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I think I've fallen in love with Loretta Swit
I've only recently gotten acquainted with the long-running TV series MASH (M*A*S*H).
I saw the original movie and wasn't too impressed.  Furthermore, I served in Korea and felt I had seen enough of the death, destruction, and devastation to last me a lifetime, and that I didn't to be reminded of it by a weekly TV series, no matter how popular the show was said to be.
Well, Mary has been a fan of the show ever since it first appeared on TV, and has been enjoying the reruns off and on ever since. And she has always kept the sound low so as not to interfere with my never-ending computer work.
However, one day recently I decided to take a brief break and watch an episode with her.
Well, I must admit to being surprised by how entertaining the episode was. I've always been a fan of comedy and was amazed by how much of it the writers were able to insert into something as basically horrible as a down and dirty war.
After seeing another couple of episodes I found I was hooked and have been watching the show whenever I can find time.
I also find myself identifying with lots of the situations that were portrayed, along with feeling a kinship with some of the actors — particularly Radar (Company Clerk Walter O'Reilly). I had been a company clerk at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, before being sent to Korea.
I was also a corporal who wore the same kind of GI-issue round-lens glasses Radar wore. I never slept with a Teddy bear, but I had Radar's shyness regarding women and was regarded as somewhat of a California nerd by the good ol' boys out of the deep South who were the majority of my comrades in arms.
Even though I was RA (regular army rather than drafted) I definitely shared the feelings of Captain Pierce and others who wondered why we were there in the first place- what a conflict between North Korea and South Korea had to do with the security of the United States.
As for television's MASH, how could a guy not love the nurses - especially, of course, Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan? That's why I say I've fallen in love with Loretta Swit.
Outside of my own two visits to a MASH unit (fortunately, not for combat wounds) I never saw any female personnel where I was — in a 155 Howitzer battalion about five miles behind the front lines around Chorwon and Pork Chop Hill.
In any case, I do have some strange stories about my time in Korea...
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Korea
Fort Ord
Fort Belvoir
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