27

Chapter 27: Radar Vs. "The Omen"

APRIL 30TH, 1975. This was the day of the fall of SAIGON. As massive amounts of Vietnamese refugees were boarding U.S. MILITARY planes as well as ships, there were merely moderate causalities for our side. The only ones dead were Mr. DONALD LONG of the U.S. EMBASSY whom was killed by a sniper's bullet as he tried to evacuate highly important papers from an embassy office, and the other was an AIR FORCE re-enlistee named STEVE ELLIOTT whom died from 3rd degree burns received when a heat seeking missile fired from a MIG fighter jet with the lettering CCCP on it shot down his fighter jet.

As a result both MAGDELENE ANDERSON LONG & BETTY JO (BRADLEY) ELLIOTT were now widows. MRS. LONG was a native of MOUNT STERLING, KENTUCKY & a graduating senior of the MONTGOMERY COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL Class of 1971. Whereas, for MRS. ELLIOTT? Well, she was a native of a lil' ol' town called HOOTERVILLE, ILLINOIS in the northeastern most portion of the OZARK MOUNTAINS. Any way, the 4077TH M*A*S*H had no problems evacuating. Most of their wounded though were transferred to a U.S. NAVAL HOSPITAL SHIP. Aboard the very same ship DONALD LONG was reported as D.O.A. (dead-on-arrival), and STEVE ELLIOTT died from his 3rd degree burns on the table where CHARLES EMERSON WINCHESTER, III. & SHERMAN T. POTTER were desperately trying to save his life. Finally, the last of the HUEY UH-1D'S used for helping the troops get to the battles & airlift the wounded to the M*A*S*H units was dumped into SAIGON harbor. It's pilot was one B./J. (BILLIE JOE) McKAY, & he knew that after the fuel officially ran out for the helicopter that he'd have to ditch it! Soon after returning to states everyone was glad to be back with their families, but they were also met by certain groups of people whom spit on them and called them baby killers!!! As B./J. McKAY & his fellow members of the 4077TH M*A*S*H went their ways with him tagging along was the 4077TH'S mascot, a chimpanzee named BEAR after PAUL "BEAR" BRYANT whom coached football for the UNIVERSITY of ALABAMA. MULCAHY now had CHARLES convinced to help build a metropolitan sized hospital in GRAND RAPIDS, MINNESOTA so the lil' ol' clinic founded by POTTER, HAWKEYE, HUNNICUTT, & TRAPPER after the KOREAN WAR would become the new county health clinic for ITASCA COUNTY, MINNESOTA. Of course, when CHARLES, POTTER, & MULCAHY came home they found that GERALD R. FORD was now the new U.S. President. Inflation had driven up unemployment and created a massive recession. But POTTER was just glad to see MILDRED again. MULCAHY was glad to be with his wife MARTINE once more. CHARLES felt that after all the years of patching up wounded soldiers in VIETNAM that living in MINNESOTA would be nice for a change. A batch of Ex-GREEN BERETS from TULSA decided to take a civil service exam & become deputies in ITASCA COUNTY after all the tales of RADAR'S bravery as a sheriff as told to them by MULCAHY, POTTER, & CHARLES. These TULSA born guys were named as follows: DARRELL CURTIS, & his brothers SODA POP & PONYBOY. Their good friends TWO-BIT MATTHEWS, STEVE RANDELL, & the SHEPARD brothers TIM & CURLY. As a youth CURLY once spent 6months in an OKLAHOMA state youth reformatory. PONYBOY'S good friend the late JOHNNY CADE saved PONYBOY from being drowned by using his switchblade knife to kill a rich boy named BOB SHELDON. Just hours after JOHNNY died in a TULSA hospital another friend of their's named DALLAS WINSTON was shot down by TULSA P.D. after being wounded in a failed robbery attempt of a franchise store for the convenience store company called U TOTE M. The cause of JOHNNY CADE'S death was brought on by smoke inhalation while saving some young children from being burned alive in the old church on JAY MOUNTAIN just outside of WINDRIXVILLE, OKLAHOMA, which is somewhere south of TULSA.

However, it was now 1976. The year of our nation's bicentennial, & numerous things were happening: SYLVESTER STALLONE'S film "ROCKY" was a big hit with movie goers that year as well as GENE WILDER'S film "SILVER STREAK". Also, BURT REYNOLDS made waves at the box-office with the film "GATOR", which was the sequel to the 1973 hit "WHITE LIGHTNING". The rock groups STARLAND VOCAL BAND & ABBA both went to the #.1 spot on the BILLBOARD charts with the songs "AFTERNOON DELIGHT" & "DANCING QUEEN". Also, tv viewers were trying to see if "THE BIONIC WOMAN" would prove to be more powerful than "THE $6,000,000.00 MAN". But even with the war being over & all things were rotten somewhere according to the gut feelings of RADAR.

When he learned that 20TH CENTURY FOX was planning to release another horror film lined to the book of REVELATIONS. This film would be called "the omen", and it's director was RICHARD DONNER of the classic war drama tv series "COMBAT". It didn't make much sense to have this horror film make it appear that the dreaded one from the book of REVELATIONS would grow up being raised by an uncle in the military somewhere in the middle east as told in the holy scriptures. Instead the script for the film labeled him as being an orphan whom was adopted by a couple, in which the husband one ROBERT THORN was with the international diplomatic corps. ROBERT THORN was played by GREGORY PECK in the film. LEE REMICK was cast as MRS. THORN, and in the script it was her character whom learned that their adopted son was the dreaded one as fortold in the book of REVELATIONS!!! RADAR was steaming mad when he learned the movie was nearing completion. KLINGER & FLAGG were also mad. CHARLES, HAWKEYE, B.J. HUNNICUTT, TRAPPER, POTTER, & even MULCAHY hit the ceiling when they learned about it. Even SIDNEY FREEDMAN was boiling over with anger when he thought to himself silently "How can we keep this blasted movie from being shown in ITASCA COUNTY, period?" Right away LUTHER HEGGS wrote an editorial damning the film because of it's genre as well as subject matter. Even BRITT REID of the DAILY SENTINAL in DULUTH wrote a similar editorial. Quickly word spread throughout the county to all owners of all movie theatres in ITASCA COUNTY, and just like, with "Rosemary's Baby" they were told that to show "the omen" was a no-no. Then another meeting of the ITASCA COUNTY FILM BOARD was to be held at the residence of GOMEZ ADDAMS. The main agenda was to vote on rather "the omen" should be shown in the theatres of ITASCA COUNTY, or should it be banned just like, with "Rosemary's Baby" was the question before the committee? So the committee spokesperson MAUDE FRICKERT once again said "Ladies & Gentlemen. We're here this evening to decide rather or not to ban yet another horror film linked to the book of REVELATIONS in our holy bible from being shown in the theatres of our county? Now for those of us whom want to see it raise your left hand only. For those of you against it please raise your right hand only." & just like, before the majority raised their right hands. Then MAUDE FRICKERT replied "Hmmmm. It looks like "the omen" is hereby boycotted from being shown on movie theatre screens in ITASCA COUNTY, MINNESOTA: U.S.A. Meeting adjourned". That was that. 20TH CENTURY FOX was stunned to learn that ITASCA COUNTY theatres had banned showings of "the omen". They were just as stunned as PARAMOUNT was in 1968 when ITASCA COUNTY theatre owners banned "Rosemary's Baby" on the very same reasons.

Of course, FRANK BURNS being more than just a GREGORY PECK fan wanted to see "the omen" because of it's leading man a newcomer to HOLLYWOOD called DAVID WARNER.

To be continued...