Mike Farrell’s family left South St. Paul for California when he was 2, but that didn’t erase the Minnesota demeanor he still carries today.
“The family lore is widespread in the South St. Paul area, and we’re proud to call ourselves Minnesotans,” Farrell said in a telephone interview Thursday with the Pioneer Press.
Farrell, best known for his role of Capt. B. J. Hunnicutt on *M*A*S*H*, is being honored by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. Thursday was Minnesota’s day in the organization’s Marines Across America program, and Farrell was recognized alongside Minnesota Marines Charles Lindberg, Daniel Crawford, Charles Hawkins Sr., and Andrew McCormack.
The Marine Corps is celebrating its 250th anniversary on Nov. 10.
“It’s never what you think you’re going to get into,” Farrell, 86, said of the Marines. “It was horrifying and scary, boot camp was. Once we got through it, we were, of course, terribly proud of having experienced all we experienced.”
### Memories from the Marines
Quickly after graduating high school in 1957, Farrell and his good friend Pat joined the Marines. It was something the two of them had planned for quite some time, he said.
“Since we were old enough to talk about it, we wanted to be in the Marines,” Farrell said. “We always looked at the Marines as the glorious fighting brigade.”
The California-raised 18-year-old thought he’d be stationed at Camp Pendleton in California. He assumed he’d have weekends off and “go up and charm all the girls with my high school pals,” he said.
“And in fact, they gave me orders to go to be assigned to the 3rd Marines in Okinawa,” Farrell said. He and Pat were assigned to different platoons and rarely saw each other. It wasn’t his dream scenario, but it allowed him to travel and see parts of the world he may not have been exposed to, “which was really, as I think back on it, beneficial to me as a kid,” Farrell said.
“I was still sort of a punk, and I don’t mean punk in a bad way, I just mean sort of a young guy wet behind the ears.”
Headed for Okinawa on the troop ship, Farrell said he remembers receiving orders to circle off the coast of what was then called French Indochina, with the possibility that they would be diverted to assist French forces there.
Farrell said he found the idea of French forces residing in what is now Vietnam very intriguing at the time. The troop was eventually sent back to the Okinawa Marine Corps base, Camp Hansen, where Farrell would spend most of his time during his two years of service.
### Marines’ impact on and off-screen
Farrell said he didn’t engage in drinking, smoking, or fickle romance during his time of service.
“They called it squared away,” Farrell said. “I was the square.”
A lot of people ignored and avoided him, he said, but there were a few who felt akin and would gather together during off-duty periods.
“I think of it now and just remember being a young kid,” Farrell said. “And we lived in tents, interestingly, similar to the circumstance depicted in my later work on *M*A*S*H*: I lived in a tent, although the tent was bigger and not as much fun.”
Shooting those scenes would transport Farrell back to his time in Okinawa, he said. The tent conditions weren’t quite as intense as boot camp, he added, but they certainly were not lavish. “Not that any of the circumstances in the military are plush,” he said.
He said they saw another side of military service when they had weekends off.
“We would go to the Air Force Base outside of Okinawa, because they had everything in the Air Force,” he said. “I remember they had a soda fountain. They had a place you could go in and get ice cream, and have a malt and things I remembered from home, but that was unlike what we were dealing with when we were serving as Marines in Camp Hansen.”
Serving in the Marines was extremely demanding and challenging, though fun at times, and exposed him to diverse worldviews. Farrell remembers a community off the edge of the camp that was deemed off-limits and considered a communist village, he said.
“I didn’t quite understand at that point what the danger was, and when we went into the village, people were very nice,” Farrell said.
“So I think it didn’t seem to be as outrageously dangerous as the orders would have you believe. But I found that to be the case generally in the service; they basically see things in very clear terms. Things are OK or not, and it’s hard not to fall into that sort of frame of mind. I think I managed to not.”
Before joining the Marines, Farrell said he was a kid with not much direction. Service taught him about regimentation, how to behave in a group and take responsibility over others, he said.
He’d recommend it for young people like him who, at the time, could use structure and guidance.
