BJ Hunnicutt tells Sgt. Zales to put his "John Hancock on [a letter], or maybe your Syngman Rhee." Syngman Rhee was president of South Korea during the Korean War.
One of the enlisted men helping Frank to dig up a "bomb" proclaims, "Fresh Earth!" B.J. replies that he saw that film, with Paul Muni and Luise Rainer. The film to which he refers is actually titled The Good Earth (1937).
Colonel Potter states that he is 1/4th Cherokee.
When Frank was using a metal detector to search for bombs, Hawkeye said that Frank was doing it because he had heard that Eisenhower was coming to Korea. This is a reference to a pledge made by Dwight Eisenhower during the 1952 presidential campaign. On October 24, 1952, Eisenhower delivered a speech in Detroit in which he criticized President Truman's handling of the Korean War. In the speech, Eisenhower pledged that if elected he would go to Korea to work on bringing an "honorable end" to the war, which is considered to be the most dramatic pledge of the campaign. The speech became known as his "I Shall Go to Korea" speech. After he was elected, Eisenhower went to Korea on December 2, 1952 for a three-day tour.