For the Spying
Note and Disclaimer: Haha, still don't own M*A*S*H. Enjoy this next part in "After My War"!
Some people just don't know when to die. Others take all of the effort to commit the deed and it comes to nothing. Then, there are some who fall under both of those categories because their desire to know everyone's business and twist it. There are few of them out there, but one always comes to mind. It's Colonel Sam Flagg in a nutshell.
Don't get me wrong. Flagg can be pretty amusing. He's also a headache, from start to his eventual finish. Nobody really knows much about his life, including me. I do know that he was a child with a mind of his own. Don't get me wrong. He grew up with the typical education of one caught in the Roaring Twenties and the Depression, but there was something going on in that noggin of his that wasn't right.
His parents noticed it too and tried helping him. I mean, hiding in the bushes at every chance and spying on people wasn't exactly normal. Neither was pretending to be somebody else. Flagg was a classic act, changing his name so many times and acting. It twisted him. It also made him desire spying more and more.
By the time he finished school, Flagg was in for the real thing. He had heard about those Communists when he was spying. From then on out, he saw red. Those Commies were coming for the American way of life and he had to do everything in his power to stop them. He thought he could hunt them down and kill some.
And that was when his true calling began. When he joined the Army, Flagg held onto spying – the perfect occupation. He utilized the skills he learned growing up to gain intelligence. The Army loved it and used him constantly. Spying was the best game and Flagg shone in the spotlight.
When he was in the military, he rose quickly. It wasn't long before Flagg was a CIA officer and tracking down more than just Commies in Russia. By the time he was sent to Korea in 1950, Flagg was already known for deliberately hurting himself to get an end to his mean and using irrational and chaotic behavior to trap anybody. Depending on who he's talking to, he'll spin so many circles that nobody could tell where he came from or who he is. Nicknamed "The Wind" because he felt so invincible and invisible to friend and foe alike, Flagg found an unlikely target in his madness: the 4077th M*A*S*H.
That was where his anchor of spying laid. Flagg was so dedicated to the personnel there. It wasn't because they were his buddies. He personally saw that his spying skills were best used there. The war did not bother him much. He found a magnet and stuck to it. And the best attraction was where the doctors, nurses and orderlies worked. Spying on them, especially when they had the enemy in their hands, was perfect
Unfortunately, it did not last too long. After three years, the assignments took a toll on Flagg. Towards the war's end, he was so paranoid that he even thought himself to be the enemy. After so many attacks on the 4077th, can you blame him? He thought Hawkeye Pierce was treating North Korean soldiers and sending them back secretly. He had images of Margaret Houlihan whoring at the Front Lines. Even Klinger was not an exemption. In his mind, the cross dresser was holding secrets sewed into his dresses.
Spying was a comfort, but it was also his downfall. Flagg was so wrapped up in the stars and stripes of spying that he did not see any meaning or purpose without it. What was a pastime transformed into an obsession. An obsession always turned deadly outside of the 4077th. In Flagg's case, it would be his many victims, captured, tortured and left for dead. Most of them had been innocent. The few that were guilty hardly deserved it, escaping a regime they sought to escape. Flagg only caught them in their moment of sorrow and confliction.
After his war, Flagg remained with the CIA. He still badgered the people who were assigned to the 4077th. While he wasn't as zany as he used to be, he slowly lost his penchant for spying. It no longer seemed as exciting as before. The travel between states was hard. He wasn't as young as he used to be. All of his accidents and self-inflicted injuries were catching up to him.
But Flagg stood strong. He did not want to stumble into my arms so easily. He fought to remain living, to capture what used to be his life. His zeal most certainly did not wane. He continued to campaign for the eradication of Communism. He sought any means possible, including dropping himself into Russia to do it. But he could not capture his ability to spy again. It disappeared just like the wind he was, blowing away into the dist of history just as the Korean War did.
I am Death though…and there is always a way to me. Sam Flagg likened himself to a cheater of the afterlife. He used his spying to keep him out of trouble, thinking that if he was caught, he would use any one of his many disguises to run. But one of these days, I'm sure it'll catch up to him. I am not sure where he'll land, but I sure as hell know that Flagg will be in my arms any day now. Nobody will know where the wind will blow though.