Army Closes Mash Unit That Inspired Show

CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea - Maj. Frank Burns came to the MASH party with his wife, not "Hotlips" Hoolihan. And Maj. Charles Winchester III wielded a cake knife instead of a doctor's scalpel.

But just like on TV, it was a little zany and a little sad today when the U.S. military closed the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital that inspired the movie "M # A # S # H" and the long-running television series of the same name.

"Today you are joining us in making history . . . saying farewell to America's MASH," unit commander Col. Ronald Maul said in deactivation ceremonies at this camp 35 miles south of Seoul.

Members of the audience wiped tears from their eyes as a color guard retired the unit's flag and an Army band played the theme song from the TV show that immortalized wisecracking but dedicated doctors and nurses who served at the front lines in the 1950-53 Korean War.

The show, filmed in Southern California, touched a chord with civilians and soldiers alike with its portrayal of wacky humanity in the midst of mayhem and some themes considered taboo in today's military.

"We were like a Boy Scout training film in terms of what's going on today," the show's writer-producer Larry Gelbart said of the fictional adulterous affair between Burns and nurse Hoolihan. "But we were pretty risque in our time."

The MASH was among only four left in the world; they are being phased out to make way for smaller, faster, more efficient medical

groups called Forward Surgical Teams.

Attending the ceremony, and later signing autographs and cutting the farewell cake, were three figures from the TV series, which ran from 1972 to 1983 and is still shown in reruns and dozens of languages around the world.

"You've been stupid in 100 languages," Gelbart told actor Larry Linville, who played the fraternizing, whining Burns, at a reception after the ceremony.

"I think it was popular because it placed people visibly in positions we are in every day - being asked to do something without the resources, being asked to do a task that seems hopeless," said David Ogden Stiers, who played the wealthy and often snooty Winchester.

The soldiers agreed.

"I'm a physician, and I like the fact that it showed the human side of doctors - that we get tired, that we have compassion for our patients," said Maul, of Canby, Ore.

"I'm a fan," said Col. Steve Wilson of Colesburg, Iowa, who can quote lines from the show. "Hair, uniform, discipline, fraternization - it poked fun at all the things that get people fired today. It gave me a chance to laugh."

Although Hollywood named its medical team the 4077th MASH, the real unit was the 43rd. It was 100 soldiers who staffed two operating rooms and a 36-bed hospital - often packing them up in 39 vehicles and moving them closer to the battlefields to provide lifesaving medical help.

Of the three MASH units remaining in the world, the two in the U.S. will be deactivated this year and the one in Bosnia will likely continue only as long as the U.S. mission stays there.

The unit deactivated today served in India, Burma, Algeria and China during World War II and on the Korean peninsula continuously since the Korean War.

During the war, the hospital and living quarters were tents that provided little protection from sweltering or freezing weather. Some of the bloodiest times saw doctors operating on more than 150 patients a day - once more than 300 in one day, officers said.

"It's humbling to be here," Linville said. "We were like a plastic representation of the real people - and these are the real people."