"Dear Peggy" was the 82nd episode of the ''

M*A*S*H ''M*A*S*H'' (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American media franchise consisting of a series of novels, a film, several television series, plays, and other properties, and based on the semi-autobiographical fiction of Richard Hooker. The ...

'' television series, and the tenth episode of season four. The episode aired on November 14, 1975.

Plot

The episode is told from

B.J. Hunnicutt This is a list of characters from the ''M*A*S*H'' franchise, covering the various fictional characters appearing in the novel ''MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors'' and its sequels, the 1970 MASH (film), film adaptation of the novel, and t ...

's perspective as he writes a letter home to his wife, Peggy, during a quiet period at the camp. B.J. describes life at the hospital from his viewpoint of someone who has recently been assigned there and tells Peggy of Hawkeye Pierce's antics, including his effort to set a world record for the number of personnel stuffed into a jeep, and a visit to the hospital by Col. Hollister, a divisional chaplain and

Father Mulcahy This is a list of characters from the ''M*A*S*H'' franchise, covering the various fictional characters appearing in the novel '' MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors'' and its sequels, the 1970 film adaptation of the novel, and the televis ...

's overbearing superior. Col. Hollister coerces Fr. Mulcahy into writing a letter to the parents of a critically ill soldier named Private Davis, claiming that the soldier will be okay, despite Mulcahy's normally cautious procedure of waiting until the patient is clearly on the way to recovery.

Klinger Klinger may refer to: * Klinger (surname), a list of people with the surname * Corporal Klinger, a character from ''M*A*S*H'' * Klinger (horse), owned by the US Army * Klinger (band), an Australia band from 1996 to 2003 * Klinger Ridge, Marie Byrd ...

makes numerous attempts to escape from the camp including dressing as an elderly Korean woman, trying to sail down a nearby river using an inflatable raft and camouflaging himself as a bush. (Exclaiming to Hawkeye and B.J., "I would have made it if it hadn't been for that dog!"). Early on in surgery, B.J. saves Davis' life (who Major Frank Burns had initially operated on and was ready to give up on) by using

cardio-pulmonary resuscitation Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure consisting of chest compressions often combined with artificial ventilation in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore sponta ...

. Later, it is found during Post-Op that Frank failed to remove all shrapnel from Davis' internals as his IV saline is bloody. Hawkeye has to re-operate on Davis and removes the rest of the shrapnel, saving his life once again. Colonel Potter orders that local Korean personnel be trained to serve in the recovery ward and this requires them to learn English. Frank Burns and Hawkeye take turns administering the lessons, with Frank teaching them anti-Communist slogans and Hawkeye teaching them to insult Frank.

Historical references

The song that Father Mulcahy is playing on the piano in the Officers' Club at the beginning and end of the episode is

Bethena "Bethena, A Concert Waltz" (copyright registered March 6, 1905) is a composition by Scott Joplin. It was the first Joplin work since his wife Freddie's death on September 10, 1904, of pneumonia, ten weeks after their wedding. At the time the com ...

Scott Joplin Scott Joplin ( 1868 – April 1, 1917) was an American composer and pianist. Because of the fame achieved for his ragtime compositions, he was dubbed the "King of Ragtime." During his career, he wrote over 40 original ragtime pieces, one ra ...

. Hawkeye talks about watching Klinger eat a fresh egg he won in a poker game and facetiously says that for a moment, it evoked the air of "fine dining at Nedick's in Grand Central Station." Nedick's was a real-life fast food chain during the early and mid-twentieth century.

External links

* {{M*A*S*H episodes M*A*S*H season 4 episodes 1975 American television episodes