Chapter 4 Summary

The next few weeks after Trapper John is identified calm down. There are long periods of boredom interspersed with intense periods of casualties. The surgeons work as long and hard as they can until they have to sleep out of fatigue. Tent Number Six, the home of Duke, Hawkeye and Trapper is a center of social activity and is called The Swamp. Swamp parties are consistently held and sometimes frequented by the Catholic chaplain, Father John Patrick Mulcahy, one of a kind. Those in The Swamp have loose religious affiliations, which leads to Mulcahy being nicknamed Dago Red. He is often an interesting conversation partner, who has wisdom, understanding, compassion, and tolerance.

In surgery, Dago Red is often called in when someone is dying to perform last rites. Sometimes the patients recover and Dago thinks this is no mistake. Duke is somewhat bothered...