Chapter 1
Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen
The thwack, thwack, thwack of the rotor blades on the chopper was an overwhelming sound standing only 14 feet away. Events of the past three years buzzed through Hawkeye's head like the jets that used to fly over every day. He remembered the day that Henry Blake-his first commanding officer, had been killed in a plane crash. The day that BJ, his best friend, took the place of the state-side-bound Trapper John McIntyre. He wouldn't ever forget the day that Radar went back to Iowa, leaving behind his beloved teddy bear. Hawkeye, remembering the first day that he arrived in Korea, the day that he got his travel orders to go home. And then when his travel orders were rescinded and he had to turn right back. Then there was the time when Frank went missing, only to be replaced by Major Charles Winchester.
After just a few seconds had passed, Hawkeye snapped out of his memory filled mind. "BJ, I can't hide from it anymore. Maybe we will see each other again. I mean, we'll be on totally opposite sides of the country, but we can write. Or maybe call."
Hawkeye, wanting to spend just one more day with the person who had been his best friend for the past year and a half, had the urge to catch the same plane that BJ would be on, yet at the same time was eager to get home the quick way. He wanted so much to taste one of the apples picked fresh from the tree outside the sunlit bay window on the side of the house. The sweet, juicy, yet somewhat tart taste of the fresh apple made Hawkeye's mouth water. Just thinking about it made him want to bite into the golden-brown apple as soon as he possibly could.
"Go Hawk, you'll miss your flight," BJ said.
Hawkeye ducked down to avoid a possible decapitation by the chopper blades. Some many memories he would leave behind in Korea. He would miss the still in the swamp, how Klinger always used to joke around when he wore dresses. But there was one thing that Hawkeye would never miss-the meatball surgery in the O.R. That and the wounded coming in every day or so on the buses, the choppers, and sometimes even a beat-up jeep that had been ravaged by the bombs and the bullets flying and hurtling through the air at nearly 700 miles an hour. All of the blood-drenched surgery gowns that would give you a sickening feeling when you had to take them off to put them in the laundry basket that had been turned red by the blood of hundreds of wounded soldiers and, in some cases, the wounded doctors from the aid stations just 12 miles down the road.
Hawkeye, stepping into the chopper cabin, could just smell the side stretchers, with the sickly smelling fabric and blood-stained wooden handles. Then, after he was strapped in, he heard BJ-his beloved friend-scream over the roaring chopper engine, "But just in case we don't see each other again, I left you a note!"
Hawkeye could barely hear him and could only make out a few words. All that he heard was, "In case", "See", "I left", and the last word-"Note".
With a wave of the San Diego sign in his right hand, BJ sped off down the hill on which the helipad was located. Nearly falling on is bike though, BJ slid in a zigzag manor, but gained his balance.
Hawkeye, still thinking about the word 'note' that his best friend had mentioned, gestured to the pilot to take off. Then with a deafening sound of the engine picking up the three-ton chopper, Hawkeye took his last look at the camp. He saw the Pre-Op building, the colonel's office, the O.R., and post-op. But what caught his eye last, out of the rest of the dirt filled compound, was a single word on the ground, made out of rocks reading, "Goodbye". The pilot swung the chopper around, and headed to Soul. With the chance that Hawkeye would never see some of his best friends again, the pressure in his throat built, and with the tight throat of grief, he started to silently cry.