Not only did McWatt die in the plane crash following Kid Sampson's death, but so did Doc Daneeka, according to the pilot's manifest. McWatt had put Doc's name down on the manifest so that Doc could earn enough flight hours to receive his flight pay. The trouble was when the men counted how many parachutes came out of the plane, one was missing according to the manifest. Therefore, since all the other men on the manifest were accounted for except Doc, then he must have died on the plane.

The problem was Doc was never on the plane and did not die. He was very much alive and on the base. Sergeant Towser, who did not know about the deception, took Doc off the personnel roster and had the Army notify Doc Daneeka's wife he was dead. When Doc found out he immediately wrote his wife and tried to protest to Colonel Cathcart. All his protests fell on deaf ears, the only thing Cathcart did was raise the number of missions to seventy. Since he was considered dead he no longer had a place to live and no longer received rations. He lived off the charity of Milo and Sergeant Towser.

Mrs. Daneeka after her intial shock wore off, realized that she would be coming into a substantial amount of money from various sources such as the Army, Social Security and life insurance payouts. She did try to have Doc declared alive, but was told the letter she received must be a hoax. She received another letter from Doc and she tried again to have him declared alive, but by then the money had started to come in. She decided she liked being a widow with some money, so she took the children and moved to Lansing, Michigan.

In chapter thirty-two, Yossarian returns from a mission to find four young pilots setting up housekeeping in his tent. These twenty-one year old newbies were friends in the States and they were laughing and having a grand time at this their first ever combat assignment. Yossarian wanted them gone, now. He threw them all out of what he still thought of, as his and Orr's tent. He was told the men had to stay. He did not know how to handle this group which was full of fun and good cheer. He felt old and depressed, he did not want to be around cheerful people. He tried to get Chief White Halfoat to come over and put fear into the hearts of these youngsters, but he was ill and did not have the energy. In the end, Yossarian decided to accompany Hungry Joe to Rome instead of dealing with the young pilots.

Yossarian went to Rome with Nately, Hungry Joe, Dunbar, Dobbs, and Aarfy. They are sharing the enlisted men's apartment and seeing how much trouble they can get into while in Rome. Nately discovers the prostitute he is in love with was being held by some military big-shots in a hotel suite. Nately, Hungry Joe, Yossarian, Dunbar, and Dobbs decided to rescue her. They find the suite and are let in by Orr's old girlfriend. They trashed the suite, destroying the furniture and throwing all the big shots' clothes out the window. They finally found Nately's prostitute in a bedroom and rushed in to save her. The other men were not happy about having all their clothes thrown out the window, but decided it was best to let Nately and the others take the girl home.

Once she has had a chance to rest, she realized that she is in love with Nately who let it go to his head and started to order her around. He told her what she should wear, what she should do and who she can be friends with. Needless to say that did not go over very well with her, she called him crazy for trying to order her around. Still she loves Nately and became angry with Yossarian when he broke Nately's nose.

Nately's nose was a casualty of a Thankgiving celebration, on the base, which went beyond the usual turkey and cranberry sauce. The men, thanks to Milo, not only had a great meal to feast upon, but also had as much whiskey as they could handle. Consequently some of the men didn't behave in a manner that was becoming of a soldier. The worst of it was when a group of men commandeered a machine gun emplacement and fired rounds just above the tops of the tents. This induced fear in all the soldiers and anger in most of the soldiers. Yossarian, especially, was angry. He was angry enough to grab his gun and run out of his tent intending to shoot those responsible for the hail of bullets. Nately tried to stop Yossarian, which resulted with Yossarian punching him in the nose thus causing the broken nose.

The next morning Yossarian and Dunbar showed up at the hospital as patients feigning illness to be with Nately as he recovered. The chaplain was also there, having lied about having Wisconsin shingles. This was his first lie and he was very proud of it. Everything was going well until the man in the white casts and bandages showed up. Everyone thought he was dead so it caused pandemonium when he turned up again in the hospital. Of course, it was a different soldier with similar wounds. Nurse Duckett, after everyone settled down, told Yossarian that she overheard people talking, saying that "they were going to disappear Dunbar." When Yossarian went back into the ward to tell Dunbar, he was gone.

Doc is declared dead, Nately rescues his prostitute girlfriend, Yossarian hurts Nately, and Dunbar disappears in these chapters. This is a lot for Yossarian and the other men of the bombing group to take in and process. Heller once again shows us how illogical and disorganized the Army is.