The Late Captain Pierce The Late Captain Pierce "The Late Captain Pierce" is an episode from "M*A*S*H". It was the fourth episode of the fourth season and aired on October 3, 1975 (first-run) and April 6, 1976 (repeat). It was written by Glen Charles and Les Charles and directed by Alan Alda. Guest cast is Richard Masur as Lt. "Digger" Detmuller, Eldon Quick as Captain Pratt, Sherry Steffens as Nurse Able and Kellye Nakahara as Nurse Baker. A bureaucratic mistake leaves the army thinking that Hawkeye Pierce is dead, and he simultaneously enjoys the lack of responsibility that comes from being legally deceased, with
MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors is a 1968 novel by Richard Hooker (the pen name for former military surgeon Dr. H. Richard Hornberger and writer W. C. Heinz) which is notable as the inspiration for the feature film "MASH" (1970) and TV series "M*A*S*H". The novel is about a fictional U.S. Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in Korea during the Korean War. Hooker followed the novel with two sequels. Additionally, a series of sequels of rather different and lighter tone were credited to Hooker and William E. Butterworth, but actually written by