Among my all time favorite books, movies and television shows is one that transcends all three media. It’s M*A*S*H, the classic story of the 4077 Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) during the Korean War. Many people do not realize the Mississippi ties to the events upon which the original book was based.
M*A*S*H was first a book published in 1968 by Dr. Richard Hornberger in collaboration with sports writer W.C. Heinz, under the pen name Richard Hooker. The book became a movie in 1970 and the award-winning and long running television series in 1972. Though a fictional story, it is based on Hornberger’s experiences while serving as a surgeon with the 8055 Army Mobile Surgical Hospital during the Korean War.
The 8055 was a unit with strong Mississippi ties. When Capt. Hornberger served with it during 1951 and 1952 the unit had 25 doctors, 30 nurses and technical and supporting personnel numbering about 150. The commanding officer was Major Henry Holleman, a doctor from Columbus. Holleman had, in addition to his private practice, been commander of the 31st Division Artillery Brigade Medical Detachment of the Mississippi National Guard. Also serving the 8055 was Dr. Agrippo Kellum of Tupelo, and Lt. Claude Lollar of Columbus, who was an administrative staff officer.
According to Dr. Holleman, the idea for a MASH came out of the post World War II military medical studies. Its concept was to be a highly mobile surgical hospital in tents that would be located with in two miles of the front lines and move with the battle front. Severely wounded soldiers would be brought in by helicopter drastically cutting the down the time between injury and treatment.
The 8055 showed just how effective a MASH could be in saving lives. Dr. Holleman wrote that during his one-year tour as commanding officer of the unit over 5,000 wounded were treated with a survival rate of 97%. I remember Dr. Holleman having only praise for the professionalism of the units doctors, nurses and staff.
While Dr. Holleman put real names on characters portrayed in M*A*S*H, he said there was no nurse called “Hot Lips.” One of the stories he told reminded me of one of the television episodes. He told of the time he and another officer were going to Panmunjon in a jeep and took the wrong fork at an unmarked road junction. After a while they came upon some marines in fortified foxholes. He said he stopped the jeep and asked the marines where they were and was quickly told at the front and only about 300 yards from the enemy lines. Holleman said they quickly got back in the jeep and as they drove off the enemy “saluted” them with an artillery shell that exploded nearby.
In M*A*S*H, Duke Forrest, a southerner, Hawkeye Pierce, from Maine, and Trapper John all shared a tent known as “The Swamp.” In the real 8055 MASH Holleman said that there actually was a tent named “The Swamp” and it was shared by doctors Kellum, Hornberger, and Jim Dickerson, a New York thoracic surgeon.
The novel M*A*S*H opens in November 1951. Dr. Holleman had assumed command of the 8055 in September 1951. Hornberger in the forward to M*A*S*H wrote of the real life MASH surgeons. He felt that they were “perhaps too young, to be doing what they were doing” but “achieved the best results up to that time in the history of military surgery.”
Although the 4077 MASH on television was often shown performing cutting edge medical practices, few viewers ever paid attention to that. In real life, the 8055 MASH was actually on the cutting edge of trauma care medicine. The unit pioneered both triage procedures and vascular surgery at a trauma center. It also developed a way in which to stabilize damaged kidneys until a patient could be transferred to the only Army hospital in Korea with an “artificial Kidney,” the prototype of present day dialysis.
As enjoyable a book, movie and television program as M*A*S*H was, it in its own way recognized the heroic and significant work of an actual army MASH unit, the 8055. It was a unit with strong Mississippi ties that was commanded by Columbus surgeon Dr. Henry Holleman, who loved to fish just as Col. Henry Blake did in the book, movie and television series.
In 1997, Dr. Holleman wrote a fascinating autobiography titled “An Unbroken Chain.”
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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