Overview
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 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 is 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 (Sally Pressman) impetuously decides to marry Private First Class Trevor LeBlanc (Drew Fuller) and moves with her two children to his Army post. Floundering in her new life as an Army wife, she takes a job as a bartender 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 (Kim Delaney), who believes that her husband Col. Michael Holden's (Brian McNamara) recently missed out on a promotion because of base politics. Another Army wife, Pamela Moran (Brigid Brannagh), is pregnant with twins; she is secretly acting as a surrogate to get her family out of debt. Pamela's husband Chase (Jeremy Davidson) is a non-commissioned officer assigned to the highly secretive and often deployed special operations unit Delta Force. Meanwhile, psychiatrist Roland Burton (Sterling K. Brown) is trying to reconnect with his wife, Lieutenant Colonel Joan Burton (Wendy Davis), who has just returned from Afghanistan. Denise Sherwood (Catherine Bell) is dealing with her son Jeremy's anger issues and her strict husband, Major Frank Sherwood (Terry Serpico), 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 (and Claudia Joy, who was already a good friend) to keep her surrogacy from being exposed.
As the first season progresses, the four women and Roland all become close friends. They face issues such as deployments, abuse, hostage situations, adultery, post-traumatic stress disorder, death, and prescription drug addiction.
Though the show is based on the book of the same name, and some of the characters echo their book counterparts, significant differences exist. For example, in the book, Claudia Joy loses her husband in a helicopter crash during a mission to find the remains of soldiers in Vietnam.
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