### Marine pride
Following his time in Okinawa, Farrell was reassigned briefly to Yokosuka, Japan, he said.
“After that, I was sent back to San Diego and was discharged from there,” he said. “There was a lot of growing up that was done, and there was a lot of learning.”
Upon his return to California, Farrell was selected by the San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot as an Honor Marine and reached the rank of private first class, he said.
“I was very proud of that,” Farrell said.
“But coming out of the service, I went home, strutted around in my uniform when I had the opportunity, before going to Okinawa and after coming back, and the girls from the high school were not as impressed as I hoped they’d be.”
Boot camp was not an Air Force ice cream excursion, Farrell recalls, describing how a drill instructor would yell in his face or hit him with a rifle. Though the experience was physically taxing and emotionally confusing at times, it taught him, he said.
He learned to respect officers and trust that they would prepare him well for the most intense situation of all: potential combat.
“The Marine Corps builds men, they say, and that’s the idea,” Farrell said. “The fighting men are what they want, people who will follow orders, and when your commanding officer says, ‘Charge that machine gun nest,’ you charge that machine gun nest.”
### South St. Paul native
Farrell’s father was born in Rosemount and his mother in Millville, Minnesota. His family of six lived in South St. Paul. They moved to California when he was 2 years old, but would visit their hometown at least once a year, he said.
“My mom, she came from a family of 10 children, and it was a hard scrabble situation,” Farrell said.
On top of growing up in a large family, Farrell said his grandfather was killed when his mom was only seven.
“You can only imagine what those folks went through during the hard times of the Depression and what have you; particularly a farm family with 10 kids and one sole widow mother,” he said.
“Her life was very much committed to being a family person, and she imbued us, I think, with that understanding.”
Farrell said that because of his mother’s upbringing, he and his three siblings were raised with a stance of gratitude for their surroundings.
“We would go back to Minnesota, and we’d see all our relatives,” he said.
“My mom’s brothers and sisters, almost all except for one, stayed in South St. Paul, married, and had kids of their own. So we had cousins all over the place and still do.”
Farrell said it’s been a few years since he’s visited Minnesota, but it is still home to him.
“There’s just a kind of simple decency to the people [of Minnesota] that I find really reaffirming,” Farrell said.
Farrell lives in Los Angeles now, and he said working in Hollywood, it’s not always easy to find that kind of “simple decency” among the crowd.
### Acting and advocating for human rights
On top of being a working actor, producer, director, and writer, Farrell is the president of Death Penalty Focus, an organization whose goal is to end the use of the death penalty. He said he is very involved in the world of human rights, a value that he has long held.
Earlier this year, he starred in an independent feature film, *Final Decision*, that’s currently in post-production. He also periodically performs a one-man show, *Dr. Keeling’s Curve*, about the man who gathered the first significant measurements of rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
“I’ve been very lucky in my career, and I’m happy for it,” Farrell said.
### Marines celebrate 250 years
Other local veterans honored by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation include:
– **Charles W. Lindberg**, born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and later of Edina, a Silver Star and Purple Heart recipient who helped raise the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima.
– **Daniel Crawford**, of Austin, who walked from Austin, Minnesota, to Austin, Texas, in 2024 to raise awareness for veteran recovery and mental health support.
– **Charles Hawkins Sr.**, of Coon Rapids, the state junior vice commander for the Veterans of Foreign Wars Department of Minnesota.
– **Andrew McCormack**, of Detroit Lakes, the current department commander for the Marine Corps League of Minnesota.
“There’s a certain pride associated with having been a Marine,” Farrell said.
Those recognized “embody the values of honor, courage, and commitment within their communities and showcase the contributions Marines make in their local communities or nationally following their active-duty service,” according to the foundation.
The foundation asks that members of the public join the celebration by sharing stories of Marines they know, both active and retired, who make a difference in their communities and professional lives.
Names can be submitted for recognition at Marine250.com.
https://www.twincities.com/2025/10/17/mike-farrell-marines-honor-minnesota-native/