- A wounded cowboy is itching to get back to the states to keep his marriage intact, but his request is denied. Henry becomes the target of a mad bomber.
- Henry is in an incredibly crotchety mood; neither Trapper nor Hawkeye can kid him out of it. When one of the chopper pilots, Cowboy, is wounded for the umpteenth time, it is not very serious, but Hawkeye sympathizes with him. Cowboy has been expecting a letter from his wife that is long overdue; Hawkeye tries to talk Henry into allowing Cowboy a short leave. Henry is not himself: he sides with Frank, refusing to allow Trapper borrow his jeep, he snaps at Radar and he denies Cowboy's leave. Strange incidents begin to befall Henry (i.e. the latrine blows up with Henry in it). It is driving the entire camp crazy trying to avoid being part of Henry's next accident. Everyone wants their CO to take a trip, for his safety and their sanity. But, will Henry really be safer away from the 4077?—LA-Lawyer
- "The Cowboy" (Billy Green Bush), a chopper pilot whose nickname stems from his gun holster belt and cowboy hat and boots, arrives at the 4077th with a shoulder wound. Hawkeye is asked to perform surgery on Cowboy and to take out the bullet from his shoulder. He is anxiously awaiting a letter from his wife, who he fears is leaving him for another man ("She's probably off with some rodeo rider; she's a sucker for a 10-gallon hat!"). Frank wont allow Trapper to use an army jeep to take a nurse on a date. Trapper gets into a furious argument with Frank, which brings Blake into the picture. Blake says that army jeeps are not a personal taxi service and asks Trapper to find a different mode of transportation.
The Cowboy wants to be sent home before his marriage completely falls apart, but Henry refuses, stating that the Cowboy's wound is not serious enough to merit a discharge. Henry says everyone has problems back home. Even he has a wife and a bunch of credit cards that are overdue. The guys feel Henry Blake is going sour on them. The guys decide to give him some relaxation to take the pressure off him. Bad luck then follows Henry wherever he goes: he gets shot at while golfing with Hawkeye (They think that the North Koreans are shooting at them.. but the shot came from the direction of the camp), his tent gets flattened by a driver-less jeep, and the latrine is blown up with him inside it. Deciding to leave camp for a while (since he is bringing down the morale of the unit), he is nearly killed when his desk chair explodes. Henry initially thinks Trapper is behind this, as Henry refused the use of the army jeep to him for his date. Radar starts to maintain his distance from Henry as he is afraid of being caught in an accident too.
The Cowboy offers to fly Henry to Seoul since a jeep would take more than half a day, then tries to push him out of the chopper in midair. At the same time, Hawkeye and Trapper realize that these "accidents" have been the Cowboy's attempts to get revenge against Henry for not sending him home (They find gunpowder and detonators in cowboys's stuff in post-op). Cowboy is an excellent shot, who can shoot a moving snake at 50 feet, going at full gallop. Radar brings a letter from the Cowboy's wife, and Hawkeye and Trapper inform him over the radio that it has finally arrived.
The letter is postmarked Reno, Nevada, which sends the two doctors into a panic, given Reno's reputation (at the time) for quick and painless divorce proceedings. The letter also begins with "Dear John", the cliched opening of a letter to a man whose heart is about to be broken. It turns out, however, that the Cowboy's real name is John Hodges and that he does live in Reno. In the letter, his wife explains that she had felt herself tested by temptation, but her love for him has allowed her to overcome it. The Cowboy brings Henry safely back to camp and receives a month's stateside leave.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content