Chaplain A. T. Tappman (Albert Taylor): An Anabaptist minister who is shy and self-conscious. He lives on the woodsy outskirts of camp and is pushed around by officials and his own assistant, Whitcomb. Homesick and submissive, he longs for his wife and is grateful for Yossarians friendship. He often pleads with higher ranking officials on Yossarians behalf to stop raising the number of missions and to send the men home. He has a burst of confidence at the end when Yossarian decides to escape to Sweden. The chaplain vows to stand up to authority and to persevere.
Colonel Cathcart : A conceited and dejected colonel who constantly tries to garner attention and desperately wants to be a general. Cathcart is the main antagonist of the novel because he volunteers his men for dangerous assignments and constantly raises the number of missions in a tour of duty to break records. He carries a cigarette holder to make him look sophisticated and is obsessed with getting his picture in The Saturday Evening Post. Cathcart is plagued by a persecution complex and constantly tallies up pros and cons as 'feathers in his cap' and 'black eyes.' Because Cathcart unfairly raises the number of missions, Yossarian and Dobbs consider assassinating him. Cathcart offers Yossarian a deal: if Yossarian will praise him to officers and the public back in the states, Cathcart will send Yossarian home.
Doc Daneeka: The bitter flight surgeon who resentfully avoids his duties in the medical tent. He is bitter that the war took him away from a newly lucrative medical practice back in the states. Yossarian asks the doctor to ground him on the basis of insanity. Doc Daneeka explains that it is impossible and is the first to introduce Yossarian to Catch-22. Daneeka is afraid to fly. He asks McWatt to record his name on the pilots flight log so he can draw flight pay without actually going up in a plane. He is presumed dead when McWatt crashes. Irrationally, nobody heeds his claim that he is still alive and his wife is sent a generic death notice.
Dunbar: Yossarians mischievous friend who cultivates boredom to increase his life-span. Dunbar stirs up trouble, fondling nurses with Yossarian and inciting a riot in the hospital over the soldier in white. Officials cause Dunbar to mysteriously 'disappear' before Yossarian can warn him of the impending trouble.
Hungry Joe: The screaming, lustful hero of the air force. He has flown more missions (six complete tours of duty!) than any one else. Orders sending him home are constantly overturned when Cathcart raises the number of required missions, and he consequently goes nuts. Terrifying nightmares plague him nightly as Huples suffocating cat sits on his face. He is obsessed with women and voraciously photographs the whores in Rome. He finally dies when Yossarian is in the hospital, suffocated in his sleep by Huples cat.
Milo Minderbinder: : The mess hall officer who creates an international trade syndicate in which everyone has a share. The entrepreneur is hugely successful and is elected to various public offices in countries along his trade route. Milo conspires with the Germans to bomb his own unit for profit and sells mission plans to the enemy. M & M Enterprises nearly collapses when Milo purchases a whole crop of Egyptian cotton. He tries to feed the cotton to troops in the mess halls by covering it with chocolate. Milo rationalizes everything by profit potential and convinces the army to support him because the syndicate is owned in part by everyone.
Nately: A rich, gentle, polite, good looking young man who looks out for Yossarian and is deeply in love with a whore. Yossarian breaks his nose when he tries to stop Yossarian from killing some pranksters on Thanksgiving. Patriotic and idealistic, he is deeply agitated when the old man in the brothel makes disparaging jokes about America. Nately finishes his missions but signs on for more because he is desperate to stay near his beloved whore. He wants to marry her, even though his wealthy father will disapprove. Nately is tragically killed on one of these extra missions, and his death deeply affects the chaplain and Yossarian.
Natelys whore : An apathetic whore in Rome with whom Nately is deeply in love. She has a surly twelve-year-old kid sister who tries to imitate her. The whore cares little for Nately until he rescues her from captivity in an apartment rented by some rowdy officers and tucks her safely into bed. She hates Yossarian (probably for breaking Natelys nose) and savagely tries to kill him when he tells her of Natelys death. She ferociously batters Yossarian and threatens him with a kitchen knife. When he escapes her wrath in Rome and returns to Pianosa, she stalks him everywhere he goes. Disguised as a private, she eventually stabs him. When he escapes from the hospital on his way to Sweden, she jumps out at him again and Yossarian narrowly misses her deadly blow.
