[3] F Troop is set at Fort Courage, a fictional United States Army outpost in the Old West, soon after the American Civil War.

He is awarded the Medal of Honor after accidentally instigating the final Civil War charge at the Battle of Appomattox Court House.

Serving as a private in the Quartermaster Corps, he is ordered to fetch the commanding officer's laundry (presumably General Grant's).

A group of Union soldiers mistake his sneezing for an order to attack, turning the tide of the battle and "earning" Parmenter the nickname "The Scourge of Appomattox".

Much of the humor of the series derives from the scheming of Captain Parmenter's somewhat crooked but amiable non-commissioned officers, Sergeant Morgan O'Rourke (Forrest Tucker) and Corporal Randolph Agarn (Larry Storch).

They, in league with the local (fictitious) American Indian tribe, the Hekawis—led by Chief Wild Eagle (Frank de Kova)—are always seeking to expand and conceal their shady souvenir business, covertly and collectively referred to as "O'Rourke Enterprises".

The episode "Captain Parmenter, One Man Army" reveals that all of the soldiers (troopers) of "F Troop" have been at Fort Courage for at least 20 months, meaning they spent at least part of the Civil War there.

In one variation, Vanderbilt, Parmenter, O'Rourke, and Agarn are standing in the water tower platform when a lone Indian, "Bald Eagle" (played by Don Rickles), tries to capture Fort Courage by scaling the tower and jumping on the platform; the combined weight causes the floor to collapse and "Bald Eagle" to be captured.

They live an indeterminate distance from Fort Courage, though the directions to their camp are described as: "Make right turn at big rock that look like bear, then make left turn at big bear that look like rock.”[1] In "Reunion for O'Rourke", Chief Wild Eagle explains how the tribe got its name: "Many moons ago, tribe leave Massachusetts because Pilgrims ruin neighborhood!

They make most of the company's products, usually in the form of Indian souvenirs (on a commercial scale) and whiskey for the town saloon.

Because it had been such a long time, though, since they had been on the "warpath," when the series started, Agarn has to teach the Hekawis how to do a war dance, a clip of which was shown in the first-season opening credits.

The regular Indian characters (none of whom were played by Native American actors) include: Although the show's opening credits claim F Troop was created by Richard Bluel, a final arbitration by the Writers Guild of America eventually gave Seaman Jacobs, Ed James, and Jim Barnett credit.

Episode writers included Arthur Julian (who, alone, wrote 29 of the 65 episodes; he also appeared as an undertaker in his "Survival of the Fittest" script), Stan Dreben (Green Acres), Seaman Jacobs, Howard Merrill (The Dick Van Dyke Show), Ed James, Austin and Irma Kalish, and the highly successful comedy writing duo of Tom Adair and James B. Allardice, who collaborated on some of the most successful American TV sitcoms of the 1960s, including The Munsters; My Three Sons; Gomer Pyle, USMC, and Hogan's Heroes.

The series was directed by Charles Rondeau and Leslie Goodwins, among many others, and produced by William T. Orr and Hy Averback.

The plot engine of O'Rourke and Agarn's moneymaking schemes echoed that of an American television series of the late 1950s, The Phil Silvers Show, which had featured swindling by the wily Sergeant Bilko, also based at a "peacetime" Army base — albeit in the mid-20th century, although with the twist of involving local preindustrial aboriginals with US military men in money-making schemes.

It also echoes some of the money-making schemes found in the American television series McHale's Navy, which was written by some of the same writers from the Bilko show.

The series was also broadcast nationally in Australia on ABC-TV, in Ireland on Telefís Éireann, and in Italy during the '80s as a "filler" show during summers (when ratings usually dropped due to large numbers of people going on holidays).

On September 27, 2005, Warner Home Video released the first F Troop DVD compilation as part of its "Television Favorites" series.