Nurse Sue Ann Duckett is working at the base hospital going about her duties when Yossarian and Dunbar decide to have a little fun with her. They each physically accost her by touching her in inappropriate ways. They explain this behavior away by saying that they are not responsible for their actions, because they did not do anything wrong. Dunbar defends Yossarian by saying he is crazy because Yossarian has nightmares about fish. This revelation leads Yossarian to Major Sanderson who is the base psychiatrist. He decides after a couple of sessions with Yossarian, that he is crazy and should be shipped home. Unfortunately for Yossarian the Major has him mixed up with Fortiori, who is sent home instead. Yossarian goes to Doc Daneeka and tells him he should be sent home because he has been declared crazy. The doctor tells him that if crazy people do not go into battle, who will.

Dobbs still wants to kill Colonel Cathcart. He would like Yossarian to give him permission to kill Cathcart before he sends the men on another mission. Yossarian still refuses to give him permission. Dobbs has information about a replacement center where there are plenty of men to take their place. Cathcart is just unwilling to allow his men to go home, so Dobbs feels the only way to stop Cathcart is to kill him.

After flying two more missions Yossarian decides it is time to implement Dobbs' plan to kill Colonel Cathcart. He tells Dobbs he is ready to get rid of Cathcart, but Dobbs no longer wants the colonel dead. It seems he has completed his sixty missions and is waiting to go home. Yossarian tells him Cathcart will only raise the number of missions needed to go home, but Dobbs is willing to wait. Dobbs suggests that Yossarian talk to Orr about his plan, because Orr keeps crash landing his planes, so he might be willing to help Yossarian.

Yossarian talks to Sergeant Knight, who was with Orr the last time he crash landed in the ocean. It seems Orr was perfectly calm and organized, he even found food stashed in the life raft for the men. He knew how to take care of everyone. Yossarian decides to go to his tent which he shares with Orr to see what he was up to. Orr is taking apart the valve that ran the stove in their tent. He wants it in perfect working order for Yossarian when winter came. He tells Yossarian he doesn't know if he will be there when winter hits. He drives Yossarian crazy with his tinkering, but that did not stop him.

It turns out Orr was right because the next mission his plane goes down. The other men make it into one life raft, but Orr has to get into a separate raft. His raft becomes separated from the others. The other men are rescued, but Orr is not found. Yossarian consoles himself with the knowledge of Orr's resourcefulness. He knows Orr will be found.

There still is no news about Orr the next day. General Peckem has a new Colonel on his staff, Colonel Scheisskopf. The same Scheisskopf who had been the drill instructor when Yossarian had been a cadet. He had been promised that he would never see combat or be sent overseas, it seems he had been lied to. He was also told he could have the men parade and he could send for his wife, these too were lies. General Peckem is happy to have Colonel Scheisskopf on his staff because it gives him more prestige than General Dreedle. This is because he now has a larger staff than Dreedle, which works toward his plan to take over Dreedle's bombing groups. General Peckem feels that Special Services is more than U.S.O. tours, he feels it should include command of bombing groups.

General Peckem prides himself on his ability to show off his intellect and wit, unfortunately it is lost on Colonel Scheisskopf. He has no sense of humor, nor does he care about intellectual pursuits. All he wants to is to have the men parade march. The General finally allows him to issue memoranda proclaiming that the parade marches are cancelled. The General also enjoyed pitting Colonel Cargill against Colonel Scheisskopf by giving them contradictory orders. Such as telling Scheisskopf to keep an eye on everything Cargill is doing, he then gives the same order to Cargill for Scheisskopf.

The men are upset to find out their next mission is to bomb a small Italian town in order to block a road the Germans are using. They feel the townspeople should be left alone, but they are over ruled by Colonel Cathcart.

Yossarian is on a training flight with McWatt, when McWatt decides to have a little fun and fly as close to the ground as possible. He scares Yossarian so much that he finally threatens McWatt's life if he does not gain altitude. McWatt raises the plane up into the sky but, Yossarian feels guilty for threatening his friend's life.

Yossarian starts to see Nurse Duckett socially, she has forgiven him for his little fun in the hospital. One day while they are at the beach, McWatt is once again flying close to the ground and accidently flies to close to Kid Sampson while Kid is on the raft. He cuts Sampson in half, killing him instantly. Everyone is horrified, especially McWatt, who, after having the others in the plane parachute out, crashes into the side of a mountain.

These chapters are full of unexpected turns of events, the loss of Orr, Colonel Scheissskopf being assigned to General Peckem, the relationship between Yosssarian and Duckett, and the deaths of Sampson and McWatt. Like life, war is full of unexpected twists and turns, as Heller points out in these chapters.