It is by now well documented that many of the characters in MASH the movie, book and tv show were actually based on real people. Documentaries like 2010's The Real MASH have located and identified the real life prototypes for many of these characters, who did serve together during the Korean war at the 8055th unit. Hawkeye was based Dr. Richard Hoernberger, pen name Richard Led Hooker, who wrote the 1967 memoire which was the source material for all of this, "MASH, a Novel About Three Army Doctors". Although the real life Hawkeye, AKA Hoernberger, was more politically like the Frank Burns character, a staunch right wing Republican, in other ways Hoernberger was a lot like Hawkeye; the freewheeling sarcasm, and his gift as a surgeon, were all exactly the way Hoernberger really was. Trapper John Macentire, Hawkeye's wingman, was based on another doctor that served in the 8055th with Hoernberger and befriended him. Dr. James Dickson was a young doctor from Ohio who was friends with Hoernberger and was the prototype for Trapper John MD. Another Dickson, no relation to James, served as the prototype for Margaret Houlihan. Ruth Dickson was the head Charge Nurse at the 8055th. She was tough, headstrong, was a brilliant nurse and frequently clashed with Hoernberger, just like Margaret clashed with Hawkeye on the show. Ruth Dickson wasn't necessarily promiscuous like Margaret was, but she was by many accounts flirtatious with some of the other doctors. Her nickname wasn't Hotlips either, that was another 8055th nurse, Hotlips Hammerly; who was a very pretty nurse in the unit that Hoernberger knew. Hotlips Hammerly and Ruth Dickson were conflated into the Margaret character. Radar O'Reily had a real life counterpart too: Don Schafer, a young military intelligence specialist who served at the 8055th and befriended Hoernberger. Like Radar he was young, from Ottumwa Iowa, and was weirdly knowledgeable about everything; although he wasn't a company clerk, he was in military intelligence; somehow this morphed into a clerk with ESP. There was also reportedly a real life Klinger, that is, there was a doctor in the camp who dressed up in drag a couple times for a gag, and this became part of the mythology of the camp, and also became the basis for the Klinger character; although they have not revealed this person's name. There was also a real life Ho-Jon; a young Korean boy who befriended Hoernberger, and the rest of the camp, and hustled his way back to America where went to medical school to follow in the ranks of Hoernberger, Dickson, and the rest of the 8055th; but unlike some of the other characters this person has not revealed themselves to the press yet.