The prize money of $100,000 to defecting Communist pilots who delivered a functioning Mig fighter was a real operation called Operation Moolah as the Migs were outflying anything owned by the U.N. at that time. However the actual outcome was not as depicted in the episode. The operation was largely a failure and only one plane was ever recovered after landing at Kimpo airbase, several months after the armistice had been signed, not during the war. It was never condoned by President Eisenhower. Being sent to the USA was not totally accurate, the real offer was to be resettled in a non-communist country. It's true that the pilot was unaware of the monetary offer, but stated under questioning that the offer would be ineffective as most communist pilots simply wouldn't have trusted it. The pilot was never sent to a POW camp as seen in the episode. He was arrested, questioned, debriefed & was provided the prize money, then settled in the US. The captured Mig was tested for about 2 weeks and it was discovered that it was good fighter but had many faults and its success was largely due to decent piloting, not better technology. The plane was offered back to North Korea but after they didn't reply it was further tested until it was put on display in a museum.
As the jeep carrying Major Reddish and Joon-Sung (Soon-Tek Oh) is driving away, Joon-Sung turns, smiles broadly and waives to Hawkeye and BJ with both hands. Soon-Tek Oh made the same gesture toward Frank Burns while being driven away by MPs in The Korean Surgeon (1976).
Final series appearances of both Soon-Tek Oh and Byron Chung, who have previously appeared in five and seven episodes, respectively. Both actors play a different character in each of their appearances.
The $100,000 reward money offered in 1953 would be worth $1,171,935 in 2024.
During the intro of this episode, the two first bars of music is missing! The little melody-intro is not in the version that later went to video etc. If it was on the version that aired is unknown! And if this was for time, or something else, doesn't tell!