Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce (Alan Alda) took charge of M*A*S*H as its central and comedic character during a time of war. Behind the war medic were buried childhood memories that made their way into a one-off episode’s storyline.
Fans of the beloved sitcom may have noticed that small details surrounding Hawkeye’s childhood and past differentiate here and there. The character is based on Richard Hooker’s 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors; the show changed a few things about where he came from.
As the series ran for 11 seasons, his backstory was heavily retconned and originally had him raised with his mother and sister. The writers later established that his mother actually died at a young age, and Hawkeye was raised by his father. One detail about Hawkeye that fans may have forgotten in M*A*S*H is that he experienced a traumatic event as a child.
By the ninth season, Hawkeye’s charismatic, wise-cracking, and easy-going demeanor cracked when a buried childhood trauma began to physically manifest under the pressures of war. The episode “Bless You, Hawkeye” revealed that the army medic almost drowned as a child, but his mind made him remember it in another way.
The episode is about a small group of wounded soldiers arriving at camp in the middle of the night. Among them is a soldier drenched in water after falling into muddy water. Hawkeye later begins sneezing uncontrollably, and no medication helps until it soon progresses to swollen eyes and itchiness.
Colonel Potter (Harry Morgan) soon suspects Hawkeye’s condition is psychosematic and calls Dr. Freedman (Allan Arbus) for help. They deduce that he’s set up a “mental landmine” to protect himself from past trauma and have him talk about his childhood in Maine.
Hawkeye begins talking about his older cousin, Billy, who was like a brother he never had. Dr. Freedman soon begins to notice certain physicalities that Hawkeye is projecting without realizing it and talks about going out on a boat to fish at a local swimming hole. His memory of that day has him explaining how he fell into the lake while reaching for more bait and his cousin saving him from drowning.
Dr. Freedman realizes Hawkeye has made several references to water and mentioned “smelling like a wet burlap sack.” In recollecting how he fell, Hawkeye bursts into sobs, realizing the truth. His cousin pushed him in while roughhousing and saved him, but chastised him for being clumsy.
“He pushed me in the water, and I hated him so much for that. And all I could do was thank him,” said the character.
Hawkeye’s complex feelings of loathing his cousin for almost drowning him and his inherent love for him had his mind alter the memory to keep his cousin as a good person.
M*A*S*H would later bring up Hawkeye’s past in Season 10 when he and others take shelter in a cave to escape artillery fire. The cave causes his claustrophobia to manifest due to his past trauma that he carried into adulthood.
Related: Who Is Still Alive From ‘M*A*S*H’ More Than 50 Years Later?
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