For the Closure
Note and Disclaimer: I still don't own M*A*S*H. Enjoy story two of the series "After My War", dictated by Death.
Sometimes, I need to head in another direction, to think about another soul who might be gentler than Trapper. There was always a good study outside the 4077th and some that were part of that family, even though they did not inhabit the unit. None interested me more than the stoic and strong Major Sidney Freedman.
Sidney was always pretty serious, but with wit and sarcasm too. He grew up that way. Without a father to steady his hand, a mother that was not mentally stable and a brother that died too young, Sidney had to find his own way. He chose to learn about the human mind. Anybody who could pull someone out of the depths of their despair was a man who could understand that mental wounds were just as important as the physical.
By the time he was drafted into the Korean Conflict in 1950, Sidney was married with a son. He was well known within Chicago and constantly lectured at schools and took in patients. Being sent to a country that hardly anyone knew of was something strange to him. Sure, it was horrible that he had to leave his family and career behind. But he could not defy these orders. He had no authority over the US government.
That was his lot in life though. Sidney always accepted what had been handed to him without complaint. In a way, he held onto closure to keep going. In order to live in events out of his control, he had to have that sense of endings and how to properly deal with them. There was no point in whining and crying about what was happening. He had to focus on the positive things while in Korea.
In many ways, he found some good in the bad, especially within the 4077th. That came about by accident too. Sidney had been sent to the camp to determine if Corporal Klinger deserved his Section Eight. While it was not granted, he endeared himself to the personnel. From that moment onward, he was invited to all sorts of events and not just tending to his patients. He was also playing poker all night, drinking and pulling pranks and participating in bonfires.
Their surroundings always brought home the horrors of war and intruded on their fun. Sidney saw it everyday on the job. He had to hold onto closure, to believe that it will be all over soon and that he could look back on his tenure as one long nightmare. He passed this onto his patients too, in one way or another. Making them face their greatest fears in the political chessboard was a way for them to recover. They too could see that there was an ending in sight. There was always a light at the end of the tunnel and it wasn't always death.
It was for them to close their wounds and move on with their trauma. Sidney desired this above all.
Oddly, Sidney never thought of dying himself, sitting in those foxholes in the heat of battle. Sure, he was scared of the bullets and bombs around him. Blood was a factor of life and one he accepted too. But he always kept me as arm's length. He knew that someday, he'll join the millions before him in the journey to the unknown. In Korea, he avoided it like a plague, through his own actions and mine. It wasn't his turn anyway.
After his war, Sidney managed to return home to Chicago in one piece, three years after departing. It was a joyous reunion with his wife and son. While he missed all that time watching his child grow, Sidney spent the first six months home making up for that absence. After he went to bed, Sidney would spend time to his wife. It brought some wounds of his own healing, but it also was a way to close that last chapter behind him. Sidney was constantly pushing for a conclusion to his wartime residency.
Luckily, his memories of Korea mostly remained behind him. While he still woke from his sleep from time to time, Sidney managed to brush them aside. It was his mind playing tricks on him, he reasoned, and only that same closure would chase it away.
It was only through this that Sidney stood taller. Army life changed him. It wasn't the same in the civilian world. He had not known war before Korea and had first-hand experience of what it was like to be on the front lines. He had to take this and somehow present it. When he resumed his university speeches, he managed to bring up what stress military personnel have under the weight of war.
It brought some attention to the plight of his fellow veterans. His influence held sway. Investigations in his local area soon spread wider. While the system did not change, something else evolved. It was the human emotion of compassion. That was helping not only Sidney, but others who understood the same pain he did.
Again, he held onto closure. That was the best way to demonstrate to people that war wasn't just a game anymore. It was the corrupt powers, governments that controlled each country, that used the people for their own gain. They as a whole were only part of the chessboard that would eventually lead to death and they had to rise above it.
I am Death though…and there is always a way to me. Sidney Freedom escaped me several times. Eventually, he'll come home. It will be years ahead. He had the strength to move on. Closure was always his playing card and he always won against me, year after year.