Plot: The 4077th is under fire by a lone, young sniper who believes he is attacking MacArthur's headquarters.

Margaret is pretty dim in this episode. First, she goes on and on about how a "real man" would go out into the darkness and get the sniper. Then she is stunned when Frank seems to do just that.

Well, she knew that Frank wasn't a real man...

Amazingly after these there's one cut that has NEVER been made. Watch carefully when Radar runs back into the shower tent. Just as he opens the door, his towel falls off and Burghoff's buns are in plain view. You can tell he's naked, because when he and Henry leave the tent, Radar grabs a robe to put on.

We won't ask why he didn't grab the robe in the first place....

Too frightened, I guess.

In this episode, we hear the joke “I never met a nurse who didn’t register” again. The first time was in the ep, “Radar’s Report”. Trapper and Hawkeye act as if it’s the first time the joke’s been told in this ep. My guess is that it occurs before "“Radar’s Report"” It also probably precedes “Five O’Clock Charlie”.

Frank begins to clean his gun. Hawkeye and Trapper ask the Major why he needs a gun. In “Five O’Clock Charlie” it’s accepted as a matter of course that Frank has a pistol.

In this ep, the 4077th is said to be 3 miles from the front.

While Frank is in the Swamp – and listening – Hawkeye claims that Radar says nasty things about the Major. It seems a bit cruel of Pierce to do that. Burns can make things miserable for O’Reilly.

If the sniper is attacking the camp, why does he initially aim his shots away from the camp towards Hawkeye, Margaret and Frank? And my god, that’s an well-armed sniper! He seems to have an unusually large supply of ammo.

While it is true that the 4077th is a medical unit with doctors and nurses, it also has soldier who are regularly assigned guard duty. It also has various MPs. My question is “Why can’t someone who is trained in the use of guns go and stop the sniper?” It should fairly obvious where the bullets are coming from. That would give the MPs (or whoever) a pretty good idea where to look for the sniper. All they’d have to do is wait at night and sneak around until they were behind the sniper. Catch him while he’s off guard. Or even fire in the sniper’s general direction. Yet the camp’s MPs and guards do nothing.

I swear I think the sniper’s related to Five O’Clock Charlie. He does not seem to wound one single person; despite all the bullets he fired.

Hawkeye makes a reference to an interpreter in this ep, indicating the 4077th at least has access to one. The rest of the series contradicts that idea.

And my god, that's an well-armed sniper! He seems to have an unusually large supply of ammo.

I'm imagining this kid stockpiling all the ammo he can get his hands on for (what he thinks is) this one last, desperate attempt to win the war. But even so, yeah, that's a lot of bullets he's got there...

While it is true that the 4077th is a medical unit with doctors and nurses, it also has soldier who are regularly assigned guard duty. It also has various MPs. My question is "Why can't someone who is trained in the use of guns go and stop the sniper?" It should fairly obvious where the bullets are coming from. That would give the MPs (or whoever) a pretty good idea where to look for the sniper. All they'd have to do is wait at night and sneak around until they were behind the sniper. Catch him while he's off guard. Or even fire in the sniper's general direction. Yet the camp's MPs and guards do nothing.

Yup. In real life this situation wouldn't exist, because too many people would know exactly how to stop the sniper within the first half-hour.
That said, as a comic exaggeration of how helplessly non-military the (main) M*A*S*H personnel really are, it works well.

>I swear I think the sniper’s related to Five O’Clock Charlie. He does not seem to wound one single person; despite all the bullets he fired. <

Or a Stormtrooper, or Lieutenant Worf!

"While it is true that the 4077th is a medical unit with doctors and nurses, it also has soldier who are regularly assigned guard duty. It also has various MPs. My question is “Why can’t someone who is trained in the use of guns go and stop the sniper?” It should fairly obvious where the bullets are coming from. That would give the MPs (or whoever) a pretty good idea where to look for the sniper. All they’d have to do is wait at night and sneak around until they were behind the sniper. Catch him while he’s off guard. Or even fire in the sniper’s general direction. Yet the camp’s MPs and guards do nothing."


Actually, the problem of stopping a sniper for a M*A*S*H unit is a little more complicated than that.

First of all, MASH units don't have M.P.'s as an organic part of the company. They may have MP'S "attached" to them, but this could wind up being very irregular assistance as the M.P.s could have a wide area of responsibility including all the roads around the area plus escort duty for the ambulances.

Guard duty, however, is a very common thing in the army and I imagine every poor enlisted slob in the outfit gets to pull it regularly. However, pulling guard duty probably amounts to little more than being given a gun with a clip of ammo, being told the password of the day (if they have one, and lets face it, the 4077th probably ain't too on the ball in this arena) and then being told not to fall asleep. Guard duty training is minimal.

So exterior security falls to the local or atttached M.P.'s (who are probably not always around) and internal security is being caried out by the likes of Radar, Igor,and, of course, Klinger. Needless to say, this leaves you with a less than intimidating fighting force on hand. LoL

Which brings us to the area of how to effectively counter sniper fire. It definitely is not as simple as waiting until night and sneaking around until you are behind the sniper. That's a good way to get killed, especially if you don't know what you are doing. Equally, trying to catch the sniper off guard, or firing in his 'general' direction might be like accepting an open invitation to the O.R.

On a lighter note, I guess the obvious reason that the sniper misses all his shots is because this was a prime time sit-com that didn't show very much blood (despite being a hospital in a combat zone). Henry getting a casualty report about his nurses and slackers isn't all that funny or family friendly. A sort of writer's bible detente with the "enemy". They can't hurt the MASH people cuz the MASH people are basically harmless. :-)

Thanks for the information, TL. And welcome to Nitcentral if you're new here.

"Abyssinia!"

Henry mentions that it is 1300 hours when he is on the phone with the general as the chopper arrives.

When Hawk & Trap are walking outside after the sniper has been shot it is very clearly either late afternoon or early morning by the shadow lengths of Hawk, Trap and the others.