F Troop

Captain Wilton Parmenter () is the so-called "Scourge of the West." As military governor of the territory and commander of Fort Courage, he is credited with keeping the peace (which is in fact really kept by O'Rourke's secret treaty with the Hekawi tribe –- though other tribes seem to fear his reputation).^[5] Chief Wild Eagle knows him by a different title: "The Great White Pigeon". When the need to keep up appearances arises, the troopers and the Hekawis stage mock battles to fool Parmenter and outsiders. Parmenter is successful at "keeping the peace"; he just does not know why. He is well-meaning and sweet-natured, although essentially clueless and a bit gullible. He also invariably is kind and encouraging to his men, and always bravely leads them into action, albeit ineptly. A stickler for regulation and proper military conduct, he checks the Army Manual for even the oddest situations, such as "If a soldier is captured by horse".^[10] A perpetual klutz, Parmenter is forever jabbing himself, pinching his fingers in or on something, banging into, tripping over, or knocking things over. He cannot dismount a horse properly, and frequently becomes entangled with his ceremonial sword. Parmenter, born in Philadelphia, comes from a "proud family" with a "great military tradition." Among his ancestors are his first cousin Major Achilles Parmenter, second cousin Lt. Colonel Hercules Parmenter, uncle Colonel Jupiter Parmenter (Rod McGaughy), his father General Thor Parmenter^[5] and his great-grandfather Major Hannibal Parmenter—who was with Gen. George Washington at Valley Forge. By contrast, Corporal Agarn's great-grandfather was a deserter.^[9] Jeanette Nolan played Parmenter's visiting mother (no first name given) in "A Fort's Best Friend is Not a Mother".^[11] When his sister Daphne Parmenter (Patty Regan) visits the fort, her eyes are on Private Dobbs.^[12] O'Rourke frequently calls Captain Parmenter "the Old Man" (in the sense that he is their leader) though Parmenter usually is surprised at being called that because he is fairly young ("What old man?"). In one episode, he receives a medal for accidentally capturing Chief Geronimo, who falls into a bear trap while trying to kill Corporal Agarn. (True to form, Parmenter captures the bear in the trap and then gets trapped in another bear trap.) In "The Majority of Wilton" (near the end of the series), he turns down a promotion to major because it would mean being reassigned to a new command and leaving F Troop.^[13]

Sergeant Morgan Sylvester O'Rourke () is the Sgt. Bilko of his day (as Agarn said to O'Rourke: "When it comes to shifty, sneaky, double dealing ... you're the tops").^[14] Originally from Steubenville, Ohio, he has been in the Army at least 25 years,^[15] and it took him either 10 years to become a sergeant or has been a sergeant for 22 years as of his 25th anniversary.^[15] O'Rourke's business dealings involve illegally running the local town saloon and an exclusive-rights treaty with the local Indian tribe (the Hekawi) to sell their "authentic" souvenirs to tourists and for the commercial market through the shady, undercover O'Rourke Enterprises operation. He also tries to find ways to fleece the men out of their pay through different schemes such as finding the men mail-order brides.^[16] Though most of his business schemes fail, he apparently is the only competent soldier in F Troop. O'Rourke is mentioned as a veteran of the Mexican–American War,^[15] but nothing is said about the Civil War. In "The Sergeant and the Kid",^[17] the tall and rugged O'Rourke shows his romantic side by taking an interest in the widow Molly Walker (Pippa Scott) and her son Joey (Peter Robbins). In "Don't Look Now, But One of Our Cannons is Missing," O'Rourke claims he saved Agarn's life twice—once from drowning and once when a rattlesnake bit him.^[18] (Coincidentally, Forrest Tucker actually served in the U.S. Cavalry prior to World War II and played a similar "O'Rourke" cavalry sergeant on Gunsmoke.) Tucker's wife at the time, Mary Fisk, appeared in the series twice. She played Squirrel Girl in "Lieutenant O'Rourke, Front and Center"^[2] and Kissing Squaw in "What Are You Doing After the Massacre?".^[19] In one St Patricks day episode Forest Tucker played Sgt O'Rourke's father - a Stage Irish-man who is just as much as conman as his son is.

