Religion column by Randl Ockey: A lesson from the 4077th

Randl Ockey

Confession time again. In a previous article, I admitted to reading the Independent Record’s comics pages pretty regularly and occasionally discovering some great life lessons there.

Today I make another confession: I’m a fan of the television series “M*A*S*H,” especially the later episodes when the writing was so much better and the humor less bawdy. And like the IR’s comics, some of my favorite “M*A*S*H” episodes have proven to be the source of great life lessons.

Randl Ockey

One of those episodes is “Blood Brothers.” In the opening scene, we meet two injured soldiers, Sturgis and Lowry, in post-op. Lowry is the more severely injured of the two and Sturgis is pushing doctors Pierce and Hunnicutt for assurances that his buddy, Lowry, is going to survive his injuries. The doctors are evasive in their replies; Lowry is not doing well.

In the next scene, Colonel Potter (the commanding officer) is delivering what he anticipated would be welcome news to Father Mulcahy, the camp’s much-loved Catholic priest. Potter has just learned that James Cardinal Reardon, the “honcho padre himself,” is going to be visiting the 4077th

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