Talk about right out of central casting for M*A*S*H, complete with the Dodge WC-54 Ambulance and Bell 47/H-13 Sioux chopper, complete with its iconic “soap bubble” canopy.
Official period caption: “Personnel and equipment needed to save a man’s life are assembled at HQs of the 8225th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, Korea. October 14, 1951.”
Signal Corps Photo by Cpl. Charles Abrahamson. (Army) NARA FILE # 111-SC-382662 WAR & CONFLICT BOOK #: 1457
The unit, formed originally as the 2nd MASH, arrived in Korea on 15 October 1950 and established operations near Seoul to support U.S. and United Nations forces. They typically operated 15-20 miles behind the “front,” which translated to a roughly hour-long ambulance or jeep ride, a time cut down to minutes if a helicopter was available.
Assigned to support a division-sized unit with 60 beds (later rising to 200 by 1953), 10 medical officers, 12 nursing officers, and 89 enlisted soldiers, a MASH unit was small and compact, but could quickly process and stabilize hundreds of casualties between the battalion aid station and larger brick-and-mortar hospitals behind the lines and back in Japan/Hawaii.
8076th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) unit in Chunchon, Korea, on July 29, 1951.
They could “bug out” if needed– and they often had to. Some units moved dozens of times with the movement of the fluid main line of resistance (MLR), with the 8055th notably shifting location on 14 occasions and the 8063rd a remarkable 23 times.
An operation is performed on a wounded soldier at the 8209th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, twenty miles from the front lines. 4 August 1952. 111-SC-409689
The first in Korea, the 8055th MASH, arrived in Pusan on 6 July 1950 from Japan, while the 8076th MASH arrived on 25 July 1950. The 8228th arrived shortly after.
The 1st Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (later redesignated the 8209th MASH in May 1951) arrived in Korea at Inchon on 26 September 1950 to support the 7th Infantry Division and was set up at a damaged schoolhouse in Hungnam before being evacuated aboard the SS Towanda Victory on 18 December 1950.
The six Army MASH units were famously aided by 1st MAW VMO squadrons and four aeromedical helicopter evacuation units, which began arriving in January 1951: the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Helicopter Detachments, with the 1st later becoming the 8190th Army Unit, the 2nd the 8191st, the 3rd the 8192nd, and the 4th the 8193rd Army Unit.
A Marine Bell 47 H-13 Sioux. Official period caption: “Korea – Aircraft – Helicopters and Med-Evac. Litter Bearer. This Bell helicopter has been used extensively in Korea to evacuate the wounded. The compact craft, capable of landing almost anywhere, carries two litters, one on each side of the. transparent “cabin.” Signal Corps # 127-GR-211-A132545. National Archives Identifier 74244079
Bell 47 H-13 Sioux in action. Official period caption: “Helicopter take off–A helicopter takes off for a front-line mission to aid wounded personnel and deliver them to medical stations and hospitals in Korea. The ‘copter is part of a Marine Observation Squadron of the First Marine Aircraft Wing.” Signal Corps # 127-GK-13E-A346324. National Archives Identifier 505633285
Despite all the difficulties encountered, the first three operational Army air ambulance detachments evacuated 5,040 casualties during the first 12 months of operation, logging a total of 4,421 hours of flying time. One pilot (1st Lt Joseph Bowler) logged over 800 evacs during just 10 months.
Of the 23,000 wounded soldiers brought to forward-deployed MASH units in Korea, 18,000 arrived by Army H-13 or Hiller H-23 Raven helicopters. One Eighth Army surgeon said that of 750 critically wounded soldiers evacuated on 20 February 1951 during the Chinese offensive, half would have died without the use of helicopters.
As shown in the film and TV show, many of the surgeons were drafted under the Doctor’s Draft Act of 1950, with an estimated 90 percent of MASH doctors by 1952 being draftees, while 540 female nursing officers served tours of duty on the Korean peninsula, the latter earning 9 Legions of Merit, 120 Bronze Stars, and 173 Commendation Ribbons.
In February 1953, the six Army MASH units there were reorganized as the 43rd, 44th, 45th, 46th, 47th, and 48th Surgical Hospital (Mobile Army), or the far less catchy “SHMA.”
In terms of “meatball surgery,” the MASHs excelled, with one treating 21,408 patients in a single year, one processing 600 patients in a day, and another performing 244 operations in 24 hours. It is often said that, as long as a wounded soldier reached a MASH unit, their odds of survival rose to 97.5 percent. Korean War doctors also reduced the amputation rate resulting from vascular injury to 20.5 percent from 49.6 percent during World War II.
