The U.S. Army has decommissioned its last remaining MASH unit and turned the facilities over to Pakistan to continue helping earthquake victims.
The U.S. Army bade “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” to perhaps its best-loved institution on Thursday when it decommissioned its last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) and handed it over to Pakistan.
A legendary institution that gained worldwide fame through a long-running television comedy series and a hit 1970 feature film portraying a fictional 4077th MASH, has a history dating back more than 60 years to the end of World War Two. The field hospitals served in U.S. wars since, from Korea to Vietnam and Iraq, saving many thousands of lives.
The MASH decommissioned on Thursday — the 212th based in Miesau, Germany — was based in Iraq until last year. Perhaps fittingly, given the strong underlying anti-war theme of the film and television portrayals, it ended its U.S. service on a peaceful humanitarian mission, aiding victims of the catastrophic earthquake that devastated Pakistan on Oct. 8.
A fitting end, indeed.
