It’s the weekend and time, once again, for THE FIRST STREET JOURNAL’S version of Rule 5 Blogging. Robert Stacy McCain described Rule 5 as putting pictures of pretty women somewhat déshabillé, but, on this site, our Rule 5 Blogging doesn’t put up pictures of Sally Kellerman in her summer clothes, but women, in full military gear, serving their countries in the armed forces. The terribly sexist authors on this site celebrate strong women, women who can take care of themselves and take care of others, women who have been willing to put their lives on the line in some not-so-friendly places, women who truly do have the “We can do it!” attitude.
The movie and then following television show M*A*S*H were fiction, but they were fictions based on reality:
1st Lt. Cecilia Ann Sulkowski (standing, left) with her MASH unit in Pusan, South Korea, in 1950. MASH stands for mobile Army surgical hospital.
A real MASH nurse in Korea: A personal scrub in her tent after another day’s ordeal.
The 8055 MASH, a 60 bed hospital, was the first medical unit to arrive in Korea, in Pusan on July 6, 1950. In an airport Aid Station, 8055 MASH Army Nurse Capt. Phyllis LaConte and Flight Nurse Lt. Marguerite Liebold prepare wounded for travel to hospitals in Japan. August, 1950
Jean Kirnak was a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) nurse in the Korean War. She grew up in Eastern Montana, attended the University of Oregon on the GI Bill and met her future husband while skiing on Mount Hood. Her unit served at multiple locations near the front during the Korean War.
Nurses cooling down in Korea. How do you like those 1950s bathing suits?
It’s a good thing that I actually got this Week’s Rule 5 post done and pre-scheduled last weekend, ’cause I haven’t done much with the flu and all this weekend!
[...] ending with the always awesome The First Street Journal which has some different Rule 5, featuring military women: Rule 5 Blogging – MASH was real. And [...]
I must admit, I never did much like the TV show. Despite being a comedy, it often seemed too preachy, especially Alan Alda’s character. He was always going off on these speeches about how awful the war was, and making as if pacifism was the only moral position, etc., etc. I would loved to have seen the Colonel just hand him a rifle and send him to the front to experience some real fighting. That, at least, might have shut him up!
[...] Croatia, Elizabeta Burg, and First Street Journal continues their tributes to women in uniform with “M*A*S*H Was Real”. Randy’s Roudtable offers Kelly Weekers. EBL leads off with a TMI tweet, followed by Jessica [...]