Army life familiar to Serpico

Terry Serpico plays a craggy military officer married to the lovely Catherine Bell on "Army Wives," the Lifetime drama filmed in Charleston. Next month he'll appear as an acquitted rapist alongside Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, who star as detectives in a crime film called "Righteous Kill."

But as a featured character on the TV series, Serpico appeared in nine of 13 episodes the first season as Maj. Frank Sherwood. It's a role he knows well, having grown up as a military brat. His family lived on five Army bases, his father retiring as a colonel and as dean of the Army ROTC program at the University of Pennsylvania.

And like Sherwood, Serpico's father's name is also Frank, though Serpico sees little irony in the role. Sherwood and his father have much in common. They're both hardliners averse to change, Serpico says, relying on outdated notions of gender and society.

Read more in Sunday edition of The Post and Courier.