AN: My school does this funny thing where seniors get two free weeks between the end of school and graduation, so naturally I spent that time marathoning M*A*S*H. I'm not entirely sure where the idea for this story came from, but it got stuck in my head and I ended up writing up a fair amount of it in just a few hours. It will be fairly OC-centric, focusing on my OC Sam Wilson and her experiences with the Korean War and everyone's favorite MASH unit. I'm hoping to at some point develop this into a Radar/OC romance, but that it going to be a long slow process, and I want to focus on building their friendship first, as well as Sam's relationships with all the other MASHers. Updates may be a bit slow at times, as I do have other fics I'm working on, as well as preparations for college and starting work as an EMT recruit at my local fire department, so the summer looks to be a bit busy. But I promise to try my very best to update at least every couple of weeks - I've got tons of ideas and I really love this story, and I hope to be able to share it with all of you lovely people in its entirety!

Enjoy!

Edit: Altered the formatting for one of Sam's letters to better indicate the crossed-out section Radar mentions later. The site won't let me include a horizontal dash through the words, so I italicized the portion that she would have crossed out. (8/29/2016)

Disclaimer: Anything thing you recognize from M*A*S*H or any other source is the property of its rightful owner. I lay no claim on the characters, settings, plotlines, etc. found in M*A*S*H, although I am honored to have the opportunity to work with them throughout this fanfiction (emphasis on the "fan" part). All I own is my OCs and whatever original plotwork is related to them and their stories.

October 15, 1950

Dear Walter,

I was very happy to receive your address. It's always great to meet another Superman fan. Most of my friends think I'm weird for liking comics, so I don't really get to talk to other fans all that often, so something like this could be very fun.

I've never had a penpal before, so I don't know exactly how this sort of thing works. I suppose I'll begin by telling you a little bit about myself. I'm a seventeen year old girl and I live with my family in a little house in Boston. I like comics (obviously), movies, and baseball. I'm in my senior year of high school, so I'm spending a lot of time on that. I have four pets: two hamsters (Benny and Amanda), a bunny (Flopsy), and a goat (Blueberry). My favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz, and my favorite book is Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

Now I have some questions for you. First of all, what is it like in Korea? I know a couple of guys over there, and their letters make it sound pretty miserable sometimes. What do you do there? Also, what do you like to do for fun? What movies and books do you like? Where are you from? What's your family like? What are you friends like? How would you describe yourself?

I hope that this letter reaches you, as I've heard the mail can be somewhat unreliable over there. If you don't want to write back to me, that's fine, but I'd like to hear from you and I'll be awaiting your reply.

Sincerely,

Sam Wilson

October 20, 1950

Dear Sam,

I was very happy to receive your address too. Don't worry, I don't think you're weird for liking Superman, and I like talking about it too. I haven't had a penpal before either, but it seems to me like your letter was fine for this sort of thing.

As for me, I'm nineteen years old and a corporal in the United States Army (I'm also a boy). I'm from Ottumwa, Iowa, where I live on the farm I grew up on with my mom and my Uncle Ed. My father died when I was really little, so he's not really around anymore. Right now, I work for a MASH unit, which stands for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. I don't really get to do a whole lot of the medical stuff, mostly just carrying stretchers and stuff like that sometimes, but I actually get to help run the camp itself as the company clerk. This means that I have to make a lot of phone calls and make sure that all the mail and supplies get where they're supposed to go and keep all the files and forms in order. It's not too nice over here, honestly, but we're far enough from the front around here that it's not too bad most of the time. I imagine if I was stuck on the front lines with all the other guys that things would be much worse.

We do lots of different stuff for fun around here. Sometimes there are movies in the mess tent, but a lot of the time everyone's either already seen them, or they're training films from the army, or they're not too good, which is all about the same thing. A lot of the people over here, the doctors and nurses and people like that, can get pretty crazy, though. When we have wounded everyone is very professional-like, but when we don't there's not much stuff to do around here.

A couple of the doctors, Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper McIntyre, they like to play pranks on their roommate, Major Frank Burns. The major doesn't like them very much, but he consoles himself with the company of the head nurse Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan, also a major. There's also another interesting guy, Corporal Max Klinger, who likes dressing up in dresses in order to try to get out of the army on a Section 8 (that means that he's considered to be too crazy to be in the army, which I think is kinda funny because there are a whole lot of nutty generals over here and no one gives them a Section 8 even though some of them could really use one). Other than that, a lot of people like playing poker and getting drunk, but I'm not really into those sorts of things, except for the poker, because there was a game last night and I won twenty dollars on a straight flush!

As for movies, I like the Wizard of Oz too. And I've never read Of Mice and Men, is it good? I don't really get to read all that much, on account of being so busy running the outfit.

And don't worry about my not wanting to write to you, I really do! One of the most fun things around here is getting mail, and even more fun is writing it. I hope that you still want to be penpals with me, as I'd like very much like to keep being penpals with you. I hope that you write back, and I'll be waiting for your reply.