Orr: Yossarians warm-hearted roommate, whose inventions (like a wood-burning stove) make their tent the most luxurious in the squadron. The unlucky, buck-toothed freak crash-lands on every mission. He asks Yossarian to fly with him, but Yossarian refuses. Everyone things Orr is simple-minded because he stuffs his fat cheeks with apples and constantly brings up a whore who once battered his head with a shoe in Rome. His pretend ignorance is actually a cover and the frequent crashes are really practice for his escape to Sweden. He wanted Yossarian to join him, but his roommate never took the hint.
Snowden: A radio-gunner who is killed during the Avignon mission. His guts spilled onto Yossarian in the back of the plane while he bled and froze to death. Snowdens gory death haunts Yossarian. The chaplain conducts Snowdens funeral and Yossarian walks around naked for a while, refusing to wear the uniform once soaked in Snowdens blood.
Yossarian: The main character of the novel. Yossarian is a paranoid bombardier who thinks everyone is trying to kill him. He avoids flying combat missions by all means possible: by moving the bomb line on the map of Italy preceding the Bologna mission, by poisoning the squadrons potatoes, by dismantling his intercom and ordering his plane to turn back, and by feigning a liver condition to pass the time safely in the hospital. Snowdens gory death traumatizes Yossarian and he refuses to wear his uniform, preferring instead to go naked. He even appears nude in formation to accept a medal from Colonel Cathcart for the disaster over Ferrara. During that fatal mission, Kraft was killed because Yossarian swung back over the targeted bridge for a second pass. Yossarian asks to be grounded on the basis of insanity and rebelliously refuses to fly more missions. Because his disobedience harms army morale, Colonel Cathcart and Colonel Korn offer him a deal: if Yossarian will praise his commanding officers, he will be sent home. Yossarian eventually rejects the detestable bargain and runs away to join Orr in Sweden.
Minor Characters
Appleby: A patriotic, fair-haired Ping-Pong champion from Iowa. He excels at everything and everyone likes him. Yossarian despises him. Appleby reports Yossarian for refusing to take Atabrine tablets. He is a hot-shot and wants to be the best pilot in the air force.
Captain Black: He gloats when the men are sent on the risky mission to Bologna and is bitter that Major Major was promoted to squadron commander instead of himself. Black was responsible for the preposterous Loyalty Oath crusade, in which everyone was required to sign a statement of allegiance in order to obtain dinner, gear, or to perform any mundane or necessary task. The crabby captain sleeps with Natelys whore just to tick Nately off. A big jerk, his favorite saying is 'eat your liver.'
C.I.D. Men : From the Criminal Investigation Department. They probe the 'Washington Irving' forgery incidents and are often undercover in the hospital. Their investigations lead to the interrogation of the chaplain for falsifying documents.
Captain Flume: The squadron public relations officer who is terrified that Chief White Halfoat will slit his throat during the night. He retreats into the forest and lives in the wild, refusing to come out until Halfoat dies of pneumonia. Fierce and filthy, the chaplain meets him on the edge of the forest one day and mistakes him for a prophet.
Captain Piltchard and Captain Wren: The joint squadron operations officers.
Both are mild and soft-spoken and they love to fly missions. Because they are in charge of flight assignments, Yossarian fatefully instructs them to keep him out of Orrs unlucky plane.
Chief White Halfoat: The Native American chief intelligence officer who can neither read nor write. His family was constantly forced to move around when oil was struck on their land. He bitterly hates foreigners and wants revenge on the white man. Halfoat threatens to slit his roommate Flumes throat and correctly predicts his own death from pneumonia.
Colonel Cargill: General Peckems forceful and incompetent right-hand man. He is jealous when Scheisskopf joins the outfit under Peckem.
Corporal Snark: Milos first chef who is bitter to be cooking for tasteless army heathens. He poisons the sweet potatoes with GI soap to delay the Bologna mission when Yossarian asks him to.
Corporal Whitcomb: The chaplains over-sensitive assistant. He wants to ins
Both are mild and soft-spoken and they love to fly missions. Because they are in charge of flight assignments, Yossarian fatefully instructs them to keep him out of Orrs unlucky plane.