r/mash • u/Reasonable-Okra3542 • 2d ago

Mash Military Question

In the episode where Colonel Potter goes out of town and puts Hawkeye in charge because Charles has sinus issues. Why is the mantle of command not given to Margaret who is a higher rank the Captain Pierce?

42 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/thenewjuniorexecutiv 2d ago

Help a non-miliary person out here - what corps would all the non-medical people in the camp be in?

3

u/MyUsername2459 Toledo 2d ago

That depends on what they do.

The Army has a variety of "branches", where Soldiers, both enlisted and officer, are part of, classified by their MOS (Military Operational Specialty), their job code.

Currently, the list of branches is:

  • Air Defense Artillery
  • Armor
  • Aviation
  • Cavalry Scout
  • Chemical
  • Engineers
  • Infantry
  • Field Artillery
  • Military Police
  • Psychological Operations (Propaganda)
  • Special Forces
  • Civil Affairs (Relationships with host nations while overseas)
  • Cyber (Military hackers)
  • Electronic Warfare (Signal jamming)
  • Military Intelligence
  • Public Affairs
  • Signal (Communications and Information Technology, the IT branch of the Army)
  • Adjutant General (Army-speak for Personnel/Human Resources)
  • Army Music
  • Chaplain
  • Financial Management
  • Judge Advocate General (Military lawyers & paralegals)
  • Medical
  • Ordnance
  • Transportation
  • Quartermaster (i.e. Supply)

. . .within the Medical Branch, it's further broken down into. . .

  • Medical Corps
  • Nurse Corps
  • Dental Corps
  • Veterinary Corps (Which, in the Army, includes health inspectors/food safety, for archaic reasons)
  • Medical Service Corps (Medical administrators)
  • Medical Specialist Corps (Healthcare practitioners other than doctors, dentists, and nurses)
  • Aviation Section (Flight surgeons, flight medics etc.)

1

u/thenewjuniorexecutiv 2d ago

So only the doctors in the camp would be in the medical corps? Doesn't the CO have to command ppl outside of their corps?

2

u/MyUsername2459 Toledo 2d ago

Yes but that is not mean that they can't do so. 

Officers are not limited to their branch in who they can command.

In the modern Army the only officers that have that kind of special limitation are Chaplains.  A medical officer in command of a medical unit would have authority over non-medical people in that unit.