Sincerely,

Walter "Radar" O'Reilly

PS – By the way, what do you do for fun all the way back in Boston?

October 31, 1950

Dear Walter (or would you prefer if I called you Radar?),

Wow, that sounds like a fascinating place to be! Things tend to be pretty boring around here, although I guess on the bright side we're far enough from the front that things are pretty quiet all of the time.

For fun, I actually do a lot of dancing. I've been taking ballet since I was little, and I'm hoping to get into somewhere good like Juilliard next year (they don't have a dance program right now but they're starting one in the fall). I actually just got to start dancing again after a few months off; I had to take a break because I landed a jump wrong and broke one of the bones in my foot (more specifically, I fractured the fifth metatarsal of my left foot) and I needed to let it recover. It's tough getting back into the swing of things, so I've been spending extra time practicing. I also teach a class for beginning dancers a few times a week.

Other than that, like I said, there's school. I'm a cheerleader and a field hockey player, and I've got a lot of friends to go to parties with. I also spend a lot of time with my brother's friends, who are the ones who mostly tease me about reading comics, haha. I also work in my dad's office sometimes – he's a doctor and my mom's a nurse, and I'm learning to be a nurse, too.

Do you dance at all? It doesn't have to be ballet, it could be anything. And what was it like growing up on a farm? I've always lived in the city, but I've always thought that the country seemed like a really nice place to be.

Write back when you can!

Sincerely,

Sam

PS – Why do they call you Radar?

PPS – Of Mice and Men is a very good book, and I would definitely recommend it, although I have to warn you that it gets pretty sad at the end.

November 8, 1950

Dear Sam,

You can call me either Walter or Radar, whichever one you like better. Mostly people over here call me Radar, on account of how I always seem to know about things before they happen. It's very helpful when we get wounded coming in and I can let everyone know before they normally would have. My family still calls me Walter, though.

And I do dance sometimes, but I'm not very good. One of the nurses, Nurse Kellye, has been giving me lessons, and I'm getting better. I don't do any sort of ballet, though, although I think it's very cool and neat that you do! I asked some people where Juilliard is, as I have never heard of it before, and they tell me that it's a very good school for dance and music and things like that. Would you consider yourself to be a very good dancer?

In answer to your other question, it was very nice growing up on a farm. Everyone back in Iowa is very friendly and nice, and I got to work with animals a lot, which was great because I really love animals. I even get to keep some around here, a skunk and a raccoon and some rabbits, and there are a few dogs and cats that wander around sometimes. I even made them all their own sets of dog tags! Major Burns, who I mentioned earlier, doesn't like them very much, and Major Houlihan agrees with him like she always does, but everyone else seems okay with them. The Colonel seems to like them, too.

I should tell you about the Colonel. His name is Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake, and he sure is a swell guy. To be honest, he's kinda like a father to me. He always gives very good advice, and he always takes the time to listen to me, and to anyone else that has a problem. He's from Illinois, and he misses his wife and kids very much. He misses home. We all do.

Some of the doctors (Hawkeye and Trapper) got a hold of your last letter. They teased me about it a little – I'm not too popular with the ladies around here, so the idea of my writing to a real human girl is kind of funny to them I guess. After they were done with that, they said to tell you that they're sorry about your foot, and explained to me what a fifth metatarsal is. It sounds like it must have been painful! I hope you're feeling better now, and Hawkeye and Trapper do too.

They also said I should ask you to send a picture of yourself so I can know what you look like. You don't have to, but they told me I should ask. I've enclosed a picture of myself, so you'll know what I look like, too. It's a company portrait, so you'll also know what everyone else looks like. I'm the short funny-looking one in the glasses on the left. Next to me is Colonel Blake, then Captains Pierce and McIntyre and Majors Burns and Houlihan. The hairy one in the dress is Corporal Klinger. The one in the cross is Father Mulcahy, he's our company priest, and a pretty okay one at that. The others are all the nurses, and the other enlisted men like me, although I'm still the only company clerk.

You haven't told me much about your family. What are they like? Do you have any brothers or sisters? And what about your friends, how do you like them? Write back as soon as you can please, I really like getting your letters.

Sincerely,

Walter and/or Radar

November 17, 1950

Dear Radar (I think I'll call you Radar from now on, as I think that's a great nickname),

I've enclosed a picture of myself as you asked. There aren't really all that many photos of me, and almost none of me alone, at least not since I was little, so my brother's in the photo as well. We're twins, so that's why we look so similar. I'm the one with the long hair. His name is Sam too – he's Samuel and I'm Samantha, although neither of us like being called by our full first names so we're both just Sam. My family is mostly just me, my brother, and my parents. My dad is a surgeon, and my mom is a nurse. That's how they met, actually – they both ended up on the same shift at the same time, and decided that they wanted to spend time together outside of work as well. My brother wants to be a doctor just like our father, but right now he's stuck in high school with me, playing soccer and basketball, and running on the track team. I want to be a dancer, but both me and my brother have been working as orderlies and nurses at our parents' hospital for a couple of years now, so I might be a nurse after I'm through with my dancing career.

