Major Vinny Pratt is a character who appears in the Season 2 episode of M*A*S*H titled "A Smattering of Intelligence" (episode #24), the season finale.
The part of Major Pratt is played in the episode by Bill Fletcher.
About Pratt[]
Hawkeye and Trapper find Pratt waiting in the Swamp, who turns out to be an old friend of Trapper's and also mixed up with Intelligence (G2). He mentions Colonel Flagg and his nefarious tricks and tells the doctors he wants to find out why Flagg wants to infiltrate a M*A*S*H unit, what he's up to and stop him. Pratt tells them his alias will be Captain Stone with Engineers.
When Pratt meets Frank, and with some prompting from the Captains, becomes suspicious of his gung-ho patriotism and decides to sneak a peek at Frank's official file. Meanwhile, Flagg meets with Frank and Margaret at the Officers’ Club under the secret watch of Radar. Flagg is concerned about security breaches and Captain Stone. Frank tells Flagg he has a secret dossier on everyone in camp stashed in his official file, then discovers Radar is eavesdropping on them, resulting in a humorous encounter between Flagg and the corporal.
When Pratt visits Henry, who is less than thrilled to entertain another officer from Intelligence with multiple names. Pratt gets Henry's reluctant cooperation by presenting him a file documenting two affairs he had before the war and threatens to give the information to Henry's immediate family.
When Hawkeye and Trapper decide to "doctor" up Frank's file by adding fake afffilations with different "subversive" left-wing organizations, both Pratt and Flagg are ready to convene a "firing squad" on Frank, until Hawkeye and Trapper reveal that they were behind the scam, as Pratt says to Trapper, "I owe you one... You really hit me below the belt with that one!" as both Pratt and Flagg get ready to depart camp, with no security leak, as Hawkeye moments earlier said to both "You guys are self leaking!"
Trivia[]
- Pratt is with Army Intelligence aka G-2
- Pratt's code name is "Mary" and "Martinez"
- Pratt aliases is "Captain Stone of the US Army Corp of Engineers" and "Captain Perkins of the US Chaplins"
- Pratt also has access on Henry Blake's "private/security file" including documentary evidence of Blake's affairs with young women between 1945 and 1950.
- Pratt is also acquainted with fellow but rival intelligence agent Colonel Sam Flagg