Using helicopters to rescue people and transport the injured is commonplace in today's world of emergency medical services. But helicopters weren't widely used until the Korean War in the 1950s, and the general public wasn't aware of them until a decade or two later, when their televisions were filled with scenes from the Vietnam War and the TV series M*A*S*H.



M*A*S*H* stands for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. The series revolved around a team of medical professionals and support staff stationed at the United States Army 4077th MASH unit. Although the show often seemed to mirror what was happening in Vietnam, the 4077th was actually one of several military surgical units in the Korean War. (The asterisks in the name don't mean anything. They were introduced in the novel on which the TV series was based.)

Probably the most endearing M*A*S*H character was Corporal Walter Eugene ?Radar? O'Reilly, played by Gary Burghoff. Radar is the quintessential innocent Iowa farm boy who is drafted into war and sees things on the battlefield that he could never have imagined.

As company clerk, Radar is in charge of all communications and requisitions for the 4077th. But he's called "Radar" because he always seems to know what was going to happen right before it did happen. He could always sense that helicopters carrying wounded soldiers were coming before anyone could hear them. A key scene in many of the episodes is when Radar says, ?Incoming choppers!? As overworked and exhausted as the medical staff is, everyone knows that ?Incoming choppers!? means even more work, more lives to save.

M*A*S*H is sometimes described as ?black comedy? because, although the half-hour show was mostly comedy, many of the episodes also had a more serious tone and included dramatic subject materials. Many of the stories in the early seasons were based on real-life tales told by hundreds of real-life M*A*S*H surgeons, interviewed by the production team.

The main character in M*A*S*H* was Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce (Alan Alda), Chief Surgeon of the 4077th. Loretta Swit portrayed Head Nurse Major Margaret J. "Hot Lips" Houlihan. For the first three seasons, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Braymore Blake (McLean Stevenson) was the Commanding Officer of the 4077th. Blake was replaced by Colonel Sherman T. Potter (Harry Morgan). The other surgeons were Captain "Trapper" John Francis Xavier McIntyre (Wayne Rogers), replaced after the third season by Captain B.J. Hunnicut (Mike Farrell).

The Korean War lasted less than four years, from 1950 to 1953. The M*A*S*H television series lasted almost four times as long. Its 251 episodes aired on CBS from September 17, 1972 to February 28, 1983. Approximately 106 million people watched the final episode, making it the most=watched television episode to this day. M*A*S*H can still be seen in syndication worldwide.

Less well known than the TV series is the fact that M*A*S*H was originally a book titled M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army, written by Richard Hooker, a former military surgeon. It was first made into a movie, which premiered in 1970 and starred Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould. Gary Burghoff as ?Radar? was the only actor who played his character in both the movie and the TV series.