Army Wives

Based on the non-fiction book originally titled Under the Sabers: The Unwritten Code of Army Wives, by Tanya Biank, the series is set at the fictional Fort Marshall, at the old Charleston Naval Base, in North Charleston, South Carolina, home to the also fictional 23rd Airborne Division (the show itself, however, is actually filmed in various locations such as the Charleston Air Force Base and the sound stage off Dorchester Road in the City of North Charleston. Some scenes have been shot in and around the City of Charleston). Fort Marshall is presumably based on the actual 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg.

In the pilot episode of Army Wives, "A Tribe is Born," Roxy impetuously decides to marry PFC Trevor LeBlanc and moves with her two kids to his army post. Floundering in her new life as an Army wife, she takes a job bartending at a local joint known for being a Jody bar (where civilian men go to hit on enlisted men's wives). While on the post, Roxy meets Claudia Joy Holden, who believes that her husband COL Michael Holden's promotion didn't come through because of base politics. Another army wife, Pamela Moran, is heavily pregnant with twins - she's secretly acting as a surrogate to get her family out of debt. Meanwhile, psychiatrist Roland Burton is trying to reconnect with his wife, LTC Joan Burton, who has just returned from Afghanistan. Then there's Denise Sherwood, who is dealing with her son Jeremy's anger-management issues and her strict husband, MAJ Frank Sherwood, is about to be deployed. The unlikely group bonds when Pamela unexpectedly goes into labor at Claudia Joy's wives' tea party and subsequently gives birth on the pool table in the bar where Roxy works. Not wanting everyone to know her family's dire financial situation, Pamela relies on these new friends to keep her surrogacy from being exposed.

As the first season progresses, the four women and Roland all become great friends. They go on to face things such as deployments, abuse, hostage situations, adultery, posttraumatic stress disorder, prescription drug addiction, and the vicious rumors that surround them.

Though the show is based on the book of the same name, and some of the characters echo their book counterparts, significant differences are in place. This includes such matters as who was killed on the show as compared to who died in the book. For instance, Claudia Joy's oldest daughter Amanda died on the show in the second season opener. The book counterpart of Claudia Joy lost her husband in a plane crash during a mission to find the remains of soldiers in Vietnam.

Another major sub-plot of the third season is the Emmalin Holden character becoming increasingly flippant and (at times) rebellious toward her parents (Claudia Joy and General Michael Holden). When the Holden family sponsors Haneen, a young girl from Iraq, who lost her entire family in a bombing and is in the U.S. for a complicated operation to restore the use of her severely injured right hand, the girl breaks down and wonders aloud why she was spared. It is revealed that Emmalin has been suppressing many of the same feelings, not knowing why she was spared when her older sister, Amanda, was killed near the end of season one.

The fourth season deals with Roxy LeBlanc's miscarriage, Denise Sherwood's pregnancy, Col. Joan Burton's Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), the divorce of Pamela and Chase Moran, the possible closing of Fort Marshall, and the deployment of three husbands/fathers (General Michael Holden, Lt. Col. Frank Sherwood and Sgt. Trevor LeBlanc) to Afghanistan, the relationship of Jeremy Sherwood and Tanya.