Fort Bragg life reflected on TV
Lengthy deployments. Infidelity and divorce. Post-traumatic stress and brain injuries.
"Army Wives," Lifetime's popular series, continues to tackle the weighty issues affecting military spouses. The show, now in its third season, finds the military wives - and husband - encountering new elements of drama.
Claudia Joy Holden, wife of a brigadier general, has dealt with a temperamental teen and had to orchestrate a move on her own. Feisty Pamela clashes with her husband when he returns home from deployment and expects to be man of the house when she has been doing just fine, thank you very much. Roxie's bar is struggling. Roland and his wife, Joan, have a newborn while she is preparing to ship off to Iraq. And perhaps Denise is going through the most as her marriage teeters on the edge of crumbling.
The show, which is sometimes scoffed at by real military wives, still remains a guilty pleasure and a ratings hit with about 3.8 million viewers tuning in on a regular basis.
While the show sometimes portrays Army life with a Hollywood twist, the show's producers attempt to get things right. In March 2008, most of the cast members came to Fort Bragg to get a feel for military life. They shadowed Army wives and soldiers to sample their daily routines.
And the show is committed to helping military families. Later in 2008, one Fort Bragg wife - a breast cancer survivor - received a Ford Mustang convertible as part of the "Army Wives Gives Back" program. Four other wives received Vespas, which were personally delivered by Sally Pressman, one of the show's stars. Their respective stories were televised during an "Army Wives" episode.
Meanwhile, on NBC's new summer series, "The Wanted," Fort Bragg's military presence is felt in another way. The show, produced by NBC News, features Roger Carstens, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army's Special Forces who once helped run Special Forces training at Fort Bragg. Carstens is part of a team that includes an investigative journalist and a Navy Seal who try to track down terrorists. This show purports to be real but has a cinematic feel to it.