Tall, stocky, and losing his hair, Charles Emerson Winchester was born in
Boston ,
Massachusetts , to a very wealthy family of Boston "
Blueblood s". He graduated ''
Summa Cum Laude '' from
Harvard Medical School in Boston, and came to work at
Massachusetts General Hospital . Before he was
Drafted to join the
US Army at the start of the
Korean War , he was on track to become Chief of
Thoracic Surgery. He has a sister named Honoria (pronounced on-OR-ee-uh) with a speech impediment (
Stuttering ) and a brother Timmy who had died when Charles was a little boy.
While
Major Frank Burns is
MIA following a trip to
Seoul , the staff at the 4077th
Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) desperatly need a replacement surgeon to fill in.
Colonel Sherman T. Potter places a call to
I Corps , who subsequently places a call to
Tokyo General Hospital in search of a surgeon. A colonel (Horace Baldwin), in debt to a Major Charles Emerson Winchester from
Cribbage , volunteers Charles for the position. The colonel reassures Charles that the duty will only be temporary until Maj. Burns returns.
Once Winchester arrives, he finds the conditions repugnant compared to the comfortable Tokyo General. Although his arrogance makes a poor first impression, Winchester proves he is an excellent surgeon when he performs a delicate heart operation he is experienced in, but that the other doctors are unfamiliar with.
Soon after Winchester's arrival, the camp learns that Maj. Burns has been arrested after mistaking another woman for his former lover,
Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan . The camp, but not Winchester, further learns that Maj. Burns has been transferred back to the
United States for a post at a
Veterans Hospital and promoted to
Lieutenant Colonel . Col. Potter catches Charles just as he is about to leave to return to Tokyo, and informs him that he will be assigned to the 4077th indefinitely. Charles is shocked and at first refuses, but Col. Potter threatens disciplinary action. Charles, very reluctantly, agrees to cooperate and moves into Maj. Burns' former quarters with Pierce and Hunnicutt.
When the first major rush of wounded arrive, Winchester finds himself in over his head once he begins operating, taking three or four times as long to finish his operations as his fellow surgeons:
Captain Hawkeye Pierce ,
Captain B.J. Hunnicutt , and Col. Potter in a medical situation where life saving operations must be performed as rapidly as possible. Winchester, his ego fully inflated, feels humiliated at any assistance to improve his efficiency and alienates himself from the rest of the camp with his arrogant, self-centered and at times cold persona. He does, however, prove to have a sense of humor and a clever wit which is not above pranks.
Charles at first continually fights his position with the 4077th, especially when he realizes that he lost his candidacy for Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Massachusetts General, but as time passes he more-or-less accepts the situation and settles in with the 4077th. Although initially thought of as tremendously selfish and uncaring, Charles softens somewhat as he acclimates to his new life. This comes in part from a Christmas present arranged by Radar and Fr. Mulcahy – his old
Tobogganing cap, sent by his mother, which he wears frequently. However, with his ego remaining fully inflated, he still distances himself from the rest of the camp to some degree and regularly retreats to his
Classical Music as a refuge.
This change of attitude shows in acts of generosity that Charles' predecessor Maj. Burns would never have thought of. This includes such deeds as convincing a drafted concert
Pianist , who has given up on the future after losing
Dexterity in his right hand, that his musical gift lies not in the stilled hand but rather emanates from within. He finds the wounded man sheet music for pieces to be performed with only the left hand and restores the wounded man's pride and hope. Later, Winchester gives the local orphanage a large supply of candy the next Christmas, while insisting the orphanage director not tell anyone who donated it. Initially angry when he learns that the director sold the candy instead, Charles painfully accepts that the proceeds will instead feed the orphans for weeks, on staple foods. (Klinger, having learned of Charles's gesture, saves him the last of the camp's holiday fare sent from home—and tells Charles the source must remain anonymous.) Charles also befriends a wounded soldier who stutters. When Charles sees him mistreated by his CO and platoon mates, he takes the CO to one side and thoroughly chastises him. Charles encourages the soldier to pursue his natural intelligence, and gives him a treasured, leather-bound copy of ''
Moby-Dick ''. (It turns out the soldier already knows the story—from a ''
Classics Illustrated ''
Comic Book adaptation.) At the end of this particular episode, as Charles listens to an audio tape sent by his sister Honoria, it is revealed that she, too, is an habitual stutterer.
