed a willingness to risk himself to save a child. Hawkeyes dislike for him began to shift Franks personality and caused him ill fortune. (When Frank got home there was a backlash effect on it, in essence all of the 'bad' caused to him by Hawkeyes power was now counterbalanced, hence his being cleared of charges, promoted, etc.)

* Might also explain some of Margarets character shifts. Initially she might have simply been caught in the effect of what happened to Frank, but as more things went wrong for her he felt sympathy and things changed.
* It might also explain why the war seemed to go so much longer, in this case Hawkeyes thoughts that the war would never end actually kept drawing it out, meaning that in their world the Korean war lasted several more years.
* Also could explain people like Flagg, assuming that he was mildly competent outside of the camp in it he was more or less subject to Hawkeyes views on the military system and this his disguises failed and his plans often backfired.

*** Trapper's friend seemed competent at his job, or at least more competent than Flagg.