Despite being in a warzone MASH’s Hawkeye always refused to carry a gun, but the one time he was forced to would underline something about his character. Just like the Robert Altman movie before it, the MASH TV series began life as a two-hander between the characters of Hawkeye (Alan Alda) and Trapper John (Wayne Rogers). However, as time went by, it became clear Alda was the show’s breakout, while Trapper’s role gradually diminished. This is why Rogers quit MASH after the third season, while Alda took on a larger creative role.
Alda went on to write and direct many episodes and helped evolve the sitcom into more of a dramedy. MASH ran for 11 seasons in total, with Alda being the only actor to appear in every episode. Some critics felt the series lost its comedic spark in later years due to this tilt towards drama, but the mix of comedy and darkness is why it resonated so deeply. While Hawkeye may have been a jokester with a healthy disregard for authority, this was often shown to be a mask to hide his fear and disgust over the war itself.
Hawkeye’s hatred for war and violence was oft-repeated throughout MASH and often led to clashes between him and Major Burns (Larry Linville). In the season 3 episode “Officer of the Day,” Hawkeye is placed in charge of the camp, with Burns handing him a pistol he’s supposed to carry whilst on duty. After the two get into a heated exchange when Hawkeye refuses to wear it, the surgeon launches into an extended list of the things he’s willing to carry that aren’t a pistol.
Being a surgeon in a warzone means Hawkeye is given constant exposure to the damage bullets and bombs do to the human body, especially in MASH’s meatball surgery scenes. This is why he has no interest in even wearing a pistol since he’s always aware of the harm they can inflict. Even the thought of firing a gun and inflicting harm on another human being is repulsive to Hawkeye, so the sight of him holding a firearm throughout MASH’s run is extremely rare.
MASH season 5 saw Hawkeye forced to break his no gun rule when he and Potter (Harry Morgan) take a trip to a Korean clinic. This takes them through some dangerous terrority, and Potter insists Hawkeye takes a gun for his own safety. On the way back, their jeep is fired upon and they are forced to take cover in a nearby ditch. Potter shoots back but quickly runs out of ammo, and Hawkeye is ordered to shoot back at the enemy during the ambush.
Naturally, Hawkeye – who at this point is drunk from the booze he and Potter were sipping – delivers some more snarky gags before flatly refusing to shoot. Finally, “Hawkeye Get Your Gun” lives up to the title, with the surgeon firing his gun into the air before he also runs out of bullets. Thankfully, this appears to have scared the attacking soldiers off, and Hawkeye and Potter then wobble their way back to the 4077th with their canteen of booze.
Potter and Hawkeye might have been in a life-or-death situation, but their drunken giggling doesn’t make it feel that way. The most dramatic part of this sequence is Potter’s frustration that Hawkeye won’t fire back, even though they’re pinned down. What’s notable about this MASH scene is that even in the face of death, Hawkeye refused to shoot back and kill another person.
He was willing to fire into the air, but not at another human being. This isn’t a shocker given Hawkeye’s pacifism, but it’s nice to see that even under fire, he held firm to his beliefs. There was something fundamentally wrong about seeing Alda’s Hawkeye holding a gun, let alone firing it. MASH season 5 is the only time the character can be seen shooting a weapon, and even that felt like an act of defiance.
This all goes back to Hawkeye’s season 3 speech about the things he’s willing to carry, which evidently includes not carrying the weight of taking a life too. He and Potter got lucky during this MASH season 5 misadventure, and it’s interesting that despite the show moving towards drama in later seasons, it never explored a story where Hawkeye was forced to kill in self-defense. That said, this may have been a touch too bleak for the CBS sitcom.