Bio For Major Margaret Houlihan

[Margaret Houlihan]

Margaret Houlihan was a career army nurse whose father was a retired colonel. In fact, she once remarked that she was so entrenched in military life that when she was growing up that she thought that a civilian was someone who was waiting for their uniforms to come back from the cleaners.

After completing college, Margaret did enlist in the army and began her career in nursing and quickly rose through the ranks and eventually achieved the rank of major. However, there are those who think that she not only got promoted through her own merit, but that she also had help from various male officers that she was quite friendly with.

Sometime in the early 1950's she was assigned to the 4077 Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (M*A*S*H) and became the head nurse. When she first arrived she was shocked to see the lack of disicpline displayed by the enlisted men as well as the surgical staff and leading this rebellious attitude were a couple of draftee doctors in the persons of Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce and Pierce's best friend Captain John "Trapper John" McIntyre. However, her one ally in trying to make the 4077 more military was an incompetent surgeon named Major Frank Burns, who proved not only to be as military as her, but as time went on the two became embroiled in a rather passionate love affair. However, the relationship was not all that it was cracked up to be as Margaret saw the inept Burns as a tool to try to take over the camp. Also, even though Margaret thought he truly loved her, the unhappily married Burns didn't want to leave his wife due to the fact that if he divorced her she got all the money. Their affair carried on for a couple of years until a very life altering trip to Tokyo for Margaret.

Sometime in 1952, Margaret made a trip to Tokyo General Hospital to do a follow up report on several patients that were treated at the 4077. It was there that she met Lt. Colonel Donald Penobscott, a West Point grad, who was assigned to Army Headquarters in Tokyo. After she returned to the 4077 she broke off her already strained relationship with Burns and began to see him for the snivelling weasel he was. It was also around this time that Margaret began to soften as a person, especially after a very heated confrontation with her nursing staff. It was also at this time that she began to draw closer to Hawkeye as well as Trapper's replacement, Captain BJ Hunneycut. In fact, she and Hawkeye shared a brief romance when they were stranded in an abandoned building that was being shelled by the North Koreans. Unfortunately, she would later find out that Donald was a philanderer and that put a strain on her marriage. Eventually she filed for divorce and this changed her even more by making her realize that she didn't need a man in her life to feel fulfilled.

But this all changed....when she and Hawkeye started spending time together for a while. His warm demeanor was something else and he was so charming...cracking jokes...making her job as a nurse on base a whole lot easier. Now Margaret had a temper that could be very desired sometimes but Hawkeye had a way to keep her at bay sometimes. He now had the job of helping her be more patient in her role as a nurse on an army base.dealing with people from crazy walks of life sometimes. Their relationship grows well every single day. And so their adventure begins...Margaret Houlihand at the base of Korea. A long trip indeed.