PHOTO FEATURE
ONLINE PHOTO FEATURE, KOREA
THE REAL MASH - the 8055th
The 24th Infantry Division suffered 3,735 killed and 7,395 wounded during the Korean War. Many of those wounded had their lives saved at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital - a MASH unit.
Some of those 24th ID wounded may have even been treated at the 8055th MASH - the inspiration for the fictional 4077th MASH. The 4077th was the unit featured in the book, “MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors.”
The 1968 novel was written by Richard Hooker (the pen name for former military surgeon Dr. H. Richard Hornberger and writer W. C. Heinz. The book inspired the feature film MASH (1970) and TV series M*A*S*H, which ran from 1972 to 1983. Hornberger based his book on his experiences as a military surgeon and a captain with the 8055th MASH during the Korean War. The 8055th was also known as the “Double Nickel.”
Captain H. Richard Hornberger (left) was the author of the book, "MASH."
Hornberger was the model for Hawkeye Pierce, played by Alan Alda (in the television series) and by Donald Sutherland (in the film version of “M*A*S*H”). He is shown in the photo (below), in front of the real “Swamp,” during his tour of duty with the 8055th. The tent-based 8055th was located near the 38th parallel, which now divides North and South Korea. At many times the unit was about five to 10 miles behind the front lines.
MASH units were fully functional hospitals deployed in a combat area of operations. The units were first established in August 1945, and were deployed during the Korean War and later conflicts. MASH units were established near front lines to supply mobile and flexible military medical care.
The units contributed to making improvements in resuscitation and trauma care, patient transport, blood storage and distribution, patient triage, and evacuation. MASH onsite paramedic care and air ambulance system decreased post evacuation mortality from 40% in World War II to 2.5% in the Korean War. The U.S. Army deactivated the last MASH unit on February 16, 2006. The successor to the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital is the Combat Support Hospital (CSH or CaSH).
The fictional "4077th MASH" was considerably smaller than real MASH units. The fictional 4077th consisted of four surgeons, around 10 nurses, and 50 to 70 enlisted men. By comparison a real MASH, like the 8076th, had 10 medical officers, 12 nursing officers, and 89 enlisted soldiers of assorted medical and nonmedical specialties. On one occasion, the 8076th handled more than 600 casualties in a 24-hour period.
The following MASH units were active in Korea:
MASH Unit 8054th Evacuation Hospital
MASH Unit 8055th - Staffed at onset of hostilities, June 1950.
MASH Unit 8063rd - Staffed at onset of hostilities, June 1950.
MASH Unit 8076th - Staffed at onset of hostilities, June 1950.
MASH Unit 8209th - Originally 1st MASH, Arrived Korea September 1950.
MASH Unit 8225th - Originally 2nd MASH. Deactivated end of May 1952.
MASH Unit 8228th - Organized April 1952 to treat hemorrhagic fever patients.
Memoirs of Dr. Harold Secor
Dr. Harold Secor served as a surgeon in the 8055th MASH Army Unit in Korea. The famed M*A*S*H movie and television series was styled after this MASH unit. Dr. Richard Hornberger, author of M*A*S*H, was a surgeon in the 8055th around the end of Secor's tour of duty in Korea. This is part of a memoir found on the website Korean War Educator at http://koreanwar-educator.org/memoirs/secor_harold/index.htm.
"As a doctor, I had known death and dying stateside. But not on this scale. I guess we were all upset that all these young men were being injured and killed."
Dr. Harold Secor
Harold Secor arrived at the 8055th MASH unit around the first of July 1951, and he remained there for 15 months. During the first part of his tour, the two or three-acre unit was located near Uijongbu. Later, he was stationed in the Han River area. The unit was a compound of tents situated just south of the front line.
Secor said there were perhaps 30 corpsmen, ten doctors, ten nurses, one dentist, two service corps officers, and about 30 Koreans assigned to his MASH unit. Several jeeps, two ambulances, and three or four trucks were also assigned there. The 8055th was generally four to five miles behind the front lines.
"If they pulled back very far, we were on the enemy side," Secor recalled. "That happened at least once. We had a mine field in our front yard. There was always some danger, even from our own artillery firing over us. We had sand bags around the patient tents to stop stray bullets." Secor remembered that one day, "a bullet zinged into the mess tent, hit a post, and splashed into a cup of coffee." He said, "This was one of the accepted things that it didn't pay to dwell on."
Toward the end of Dr. Harold Secor’s stint in the 8055th (June 1951-September 1952), the moustached Dr. Harold Secor befriended a new arrival by the name of Dr. Richard Hornberger. There is little doubt that many years later, Hornberger remembered some of the war stories that he had heard from Dr. Secor when he first arrived in Korea.
While some Korean War veterans think that the M*A*S*H series trivialized the war, Secor said he enjoyed watching it and thinks that most veterans of the real MASH accept the fact that it was a fictional book.
