5 O’Clock Charlie

"5 O’Clock Charlie" was the 26 episode of the M*A*S*H television series, and second of season two. The episode aired on September 22, 1973. For six weeks, an ammunition depot near the camp has been the target of a punctual but inept North Korean bomber pilot. Every day at 5:00 he flies overhead and attempts to hit the depot with a single hand-thrown bomb. "5 O'Clock Charlie" has been so reliably unsuccessful that the denizens of the 4077th have b... more

"5 O’Clock Charlie" was the 26 episode of the M*A*S*H television series, and second of season two. The episode aired on September 22, 1973. For six weeks, an ammunition depot near the camp has been the target of a punctual but inept North Korean bomber pilot. Every day at 5:00 he flies overhead and attempts to hit the depot with a single hand-thrown bomb. "5 O'Clock Charlie" has been so reliably unsuccessful that the denizens of the 4077th have begun a betting pool based on how far away from the target his bomb will land. Only Frank and Margaret regard "Charlie" as a serious threat. Frank requests an anti-aircraft gun, and General Clayton (Herb Voland) comes to the camp to assess the situation. Clayton, who has placed the ammo dump near the hospital in the belief that the enemy will not dare bomb it (a tactic he says he learned from the Germans), is initially skeptical of the need for a gun; on the next raid, though, Charlie destroys not the ammo dump but Gen. Clayton's jeep. He... less