Corporal Randolph Agarn () is O'Rourke's somewhat dimwitted sidekick and business partner in the shady O'Rourke Enterprises (his name is a play on both Randolph Scott and John Agar, who were cowboy stars). The character Agarn, originally from Passaic, New Jersey, took six years after enlistment to become a lowly corporal. At the time of the series, Agarn has been in the cavalry for 10 years, and has been posted to Fort Courage for the last four,^[20] apparently spending the Civil War years at Fort Courage. He has impersonated Generals George Washington and Ulysses Grant.^[18] However, in dual roles, Storch played numerous lookalike relatives of Agarn, including his French-Canadian cousin Lucky Pierre,^[20] his Russian cousin Dmitri Agarnoff^[21] and his Mexican bandito cousin Pancho Agarnado, known as "El Diablo." (In the same episode he also played Granny Agarn, Uncle Gaylord Agarn of Tallahassee and Pancho's sister Carmen Agarnado).^[22] Confrontational and often overly-emotional in every respect, Agarn frequently collapses in tears with the phrases "Oh, Cap'n!" or "Oh, Sarge!" (depending on whose chest he buries his head in). To get the men to attention, he barks out his trademark loud and exaggerated (but unintelligible) "Aaaaa-aaahh" command. Whenever he becomes frustrated by something one of the troopers does wrong (which is often), short-tempered Agarn hits him with his hat which, unlike everyone else's, is grey Confederate army issue. A hypochondriac, Agarn thinks he has contracted the illnesses he reads or hears about or others around him have (including a horse).^[23] Agarn was briefly promoted to sergeant in the episode "Lieutenant O'Rourke, Front and Center". Larry Storch was nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding performance by an actor in a leading role in a comedy series in 1967.

Bugler Private Hannibal Shirley Dobbs () is F Troop's inept bugler, originally from New Orleans, who can only play "Yankee Doodle" and "Dixie" with regularity. Standard U.S. Army tunes such as "Reveille", "Assembly", and "Retreat" are only occasionally played competently. One episode had him playing a song, which Wrangler Jane says is a lovely rendition of "Old Kentucky Home", only for him to say he'd been trying to play "Reveille". A southern "mama's boy", he is also Captain Parmenter's orderly, as well as serving in the fort's cannon crew—usually with disastrous results. Private Dobbs is a personal thorn in Agarn's side, with his regular taunts resulting in Agarn's frequent retort, "I'm warning you, Dobbs!", even threatening him with a court-martial. Dobbs learned how to use a lasso on his mama's alligator farm. Dobbs was briefly promoted to Corporal in the episode "Lieutenant O'Rourke, Front and Center". In one episode O'Rourke saved Dobbs from being married by explaining to a gold-digging mail-order bride that Dobbs was not a rich man!

Trooper Vanderbilt () is the fort's lookout, who seems all but blind even with glasses (20/900 in each eye, according to Agarn) and answers questions from the lookout tower about what he sees with incongruous responses, such as "No, thank you Agarn. I just had my coffee."^[1] He once allowed two Indians wearing feather head-dresses to enter the fort unchallenged. Asked why, he replied, "I thought they were turkeys." In another episode he mistakes a flock of turkeys for attacking Indians.^[15] In one episode, he shoots his pistol in a crowded barracks—and manages to miss everyone. Vanderbilt was a bustle inspector in a dress factory before joining the Army. In the running gag that brings the lookout tower crashing to the ground, the heavyset Vanderbilt is the soldier who comes down with it.

Trooper Duffy () is an aged old-time cavalryman with a limp, the result of his "old Alamo injury" acting up again. Duffy claims to be the lone survivor of the siege of the Alamo in 1836, and loves to recount his exploits alongside Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, "shoulder to shoulder and backs to the wall" roughly 30 years before being in F Troop. (Steele was in fact a Western movie and serial star years earlier, even appearing in With Davy Crockett at the Fall of the Alamo in 1926, some four decades before F Troop). However, no one ever seems to take his claim seriously, and he may be engaged in telling tall tales. Parmenter discovered that Duffy is listed as dead in his service record (as Sergeant O'Rourke noted to Captain Parmenter, Duffy's service record might need some updating).^[9]

at IMDb

at epguides.com