"Hollywood's M*A*S*H was much smaller," he said, "But it maintained the same general spirit. I enjoyed watching M*A*S*H the movie and the television series. At the 8055th, we could all be funny at times, particularly one of our frequent visitors from the Indian Ambulance Corps. Captain Ready was always funny and upbeat. The first time we met him, he stuck his hand through the tent flap, waving a bottle of White Horse scotch. We responded with, "Hello stranger!" Some of the funny aspects of M*A*S*H made him laugh as he thought back on some of the antics he witnessed and participated in while at the the 8055th, but he also occasionally saw the serious side of a real MASH in the Hollywood production.
Secor believes that the personnel serving at the 8055th MASH in Korea were the models for a number of characters in Hornberger's book. He thinks that he and two other doctors in his tent were Hornberger's characters Hawkeye and BJ. The 8055th's very capable, blond-haired head nurse (Captain Dixon) was a Major just like the movie's Margaret "Hot Lips" Hoolahan, but she was not anyone's girlfriend.
"She never acted like the movie or series portrayed her, so she was probably embarrassed by the character," Secor said. "There were only American women as nurses and they were hard-workers. Only one of them was suspected of being a naughty street lady, but she was not a nurse from our unit."
There was a short, dedicated company clerk with Radar-like qualities in the real 8055th. Surgeon John Lyday was a real "Trapper John" type individual stationed in Korea. The 8055th also had about 12 gay men living in one tent. He said that one of them was "the queen of the bunch, who dressed as fancy as he could." Secor thinks that the cross-dressing Corporal Klinger was fashioned after this true-to-life person at the 8055th.
According to Secor, just like in the M*A*S*H movie and television series, some of the clothing and accessories worn by the MASH personnel in Korea was not exactly regulation. "People wore whatever was comfortable to work in. Some had golf shoes," he said. I wore cowboy boots."
Although Secor knows that he met Hornberger at the end of his tour of duty, he can't even remember what Hornberger looked like now. "I just remember that he was young and new, and I think that his writings and the movie and television shows helped America's image."
Read Secor's full memoir at the Korean War Educator.
http://koreanwar-educator.org/memoirs/secor_harold/index.htm.
Secor said there were perhaps 30 corpsmen, ten doctors, ten nurses, one dentist, two service corps officers, and about 30 Koreans assigned to his MASH unit. Several jeeps, two ambulances, and three or four trucks were also assigned there. The 8055th was generally four to five miles behind the front lines.
"If they pulled back very far, we were on the enemy side," Secor recalled. "That happened at least once. We had a mine field in our front yard. There was always some danger, even from our own artillery firing over us. We had sand bags around the patient tents to stop stray bullets." Secor remembered that one day, "a bullet zinged into the mess tent, hit a post, and splashed into a cup of coffee." He said, "This was one of the accepted things that it didn't pay to dwell on."
Toward the end of Dr. Harold Secor’s stint in the 8055th (June 1951-September 1952), the moustached Dr. Harold Secor befriended a new arrival by the name of Dr. Richard Hornberger. There is little doubt that many years later, Hornberger remembered some of the war stories that he had heard from Dr. Secor when he first arrived in Korea.
While some Korean War veterans think that the M*A*S*H series trivialized the war, Secor said he enjoyed watching it and thinks that most veterans of the real MASH accept the fact that it was a fictional book.
"Hollywood's M*A*S*H was much smaller," he said, "But it maintained the same general spirit. I enjoyed watching M*A*S*H the movie and the television series. At the 8055th, we could all be funny at times, particularly one of our frequent visitors from the Indian Ambulance Corps. Captain Ready was always funny and upbeat. The first time we met him, he stuck his hand through the tent flap, waving a bottle of White Horse scotch. We responded with, "Hello stranger!" Some of the funny aspects of M*A*S*H made him laugh as he thought back on some of the antics he witnessed and participated in while at the the 8055th, but he also occasionally saw the serious side of a real MASH in the Hollywood production.
Secor believes that the personnel serving at the 8055th MASH in Korea were the models for a number of characters in Hornberger's book. He thinks that he and two other doctors in his tent were Hornberger's characters Hawkeye and BJ. The 8055th's very capable, blond-haired head nurse (Captain Dixon) was a Major just like the movie's Margaret "Hot Lips" Hoolahan, but she was not anyone's girlfriend.
"She never acted like the movie or series portrayed her, so she was probably embarrassed by the character," Secor said. "There were only American women as nurses and they were hard-workers. Only one of them was suspected of being a naughty street lady, but she was not a nurse from our unit."
There was a short, dedicated company clerk with Radar-like qualities in the real 8055th. Surgeon John Lyday was a real "Trapper John" type individual stationed in Korea. The 8055th also had about 12 gay men living in one tent. He said that one of them was "the queen of the bunch, who dressed as fancy as he could." Secor thinks that the cross-dressing Corporal Klinger was fashioned after this true-to-life person at the 8055th.
According to Secor, just like in the M*A*S*H movie and television series, some of the clothing and accessories worn by the MASH personnel in Korea was not exactly regulation. "People wore whatever was comfortable to work in. Some had golf shoes," he said. I wore cowboy boots."
Although Secor knows that he met Hornberger at the end of his tour of duty, he can't even remember what Hornberger looked like now. "I just remember that he was young and new, and I think that his writings and the movie and television shows helped America's image."
Read Secor's full memoir at the Korean War Educator.
http://koreanwar-educator.org/memoirs/secor_harold/index.htm.
