MovieChat Forums > M*A*S*H (1972) Discussion > Two officers

Two officers

posted 8 years ago by wonderwoman-59537
6 replies | jump to latest

I was thinking about something , why are there two captains , majors an corporals?
Jessica

[–] iamtherealbg 8 years ago

Siths always travel in twos.

[–] wonderwoman-59537 8 years ago

what is a sith?

[–] iamtherealbg 8 years ago

Let's just say that they come from a galaxy far, far away.

[–] dawnbaxter34 8 years ago

It's 'sis' for a person with a lisp

Is it cruel that the word 'lisp' has the letter 's'?

[–] ExplorerDS6789 8 years ago

I guess when designating the main characters, they decided two of each would even things out. Pun intended. In Season 1, they had two additional captains: Ugly John and Spearchucker. As far as majors, I don't imagine a MASH unit needed more than two. The second in-command (Burns, and later Winchester), and the head nurse would be an officer, and Margaret worked her way through the ranks to become major.
As far as corporals, there were tons, but we only focused on Radar and Klinger.

[–] crockett_john 8 years ago

I think it just kind of worked out like that. As you pointed out, there were two majors and four captains in the beginning. Henry was ineffective as a commander and making Margaret and Frank both majors matched the movie, but also made them higher in rank than the protagonist captains.

There were also a ton of lieutenants. Eventually, Father Mulcahey got promoted to captain. Radar left and Klinger got promoted. I think it's incidental that there happened to be a pair of each at one point.

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