Corporal Walter Eugene "Radar" O'Reilly

Radar is the company clerk at the 4077th, a baby-faced Iowa farm boy who runs the office with uncanny efficiency, clutching a teddy bear he pretends not to need. He anticipates orders before they're given, hears choppers before anyone else, and keeps the whole absurd operation from falling apart through sheer quiet competence.

Gary Burghoff plays innocence without ever making it saccharine — Radar is sharp enough to run a war's worth of paperwork but still young enough to be homesick for his mother and his comic books. That gap between capability and vulnerability is the joke and the ache of him, often in the same scene.