While Winchester's faults still cause irritation, Charles eventually makes partial peace with his comrades and they count him as one of their friends. For example, when Hawkeye was anxiously awaiting word about his father, who had undergone surgery for a life-threatening condition, Charles keeps a vigil with him. He reveals to Hawkeye his envy of the close relationship Hawkeye and his father share in stark contrast to that with his own father. Charles also lent B.J. the money he and wife Peg needed for a land down-payment, when the deadline came abruptly. Winchester took his nominal second-in-command position far less seriously than Frank Burns ever had; on the rare occasions when Col. Potter was away and he had to take charge, Charles usually let the camp go through its paces, and everyone have what they wanted—as long as Charles in turn got what ''he'' wanted (usually a personal favor, or time alone). Also, in contrast to his normally posh tastes, Charles enjoyed occasional ''
Tom And Jerry '' cartoons, ''
Captain Marvel '' comics... and canned sardines.
He was seen as a comic foil example when he took the
Dodgers not blowing the 13 1/2 game lead during the 1951 season just to fall on his face during the three-game playoff, when Bobby Thomson's home run won the final game.
Another example of Charles Winchester's integrity and humanity appears when Colonel Baldwin visits the 4077th on business. In the episode entitled "No Laughing Matter," Baldwin tells Winchester of his plan to get Margaret in trouble by telling the Colonel that she was making sexual advances towards him (which was a lie). Winchester refuses to go along with it, but Baldwin promises that if he played along, he would be transferred back to Tokyo General. When the time comes, Baldwin tells Colonel Potter the lie, and when Winchester is called on to corroborate, he reveals the truth, and his bottled-up anger at Baldwin for the transfer comes out. As much as Winchester wanted to go back to Tokyo, he would not smear the name of one of his co-workers by bearing false witness against her...especially not for Colonel Baldwin.
- A---S---H_episode)" class="copylinks">Goodbye, Farewell And Amen '', Winchester encounters a group of five Chinese P.O.W. s who are decent Musicians and share his love of music. They are being held at the 4077th and, as they are playing traditional music, Winchester furiously confronts them, explaining that he is trying to listen to Mozart on his phonograph. They then begin to play a crude rendition of Mozart 's '' Quintet For Clarinet And Strings ''. Winchester delighted at the idea of being able to spend time with anyone who loves classics begins spending considerable time trying to improve upon their performance. However, Charles learns that the musicians have to be transferred in a Prisoner Of War exchange with the Chinese Red Army along with the rest of the captives at the 4077th. Charles pleads for them to stay, but the military officer coordinating the effort refuses to allow it. The musicians play the piece of Mozart that Charles had taught them as they are driven away.
Charles, coming out after surgery several hours later,
Triage s one final patient from a prisoner truck accident in grave condition. He begins examining the wounds, but then recoils in horror when he sees that the patient is one of the Chinese musicians that had been swapped in the P.O.W. exchange. Charles asks the
Corpsman if any other prisoners had survived, but the corpsman informs Charles that the dying musician is "the only one that made it this far." Charles sadly and bitterly remarks that the dying man was not a soldier, but a musician.
Retreating to his tent Charles attempts to find solace in a record of "Quintet for Clarinet and Strings" but after only a few moments of listening to the song he wordlessly yanks the record off the phonograph and smashes it.
The
Armistice to end the Korean War is signed soon after.
In one of the final scenes, Charles announces: "I've just discovered that I will be head of Thoracic Surgery at Boston Mercy Hospital. My life will go on as expected—with one exception. For me, music had always been a refuge from this miserable experience. Now it will always be a reminder."
With the 4077th packing up and the personnel moving out to return home, Charles leaves the camp with Sgt. Rizzo in the last remaining vehicle: a garbage truck. When Rizzo pulls up in the truck, he says "I hope you don't mind riding in a garbage truck, 'cause it's the last vehicle I got.", to which Winchester replies "Not at all. What better way to leave a garbage dump!"
