Lieutenant Colonel Bingham Lacy is a character who appears in the Season 7 episode of M*A*S*H titled "Preventative Medicine". He is played by James Wainwright.
About Colonel Lacy[]
In the Preventative Medicine episode in Season 7, in OR, the doctors notice that all the wounded have multiple shrapnel wounds, from all directions. Potter explains that these wounded are part of Lieutenant Colonel Lacy's unit, the 603rd Battalion, which sustains more casualties than any other in Korea; while all the other units were retreating, Lacy decided that his men should stay and fight a little longer.
Lacy himself later arrives in camp, and seems to be quite the charmer. He's complimentary to Radar, Potter, and to Margaret. But when he tries the same thing with Hawkeye and B.J. they can't look past his casualty record and are indifferent to Lacy's kind words, while his troops are frightened of or downright hate him. While in Post Op he makes a speech about how their bravery has given him the initiative to put in a plan to HQ to take on Hill 403, a dangerous mission. Hawkeye and B.J. are disgusted, and Potter futilely tries to talk Lacy out of it.
The next morning in the Mess Tent, Lacy joins Margaret, who is openly attracted to him- at first. But then he begins to brag about his idea to take Hill 403, and then casually adds that he expects an estimated 20-30% in casualties. Horrified, Margaret asks what makes the hill so important, and he callously responds, "Well, getting it." Margaret leaves in disgust.
Col. Lacy tries to argue his point in trying to take Hill 403 to his superior in "Preventative Medicine" in Season 7.
Lacy is very gung-ho about sending his men into dangerous combat missions which his superiors have frequently advised against, but he also seems to show no concern at all for his men, and more about how his unit's success furthers his own career: case in point, when Hawkeye tells him of a soldier in his unit who was severely wounded, a Corporal McAvoy, who was making a full recovery, Lacy, after not remembering his name, nonchalantly responds to the news saying "Oh. that kid... that was good work, good work."
When Lacy returns to Post Op to give out Purple Hearts, none of the wounded wants them. One of them goes into cardiac arrest, while Lacy receives a phone call from a general, who tells him that Lacy's offensive on Hill 403 has been denied, on the grounds of it being too risky. Lacy however resolves to send reconnaissance troops out to the hill- to wit, he means to attack the hill anyway, and claim it was done in self-defense, knowing no one could prove otherwise.
The medical staff, after seeing Lacy's true colors, aren't too impressed with him, to say the least, especially Hawkeye, who, after luring Lacy into the Swamp with B.J. to have a few martinis, slips a "mickey" into his drink, making the Colonel believe that he has appendicitis (B.J. says he has gastritis) after he doubles over; After Hawkeye has Lacy go to O.R. for an unneeded surgery, in hopes to have him sent stateside, thus away from his battalion, Before the operation, the two surgeons, Hawkeye and B.J., have a bitter argument over performing the illegal operation on an otherwise healthy Lacy, just to have him relieved of his command; Hawkeye winds up performing on the Colonel anyhow.
However, although Hawkeye succeeds putting Colonel Lacey out of action, Hawkeye still feels morally soiled for his flagrant breech of medical ethics. The fact that Hawkeye has to immediately attend to a new rush of wounded from elsewhere is a bitter reminder of a larger problem of war that he is helpless to stop.