Because they seem to be drunk quite often.
shareThe only really answer: plot convenience. If they had a dozen doctors like a real Mash, they would be able to work around that and not having any wounded when the doctors are away, too.
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I blame autocorrect.
You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.
Because they usually wait until they are done for the day before drinking.
Let me know if I'm on your ignore list.
Thanx!
"Preventative Medicine", Season 7. Hawkeye spikes a war hungry Colonel's drink so he can get him to surgery to take out his appendix, even though its OK. Wants to keep him from sending troops to get killed against orders. During this, BJ is in the swamp probably sipping on martini's, for maybe an hour. We see him stirring another drink when Hawkeye comes in after the surgery. BJ says more wounded are expected. Gotta assume BJ had a nice little buzz going when the wounded came in right after that.
shareI've posted this before but here it is again: There is one episode that starts off with Hawkeye and B.J. playing some kind of drinking game they've made up: Chess+Gin+Go Fish. They are clearly drunk. You can hear it in B.J.'s voice. In the very next scene there are choppers coming in and both of them run out and start triage now sober as birds. I think they took some of those magic placebo pills they kept on hand.
shareThere's also the episode where Hawkeye is so hung-over that he has to leave the OR to go throw up, which makes Radar mad at him. I thought that was kind of a good scene to have in the show.
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I blame autocorrect.
You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.
Then there are tons more examples where they get drunk after surgery or at night.
Let me know if I'm on your ignore list.
Thanx!
There are varying levels of drunkeness, it is quite possible that they would have been at least mildly intoxicated quite often while performing surgery and checking on patients.
Sometimes a movie or tv show plot is so stupid that only the stupid can understand it.
I always wondered that, too. They always seemed to be drinking or drunk, and they could never be sure when choppers would be bringing wounded people, and when they did have wounded, they didn't have time to sober up before they operated, so did they operate drunk? And in a really army, would that much drinking have been allowed?
shareAnd in a really army, would that much drinking have been allowed?
A lot of soldiers in Nam used drugs, including heroin "casually" without ever becoming addicted. According to one report, about 5% were addicted and continued to use heroin after that came home. That's about the same as any other social group in the country.
Another report said that from 1970 on, there was an increase in drug use as morale fell and the US came closer to withdrawing and likened it to "alcohol use in previous wars."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1156114
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1032764
I don't think Vietnam is a good example of what was acceptable in the Korean War.
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I blame autocorrect.
You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.