Wikipedia says desertion, not refusal to serve.
Here’s the explaination given by the creator of the TV version of MASH.
http://tinyurl.com/23pu6m
Note that he uses the name Elsig. That’s El for Larry, Si for Simon and G for Gelbart.
He’s said the same thing several times on the MASH newsgroup. It was partly because they realised there were no black surgeons in Korea, but largely because the cast was too large, and they needed to cut a few charaters.
Yes, it was desertion. He’d come home from Viet Nam, and left the base for good before being processed out of the Army. He had a hell of a story about what had happened in country just before he was shipped home.
Just thought I’d bump this last unanswered question:
I’m kinda surprised–I thought this was the easy one. One of MWC’s funniest eps, IMHO.
Hint: The location in the name of the store is not where the store is actually located.