MASH ON MASH
Chapter 3: I am not Hot Lips
A/N: Sorry for the long wait for an update. I tried out various ideas for this chapter and none worked so I decided to keep it simple, stupid.
I added my own fictional character for this chapter to provide a cameo for a fellow writer on this site.
Sandra Sable-Martin
Shreveport Louisiana
Captain USANC
MASH 4077th 1951
Head Nurse
I was Chief Nurse of the 4077th prior to the arrival Major Margaret Houlihan. We only spent a few days together before I rotated out and went stateside. I was at the 4077th when it really was mobile, moving around Korea like a traveling circus. I was there before the period depicted in the television series.
Here is my background: I joined the Army in 1944 and served as nurse with a field hospital during the campaign to recapture the Philippines. My unit would have been part of the invasion of Japan if not for the atomic bomb being used in 1945. With the war over I decided to stay in the Army because the pay was good and I really didn't want to return to Louisiana. When the Korean War began I was stationed in Hawaii. I was sent to Japan as one the replacements for the nurses who were the original staff of the MASH units. As a Captain I was sent to the 4077th to become its second head nurse. I was only twenty seven years old at the time.
Before we moved into what would be the final home of the 4077th our unit had been in about a dozen different locations. We never had time to have fun and relax. Now we finally had a home.
We could now take showers and wash our clothes on a regular basis. The fighting slowed down enough where we weren't buried in wounded every day. You could now work a regular shift and have some time to yourself.
The previous commander was Colonel Block. He was a regular Army officer who had served in WWII. He didn't spend much time in surgery. He focused more on running the unit. The Colonel left the medical staff alone to handle its business. As a result he didn't have a personal relationship with the doctors and nurses. He was like the principal of a school. You only saw him when you screwed up.
Henry Blake was a surgeon first and commander second. He worked in OR with us and we identified with him. He would drink like everyone else. As head nurse I got along fine with him. He didn't bother me about the nursing staff and I didn't nag him about how the camp was being run. I just asked Radar for anything I needed.
Speaking of Radar, I remember when he first got to the unit. He really was a scared farm kid. In the TV show Radar can hear the helicopters before they arrive. At the real MASH we were notified by field telephone when to expect casualties. Radar had the ability to predict when the telephone would ring. To be honest it scared us at first. There was serious talk of having Father Mulcahy examine Radar to see if he was either a prophet or demon. Father Mulcahy convinced us that Radar was a just a man with an unusual talent and we accepted him after that.
Father Mulcahy was the first chaplain to actually live at the 4077th. At the start of my tour at MASH religious services were provided by the Chaplain of whatever unit we were supporting at that time. We had services provided by Catholic priests, protestant ministers and for about a month a Rabbi. The Rabbi is the reason I do not eat pork to this day!
The bad thing about being in a permanent location was that the Army found us. During our mobile period the MASH didn't have to be all military. We were understaffed most of the time so everyone officers and enlisted pitched in and worked together. Now that we were no longer mobile the brass started visiting us and they started insisting that we follow regulations.
I believe that is the reason Major Houlihan was sent to the 4077th. The powers that be decided the unit needed some career officers to run it.
I only knew Trapper and Hawkeye for a little while before I left Korea. People always ask if Hawkeye hit on me. Of course he did! I shot him down quickly. I told him I would never have anything to do with man from Maine as my great-grandfather and his brother both fought in the Louisiana regiment in the Civil War. My great-granduncle lost his leg fighting the Maine regiment at Gettysburg and he never forgave the men of that state for taking his leg.
The story was partially true. My great granduncle did lose a leg at Gettysburg but my family wasn't anti-Maine. Still it made a good story and Hawkeye left me alone after that. As for Trapper, I told him I didn't mess around with married men.
I don't recall Major Burns being anything like the character on the television series. He was more mean-spirited. He was always complaining about one of the nurses to me. I avoided talking to him except for work related matters.
I was also too much of a country girl for them. I would borrow one of the enlisted men's M-1 rifles and shoot at tin cans. I was considered the best shot at the 4077th.
Ginger and "Dish" were two of my nurses. You remember that episode about the clumsy nurse named Edwina? She was one of my nurses too. There is something I want to set straight for the record. Both the movie and the TV show have all of the nurses with seventies style long hair. We never wore our hair down. It was impractical. Also we didn't wear skin tight uniforms. Most of our clothes were designed for men and always fit baggy no matter how much you washed them.
The television show never explained why there was a high turnover rate for the nurses. In real life when I was at the 4077th most of served only a few months in Korea. The Army was short of nurses so we would start our overseas tour at a hospital in Japan and then be sent to the "big league" at a MASH. Sometimes you went back to work at a hospital in Japan before going home.
After leaving Korea I was assigned to the Army Nursing School at Fort Sam Houston Texas. I met my husband Dan, another WWII veteran recalled for duty in the Korean War. We married in 1953 when the war ended and I left the Army. My husband decided to remain in the Army and served for the next thirty years with two tours in Vietnam.
I gave birth to four daughters who ironically all went into the military as nurses. My oldest daughter retired as a Colonel and the two youngest left the army together and became registered nurses. My oldest daughter says she already knew how to run a nursing staff before she went to nursing school.
When the television series came out I shook my head and wondered what the hell happened to my hospital after I left.
I will address the number one question people ask: How do you feel about Margaret Houlihan becoming a household name as the head nurse of the 4077th?
I don't have anything against Margaret personally. The guy who wrote the book remembered a MASH with her as head nurse and the series writers copied the book so it is just a matter of timing. If I had arrived at the 4077th a year later then I guess the world think Sandra Sable was the MASH chief nurse. There was actually a head nurse after Margaret and she isn't mentioned in the show either. At a MASH reunion one year all of the former head nurses of the 4077th took a picture together. It is one of my most prized possessions.