Oh yes, I remember. I'll check that one out too!

Indeed. It's so frustrating! It happened with Cpl. Boyle on Gomer Pyle, too. Considering the nature of the show, I assume he was just transferred out. But they couldn't even be bothered to say that much.

I don't know whether I'd call it tactless, since if the actor died I wouldn't necessarily consider it tactless for his character to canonically die too, depending on how they handled it. So I kind of consider the actor and the character sharing an illness to be the same principle.