I was running this morning (never really know what random thought will come into my head when I exercise) and I was thinking of Henry Blake. No, my scalp wasn't bleeding. :)

There is an epsiode prior to the season 3 finale where Henry and Hawkeye are outside of surgery talking. I don't recall the specific episode but Hawkeye notices the early onset of artharitus (thanks Fred) in Henry. He tells him something to the effect that "We can stick the paperwork in your bellybutton and send you home." Henry turns the offer down because surgery in Korea is anything but routine, which is what he'd be going back to in Bloomington.

I'm looking at this within the context of the series and the character. It is an irony that parallells real life and paths not taken. I don't think the producers were thinking of killing the character off at this particular time but when you see what ultimately happened to Henry, the waste of his death could've been avoided if he hadn't turned Hawkeyes offer down.

Just a random running thought I wanted to share with you all.

Yeah, but then we would have missed one of the greatest dramatic moments and one of the most brilliant scenes not only on this series but in all of television!!:wave:

he also may have lived if hawkeye and trapper had let him work on that kid that they brought down off the chopper that took him to thr airport because if they had let henry help he might had been stuck in the or with them wich meant that he would have gotten to tokyo later thereby possably avoiding getting shot down by the enemy

And he could have died those two times too. When you number is up, it's up.