Tokyo

Life in Japan was not that bad if you could forget why you were here. Col. Potter finished his report of the injured soldiers from the last week. He had to collect the data from the 3 M.A.S.H. units in Korea. Sometimes he was depressed. That men were dying in war was nothing new to him. But if you have to add the numbers of the injured and dead people and create a summary for some generals, you become afraid of the numbers that you calculate. Those weren't only numbers; for each number there will be some people worrying about or, even worse, mourning for someone.

He also had to monitor the medical units a little bit. Officially this was the job of his superiors, but they knew only what he told them. The 8063rd M.A.S.H. was under command of Col. Clark, a Regular Army officer. There were lots of complaints about his leadership. He couldn't understand these problems. Most of the people in these units have been drafted, but Clark treats them like they are also Regular Army, demanding respect because of his rank. 'Well,' he thought, 'authority doesn't have much to do with rank.' He learned this long ago from his old commander in World War I. He taught him that people should be treated without humiliating their honor and pride. No matter what your rank was, never touch the dignity of other people. On the other hand, there was a completely different situation at the 4077th. The commanding officer, Lt. Col. Blake - a draftee doctor - had lots of troubles with complaints about his missing abilities to lead a unit. Mainly these complaints came from a Major Burns who was sometimes supported by the head nurse, Major Houlihan. All the other folks in this unit were pleased with their commander. 'But that is not my business,' said Potter to himself. One of his better jobs was watching for soldiers who have got enough points to be sent home. And speaking of that, at the 4077th there were two lucky guys. The famous Lt. Col. Henry Blake and one of the surgeons, a Capt. McIntyre, have passed the limit. After Blake has left, this noisy Major Burns will have the chance to show how he could do better than Blake. Potter didn't think much about these things now because that was something not unusual in the army. If he had known how much these things would affect him in the near future ...

 In all those years he had spent in the army he had experienced a lot. But every time you think you've seen it all, there was something new. For instance there were countless stories about a general who was inspecting a lot of units and all of these units reported (not officially, of course) that this guy was really nuts. His senseless orders were already legendary. It was a big surprise for Potter when he finally met this army clown at a dinner party. It was amazing, this guy looked exactly like Potter. General Bartford Hamilton Steele´s only reaction was "How did you get promoted to Colonel with that kind of face?" The Colonel wasn't offended. This behavior did fit into the picture. After an incident at the 4077th M.A.S.H. the Army decided that enough was enough. They sent General Steele back stateside so he could do no more harm.

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