And yes, I would say that I'm a pretty good dancer. I started taking ballet lessons when I was eight, so I've been dancing for almost ten years now (my brother and I were born on Christmas Eve, so we're very nearly eighteen). I've had the lead role in a whole lot of shows, and won a bunch of medals and prizes at dance competitions. It's a lot of hard work, and not always fun, but it's something I love doing very much. I don't know if I'm good enough to get into Juilliard, but auditions aren't too far away and my routine is in pretty good shape, so I've got my fingers crossed! I'm also applying to a few other good schools, like the University of Indiana, so I'll hopefully have some options even if Juilliard doesn't work out.

I have a lot of friends, but sometimes not very good ones. I'm pretty popular at school, and I'm friends with most of the cheerleading squad, so I've got a lot of people to hang out with. I spend a lot of time with my brother's friends, too, which sometimes annoys him but whatever. I still feel pretty lonely sometimes, though, like there's not anyone I can really talk to. I've got my brother, of course, but there are just some things he wouldn't understand, like what it's like to go to a sleepover at Ashley's or Macy's and hear all the girls talk about whichever boys they're dating that week, and hear my voice talking about my boyfriend as if I'm just another person listening and not in control of what I'm saying at all

I'm sorry, I don't know why I said all that. Mostly it's just nice to have someone knew to talk to, I guess, especially someone so interesting. I saw you in the picture, the guy with the glasses who looks kind of like the sun is in his eyes, right? I don't think you're funny looking at all – honestly, you seem more sweet than anything. I can't imagine why the girls at the camp aren't all over you, especially since you seem to be so kind as well.

What about your friends, what are they like?

Write back when you can!

Sincerely,

Sam

November 24, 1950

Dear Sam,

I'm glad you like my nickname. A lot of people tease me about it sometimes, but personally I like it too. And I like your name, too. Samantha is a very pretty name, and Sam is too, but I imagine it can sometimes be confusing when you and your brother are in the same room.

I liked your picture by the way. You and your brother do look very similar, but I think that of the two of you, you're much prettier. Boy, are you pretty! It's no surprise that you have a boyfriend, he's certainly a very lucky guy. What's he like?

And I'm glad that you liked my photo, and thought that I looked sweet. I do try to be as nice as I possibly can, but most of the girls around camp go more for guys like Hawkeye or Trapper. I'm just not very good around girls, I guess. I never know what to do, or say, or anything. I'm glad that we can talk through letter, because then you don't have to see how awkward I am, and I don't have to see you if you laugh at me or anything.

Speaking of which, I'm sorry you sometimes feel lonely. You did a good job of crossing out, but I could still read what you wrote (after seeing some of the handwriting around here a person gets pretty good at deciphering things). You can talk to me if you'd like. Maybe we can even be friends! You seem like a really nice girl, and I'd like to be friends with you, if you'd like that too, that is.

Listen, I've gotta go now. The mail goes out this afternoon, but we've just got a whole bunch of choppers full of wounded coming in, and everyone's gonna be really busy until probably sometime tomorrow, and I really want to get this letter in the mail, so I've gotta finish it now. Write back as soon as you can, okay?

Sincerely,

Radar

PS – Hawkeye and Trapper got into your last letter before I did, and they say to tell you that you are far too great a catch to be writing to someone like me, and that also I should not let you get away if I can at all help it. (Don't worry about the crossed out part, they're doctors, not clerks, so they're not too good with handwriting.)

December 1, 1950

Dear Radar,

I would absolutely love to be friends with you! You're sweet and smart and brave, and I can't think of anyone else I would rather be friends with more.

As for my boyfriend, he's okay. His name is Johnny Miller, and he's the quarterback on my school's football team (how stereotypical, right? a cheerleader dating a football player). He's nice most of the time, but honestly I think he can be kind of mean at times. He pushes around some of the younger kids sometimes, and he drinks a lot and gets into a lot of fights. But he's really sweet around me, always holding open the door for me, and other things like that. He's better than my last boyfriend, at least.

And you can tell Hawkeye and Trapper that if they want to read my letters, they can go ahead and start writing to me themselves. Also that I'm not anyone's "catch," and that I think you are plenty fantastic enough for me to be writing to.

I hope that you had plenty of good luck with the wounded, too! It seems like that would be one of the more brutal parts of the job, seeing all the injuries that come through. Although, I must say, I certainly am glad that you aren't at the front being shot at. I did a little bit of research on MASH units, and it sounds like you've got a very impressive record, and also like it's a lot of hard work. Feel free to talk to me about anything, if you need to. Or even if you just want to. I have to say, it's very impressive that you're managing to work there and practically run the unit as the company clerk, all at the age of only nineteen (I say only, but I'm one to talk as I'm still two years younger than you).

What's your daily schedule like, by the way? What sort of stuff do you do as a company clerk? What parts don't you like? Are there any parts that you really enjoy?

Write back when you can!

Sincerely,

Sam

PS – Radar, my dear, I get the feeling that this is the start of a beautiful friendship!

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