Rating: PG
by Miriam
Note: I'm not sure if there were any woman doctors at the time of the Korean war but anything a man can do a woman could do better.
It was your typical day of surgery at the 4077th. Hawkeye, Charles ,BJ, and Col. Potter had just finished as Hawkeye called it your average day's hell 26 hour of meat ball surgery.
Colonel Potter : Get some sleep and then meet me in my office at noon.
At the Swamp
Hawkeye: I wonder if this has anything to do with the new nurse we are hearing about.
BJ: Supposedly this nurse is actually a doctor but the Army won't recognize her
Hawkeye: HER
Charles: A WOMAN DOCTOR this is a laugh
AT colonel Potter's office
Potter: I guess you have figured out why I've called you here. It is about a new nurse actually she is a doctor but the army won't recognize her as a doctor.
Margaret: I think she should be recognized even though she is a woman
Hawkeye: Women were meant for 2 things in this Army 1.To be a nurse 2. Everyone knows 2
Margaret: I will not stand for your macho chauvinistic attitude
Colonel: Major Logan will be here at 13:00hrs today. Dismissed.
In the swamp
Hawkeye: How can she be a major, Margaret must be annoyed to have another woman at the same rank and a doctor.
BJ: If she can do her job she should be allowed to be a doctor. When Sgt. Brunson was not recognized as a nurse because he is male you helped him get recognition.
Charles: I'm going to speak to Major Houlihan He leaves.
It was now 13:00hrs a jeep arrived in the compound it was Major Logan . Klinger greeted her.
Klinger: Good afternoon Major let me take your bags to the VIP tent.
Major Logan: Where is Colonel Potter's office Corporal?
Klinger: Right this way
Margaret: Maryanne How are you?
Major Logan: Margaret how have you been
Klinger: I did not know you know each other .
Margaret: I met her in Army Nursing school.
In Colonel Potter's Office
Colonel Potter: Major Logan welcome to the 4077.
Major Logan: Thank you sir, I hope to teach the nurses some of the new procedures I learned at Tokyo General. Of course I hope you don't have need to use them.
Margaret: We all do.
Colonel Potter: Well I'll let you get settled in the VIP tent
Margaret: Actually if it's okay I'd like her to stay in my tent. We want to some catching up.
Major Logan: I hope I'm not imposing.
Colonel Potter: It's okay dokey with me.
Later that day in the Officer's Club
Hawkeye: Major hi I'm Hawkeye,let me get you a drink
Major Logan: Okay ,Major Houlihan warned me about you.
Hawkeye: All good things I hope.
Major Logan: Call me Maryanne
Hawkeye: Igor, I'll have whatever she's having.
Major Logan : Scotch and soda please. I hear you are quite the lady's man.
Hawkeye: Well lets find out how true this is.
ATTENTION ALL PERSONNEL WE INTERRUPT HAPPY HOUR WITH INCOMING WOUNDED ARRIVING IN THE COMPOUND.
It was a brief O.R. only 8 wounded people Hawkeye and Maryanne met in the swamp. Hawkeye Fixed her a martini . They had a good conversation before things got ugly.
Hawkeye: So what made you decide to go into medicine?
Maryanne : I grew up in a family of doctors my father was an Army Doctor during WWII he was stationed in France with Colonel Potter. So I decided I would be the first woman in my family to do something other than be a housewife. At first my father was furious he grew up with the idea that women were nurses and only men were doctors. So to make him happy I went to nursing school at first . Then I thought I AM MEANT TO BE A DOCTOR and that is what I did. After I finished medical school I enlisted in the Army where I met Margaret.
Hawkeye: I agree woman should NOT be doctors because some of the work women just were not meant to do.
Maryanne: Let's get something straight I was not given the title Doctor I damned well earned it. I rose through the ranks and became a Major. The only reason I'm not practicing medicine is because the stupid Army won't let me. I'm damned proud to be a member of the USAMC. Just because you didn't chose to be were you are does not give you the right to belittle me. Good Bye Doctor.
She spilled her drink on him for spite.
Later In Margaret's Tent
Maryanne: I've never doubted my decision to be a doctor a day in my life. I thought maybe Hawkeye would understand ,maybe even Major Winchester.
Margaret: About a month ago we had a Doctor from the Swedish Red Cross who was a woman needless to say neither of them could check their male ego at the door and it almost cause a patient trouble.
Maryanne: How did you deal with Hawkeye ?
Margaret: Well first of all they are draftees who lack Military Discipline. Until about a year ago I was friendly with a Doctor uh Frank Burns ,did I mention him before? He made the doctors respect the rank,but he was the only who respected me in that way other than that he turned out to be a fool. Hawkeye and Trapper who was another doctor here during the beginning of the war were womanizers.Trapper was married.
Maryanne: After the war is over maybe something will change. I go back to Tokyo General tomorrow. I guess I'm a different kind of doctor, a woman.
The next day. While getting into a jeep.
Margaret: Good bye Maryanne.
Maryanne: Good bye Margaret I'll be back soon. Maybe I'll get my proper recognition .Until then I guess I'm just like you the ranking officer over a group of nurses in this MAN's Army.
Sgt: Ready to go ma'am ?
Maryanne: Good bye Margaret.
The jeep pulled of as they waved good bye.
I dedicate this particular story to the women in uniform past, present and future.