Compiled with notes Sept. 25, 2000 by Nancy LionStorm aka 349^th Heavy Weapons Crew.

This page honors Conlan Carter’s memorable portrayal of Doc. The following scenes illustrate Doc’s thoughtful kindness, his gentle coaxing, as well as his quiet faith. But it also includes those rare instances when Doc’s ire is raised. Here’s "Doc", the medic with no name.

Dialogue excerpts from the following episodes:

• Hills Are for Heroes
• The Long Way Home
• Bridgehead
• The Glory Among Men
• The Leader
• The First Day
• Conflict
• A Child's Game
• A Cry for Help
• Gideon's Army

(All dialogue is copyright ABC-TV. See each episode excerpt for writer credits.)

[Scene: As Doc rips open Saunders’ pants leg to attend wound, Hanley joins them in rear room of bunker at base of the hills.]

HANLEY: How is he?

SAUNDERS: It’s not too bad, Lieutenant.

DOC: Don’t you pay any attention to him, Lieutenant. He’s got a hole there you could lose a grenade in.

SAUNDERS: How we doing out there, Lieutenant? They give up yet?

HANLEY: I make it two machine guns, barbed wire each pillbox. How about you? See anything else?

SAUNDERS: They don’t need anything else. Ah, Doc, forget it. My leg doesn’t hurt that much.

DOC: Yeah, I’ll bet it doesn’t.

SAUNDERS: I don’t want it, not until we get what we came for. I’m not going to do any good asleep.

HANLEY: It may be quite a while before we get what we came for.

DOC: Well then, you ought to take the shot.

SAUNDERS: Now, Doc, I don’t want it.

HANLEY: If the pain gets any worse, give him a shot. Don’t pay any attention to him.

DOC: Yes, sir.

[Hanley exits.]

DOC: Boy, we bought some trouble, huh?

SAUNDERS: A little.

DOC: Sure glad I’m not wearing those bars!

[Scene: Captain Steiner questions Doc.]

STEINER: I ask you again, the man from your group who escaped, did he have information?

[No response from Doc.]

STEINER: What did you learn on your reconnaissance patrol the night before you were captured?

[No response from Doc.]

STEINER: Did you use your radio?

[No response from Doc.]

STEINER: Did you contact your superiors?

[No response from Doc. Steiner rises, approaches Doc and hits him with a riding crop. Startled, Doc looks momentarily at the crop, then turns his head away, face forward, eyes straight ahead.]

STEINER: You’re a Corp. man, you know how intense pain can be.

[Silence from Doc, then...]

DOC: One Halloween, when I was about three years old, a bunch of goblins and ghouls came to our house. Scared me so bad I screamed and ran right into the piano. It took twenty stitches to sew up my head. Next year those same goblins and ghouls came around, screamed and stomped and hollered. This time I just laughed. Just a bunch of kids hiding behind their little Hollowed masks. The point is, Captain, you only get so scared, red on your mask is not gonna do it.

[Scene: Doc attends Littlejohn’s wound in cellar. Hanley enters.]

HANLEY: He going to be all right?

DOC: Sure, Lieutenant. We’ll patch him up. May be in a week or two he can go out and try it again. May be this time he’ll take one clean and easy. No pain, just first he’s here and then he isn’t. This half way stuff kind of slows down the war effort.

HANLEY: All right now, take it easy.

DOC: Shrope was lucky. Poor devil ran out and got his real quick. Well, at least he doesn’t need any more explanations.

[After a brief exchange between Hanley and Littlejohn, Doc starts to leave, pulling off his medic’s armband.]

HANLEY: Now, where do you think you’re going?

DOC: I want a rifle!

HANLEY: You what?

DOC: I want to get in this shooting war. I want a rifle. Now I have had it up to here with bandages and aspirin. Now I want a RIFLE!

HANLEY: Now you know that’s impossible.

DOC: Why, because of the rules? I don’t shoot anybody; nobody shoots me? We’re so civilized we’ve even got rules to kill each other by. Boy, that’s what I call organization!

HANLEY: Well, don’t knock it. Organization got us this far, all the way from Normandy. Now he does his job, I do mine, and you do yours!

DOC: That’s fine, Lieutenant, but I’m beginning to think I’m going to be all by myself when this thing’s over. Now the killing is getting way ahead of the fixing!

MASON: Help me!

[Doc takes a morphine kit from his bag as he gauges the distance to Mason.]

SARGE: What do you think you’re doing, huh?

DOC: He’s in pretty bad shape, Sergeant. It’ s going to get worse. I’m going to try to get a shot of morphine to him.

SARGE: What are you going to do? You’re going to walk out there and hand it to him, huh? We’re pulling out of here and you’re coming with us. You’re coming with us. That’s an order.

DOC: Sarge, there’s a wounded man out there and he needs this. Now, if I don’t try to get it to him, well, there’s no point in my being here, is there?

[Scene: Kirby takes injured soldier over to Doc.]

DOC: Put your hand on that and hold it real tight.

KIRBY: Doc, you think I made a mess of it, two more dead?

DOC: Well, there’s another way of looking at it, Kirby. You know there’s nine of us still alive. You did all right. The tripwire worked, it helped.

KIRBY: Aghh, it helped a lot more when Sarge did it up on that hill.

DOC: Yeah, but that has nothing to do with this! The Sarge had a machine gun, it was raining, the terrain was different. It’s not the same thing at all.

KIRBY: But the Sarge…

DOC: Yeah, but the Sarge ain’t here, Kirby! And he’s not likely to be here before we get out of this thing. You know, you ought to stop worrying about what the Sarge would do. It’s what you’re gonna do that counts... Kirby? Whether we live or die depends on you, and nobody else.

