Chapter 2

The Trip Home

A few days after departing the 4077th, Hawkeye sat in the Chicago airport, waiting to depart on his last plane for home. With the note that BJ had left still in his mind, Hawkeye looked for a way to forget everything that he remembered about Korea. But there was always something that reminded him of the war-ridden country. He looked out the window, only to see planes taking off and landing. But the sound of their engines reminded him of the fighter jets in Korea that always flew low.

Hawkeye took out a piece of paper and a pen to write a letter to his father. He knew that the letter would probably get to his dad before he would.

"Dear Dad," he wrote. "We both know that the time that has passed since we last saw each other has felt like an eternity. But, I am pleased to tell you that I will most likely be home about a day after you have received this letter."

Hawkeye thought for a minute of what to write next, but his mind had gone blank. The only things that he could really think of were events at the 4077th. But many of those things he didn't want to think about. They were events that were saddening, and some of them could be considered pitiful. But he decided to write about them anyway. But before he did, he also thought about some of the pranks that he had pulled on others around the camp.

He wrote, once again, about some practical jokes. Some of them were very amusing, yet some could make him and the other jokers seem like they were desperate to have some fun.

"Some things that I never told you about in my letters were along the lines of practical jokes. Some of them might make you laugh, yet others might urge you to take pity on me. But after careful consideration, I thought that I might as well tell you about the pranks that I was able to pull, and some of the ones that backfired. One joke that I pulled was Trapper's idea. We decided that we were going to nail Frank into a crate while he was sleeping. And the odd part of this prank was that it took Frank over four hours to wake up and find himself in a wooden box. But when he did, he thought that he was going to suffocate. We put air-holes in the crate so he could have some oxygen, and I'm sure that he saw them, but he still thought that he was going to die. It was probably because he got in line twice when paranoia was given away."

Hawkeye tried to think of something that Frank had said when he was in the crate, but he couldn't really remember any of the conversation. He tried with all of the brain power that he had, but the neurons just weren't firing enough to jog his memory. So instead, he wrote, "I would tell you something from the conversation we had when Frank was trapped, but, unfortunately, I can't remember anything that we said. But I can remember this; after Frank left for his state-side transfer, his replacement, Charles Winchester, turned out to be even snootier than we thought. He always thought very highly of himself. For instance, the first day that he was assigned to the camp, he had to perform some sort of experimental surgery. After it had been a success, he said that he should have gotten the metal of honor for having to operate in the surgical conditions that we had. Then he said that if we could survive the filth of the camp, then he could do it without any trouble. He actually thought that he was better than anyone else, and he still does today!"

Hawkeye was about to put the next sentence on the paper when he heard the familiar voice of someone he didn't expect.

"Well captain, aren't you going to salute me?"

Hawkeye could recognize that vibrating voice anywhere. And the last time he heard it was only a few days earlier.

"I did three days ago," Hawkeye replied with a smile. Standing up and turning around he screamed and laughed with joy to see Colonel Sherman Potter. Hawkeye really wanted to see him right now, but he wondered what the Colonel was doing in Chicago.

"Oh, it's so nice to see you Colonel," Hawkeye said. But with a moment's hesitation, he asked, "It's nice to see you again, but why are you here?"

"Well, Pierce, you know about those pilots, they are always skittish about landing in a little bit of fog." the Colonel replied.

"I'm guessing that you ran into some bad weather?" Hawkeye questioned. Since he did not know why the Colonel was in Chicago, all that he could think about for an excuse was that the Colonel's plane was diverted from Missouri. And indeed, it was. His former commanding officer told him all about what had happened to the weather over the airport that he was supposed to land at. He also told him about the people who sat next to him on the plane though. Apparently, the lady who sat next to Colonel Potter hadn't ever even seen someone with a rank higher than a major, and when she first saw him, she tried to salute him. The only problem was, she got the army salute confused with the navy salute and instead ended up having to rest her arm in a paper sling because she had twisted it. She didn't know what to do since she didn't know how much respect a Colonel was used to.

After about 20 minutes of talking, Hawkeye had to board his plane. He knew that he would miss the staff back at the 4077th greatly, but it was nice for him to see his commanding officer one last time.

"Well, that's my flight Colonel. Goodbye sir." Hawkeye said reluctantly.

"Goodbye son." The commander replied. And with that, Hawkeye, one of Korea's most brilliant surgeons, was gone.