Catch-22 Characters:
Cpt. Aardvaark (Aarfy):
Appleby:
Cpt. Black:
Col. Cargill:
Col. Cathcart:
Chaplain:
Clevinger:
Nurse Cramer:
Major Danby:
Dobbs:
Doc Daneeka:
Dori Duz:
General Dreedle:
Nurse Duckett:
Dunbar:
Cpt. Flume:
Fortiori:
Gus & Wes:
Chief Halfoat:
Havermeyer:
Hungry Joe:
Huple:
Kid Sampson:
Kid Sister:
Lt. Col. Korn:
Kraft:
Luciana:
Col. Moodus:
Maj. Maj. Maj. Maj:
McWatt:
Lt. Minderbender:
Mudd:
Lt. Nately:
Nately’s Whore:
Old Man in Rome:
Orr:
Gen. Peckem:
Cpts. Piltchard & Wren:
Major Sanderson:
Lt. Scheisskopf:
Mrs. Scheissopf:
Corp. Snark:
The Soldier in White:
Snowden:
Soldier who Saw Everything Twice:
Stubbs:
Corp. Whitcomb:
Wintergreen:
Yossarrian:
Catch-22 Setting
The time of Catch-22 is late 1944 during World War II. The main setting is the island of Pianosa,
near Italy. World War II battles occurred both in Europe and in the Pacific. In 1943 the Allies
(Great Britain, the Soviet Union, France, and the United States) were concentrating in Europe on
freeing the large areas controlled by Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and other Axis powers. An Allied
invasion force from North Africa landed in Sicily in July 1943. British and American troops
defeated Italian forces and gained control of southern Italy, but winter weather and mountainous
terrain delayed their advance. It was June 1944 before they took Rome, and August before they
took Florence. German troops, meanwhile, had become entrenched in northern Italy. Allied tactics
turned to bombing from the air, with American bombers based on Corsica and in southern Italy.
This is the setting of Catch-22- late 1944, with General Dreedle's command post on the island of
Corsica, General Peckem established in Rome, ex- P.F.C. Wintergreen's mail room in the city of
Florence, and the rest of the major characters stationed at an airfield on the island of Pianosa. The
United States Air Force did not become a separate military branch until after World War II, so the
characters belong to what was called the Army Air Forces. Their mission is to bomb Italian cities
under German control. Some countries remained neutral throughout World War II- two that are
important in Catch-22, as places where a man could wait out the war, are Sweden and Switzerland.
Pianosa is a real island eight miles southwest of Elba, between Corsica and Italy, but it's too small
for all that occurs there in Catch-22. You are seeing a fictionalized Pianosa. Flashbacks also take
you to training bases in Colorado and California, and to a mission over Avignon in southern
France. Several other scenes occur on Corsica and in Florence or Rome. Flights cover the
Mediterranean and Near East. Always, however, the action returns to Pianosa.
Military Ranks:
1) General of the Army *****
2) General****
3) Lieutenant General***
4) Major General**
5) Brigadier General*
6) Colonel
7) Lieutenant Colonel
8) Major
7) Captain
8) First Lieutenant
9) Second Lieutenant
10) Warrant Officers
11) Sergeants (noncommissioned officers)
12) Enlisted ranks
13) Private