[Scene: After their first encounter with the enemy the new replacements rest by the river for a few minutes.]

McBRIDE: Hey, hey you guys! Ah, did I ever show you this? It’s a 4H book.

OTHER REPLACEMENT: What’s that 4H mean?

MCBRIDE: Head, heart, hands and health. It’s a club for farm kids.

DOC: What’s your project, Mac?

MCBRIDE: Three Black Angus calves.

DOC: Hey, no kidding! Can I see that?

MCBRIDE: Sure. My project’s written up on the second page.

DOC: It’s very good, Mac. You know this thing tells quite a bit about you? Where you’re from; who your brothers and sisters are; when you enlisted and everything. What was it they taught us in Basic? Ah, you know, about what you can tell the enemy if you’re captured?

MCBRIDE: Name, rank, serial number… oh yeah.

[Doc quietly looks on as McBride tears up the 4H book].

[Scene: The episode antagonists, Caje and Littlejohn, are left with Doc while Saunders and McCall scout out a small building.]

DOC: You guys ought to feel real proud of yourselves!

CAJE: Doc, I told you to skip the sermon.

DOC: Listen, you tell me to shut up and I’ll bust you one myself! And that goes for you too, you big ape!

LITTLEJOHN: Now wait a minute, Doc.

DOC: What’s the matter? Don’t you like that kind of talk? Sounds pretty stupid, doesn’t it? Well, that’s just exactly what you two have been sounding like all night. Like a couple of kids. Don’t even know what you’re arguing about anymore. So you’re tired. And you got a little wet and you need sleep. Well, big deal, so does everybody else. What about the Sarge? Boy, you’re really helping him aren’t ya? Why do you suppose he left you two here?

LITTLEJOHN: What are you talking about? He left us here to cover him.

DOC: Did he, or was it because he was afraid he couldn’t trust you any more?

[After Sarge is rescued and they’re back from their mission we see Doc and Littlejohn alone in a barn. Doc finishes packing his supplies and prepares to leave.]

LITTLEJOHN: Where are you going?

DOC: To see the Sarge. Look, you knew where I was going.

LITTLEJOHN: Yeah. Doc, will you do me a favor? Will you ask him something for me?

DOC: You got something to say, why don’t you tell him yourself?

LITTLEJOHN: I don’t know, Doc. He was pretty mad out there.

DOC: Sure he was mad, but he had a right to be! Look, you were wrong and you know it.

LITTLEJOHN: Yeah, but…

DOC: No ‘buts’! Why do you think I’ve been stalling here for? Come on!

DOC: How long you been in the war?

[Silence from the prisoners.]

DOC: Well, don’t your parents worry about you?

DIETER: My mother, my father were killed in Berlin - American bombers.

DOC: is that why you’re here?

KURT: He’s here because it is his duty!

DOC: At your age?

KURT: At birth!

DOC: Let me give a a little tip.

KURT: Tip?

DOC: Advise! The sergeant may not have any choose. And if you don’t want to see your buddies killed you better do what you can to get them out of here.

KURT: So why doesn’t he attack? Perhaps it is not they who will die?

DOC: Don’t you bet on it!

DOC: It sounds pretty rough up there, doesn’t it?

HALSMAN: One thing is certain: there are dead and wounded.

[They continue to wait.]

HALSMAN: Why don’t you go on? I can’t do anything now.

DOC: Well, neither can I. Like you said: sometimes it’s harder to sit and just do nothing.

HALSMAN: Are you sorry for it?

DOC: I don’t know. When I patch a guy up and I… Well, I figure he’s got a chance to get back and get help. I ah, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

HALSMAN: You and me are alike. It is good to find someone who understands.

[Doc is shot. Halsman frees himself, but rather than escape, helps Doc. Finally, the fighting ends]

DOC: Sounds like it’s over.

HALSMAN: Keep still.

DOC: Look I’m OK now. I can, I can manage. Look, they’ll, they’ll help me when they get back down here. I don’t need you! What do you want me to do, draw you a picture?

KIRBY: It’s the most Mickey Mouse outfit I ever saw. Think we’ll get away with it Doc?

DOC: Well, I don’t know. It’s been done before.

KIRBY: What do you mean? Who ever pulled off a deal like this before?

DOC: Well for one there was this fellow named, Gideon.

KIRBY: Gideon who?

DOC: Well, you know just, just Gideon in the Bible. You should have gone to Sunday school, Kirby.

KIRBY: Huh, huh, huh! That’s what my old lady used to tell me. Who was this Gideon guy any way?

DOC: Well, I don’t know. He was just a… Wait a minute. [Pulls out pocket Bible, mutters] Judges, Judges, Judges, Judges, Judges Seven, seven… [Resumes in normal voice]:

And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you and deliver the Mid’ianites unto thine hand; let all the other people go every man unto his place. [Mutters] So on, and so on down, and so on. That is, ah…

[Resumes in normal voice] And Gideon divided the 300 men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers. And he said onto them, Look on me, and do likewise, and behold when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that as I do, so shall ye do. When I blow with the trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say ‘The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!’

So Gideon and the hundred men that were with him came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, and they had but newly set the watch; and they blew the trumpets and break the pitchers that were in their hands. And the three companies blew the trumpets and break the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and trumpets in their right hands to blow withal, and they cried, The sword of the Lord and of Gideon! And they stood every man in his place about the camp, and all the host ran, and cried and fled. And the three hundred blew their trumpets, and the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow, even throughout the host; and the host fled.