Deployed follows young soldier and his unit’s deployment to Iraq, and their subsequent struggles reintegrating once they come home.

Eighteen-year old Private Dunalley enlists in the Army, excited for the good it will provide for himself, his wife Annabelle and their future child, only to be deployed to Iraq right after basic training. However when he eventually comes home to the daunting task of reassembling his life with a wife he can no longer relate to and a child he barely recognizes, he realizes he misses Iraq and can’t wait to be deployed again.

ACT ONE

It is 2008, a year after the “The Surge,” when eighteen-year-old Michael DUNALLEY enlists in the U.S. Army, with the help of a Recruiter (“Step Right Up and Join the Army!”), in order to provide for himself and his girlfriend ANNABELLE after she accidentally becomes pregnant. However, his plans for “A Good Life” are upset when he gets orders for a year-long deployment in Iraq right away. Before he leaves, they quickly marry and vow to pick up right where they left off when he returns.

Once in Iraq (“The Green, Green Grass”), Dunalley immediately wonders what he’s missing back home (“Tell Me”) and has a hard time adjusting: the other infantry soldiers make fun of him for being “The F.N.G.”, his platoon SERGEANT – a hardened lifer – chews him out for being disorderly and his LIEUTENANT – on his last deployment before he returns to civlian life – reprimands Dunalley for making him look bad in front of his men. The only soldier who is kind to him is a SPECIALIST, and the two decide to be battle buddies. Dunalley also meets a female M.P. that the Specialist secretly admires.

Dunalley learns more about the cost of being a soldier as the deployment continues:  during combat training, he sees the toll a life of combat has taken on the Sergeant (“If”); then during Christmas he realizes all he’s missing back home when hears he is having a boy (“Your Soldier Over Here”). To make matters worse, the Sergeant’s wife divorces him via letter, causing Dunalley to wonder about the stability of his own marriage. Meanwhile, the Annabelle discovers that being an Army wife isn’t as romantice as she thought it would be (“Existing”), and the Specialist and M.P. finally admit their feelings for each other while comparing “Battle Scars.”

Feeling powerless to control their lives back home (“Nothing You Can Do”), the soldiers are excited to go on their first important mission (“Could Be Worse”). But during the mision they are ambushed, and the Specialist is killed (“The Green, Green Grass Reprise,” “Battle Hymn”). Annabelle has the baby while they are gone. At the Specialist’s memorial, Dunalley is particularly disturbed.

When it is finally time to go home, the soldiers wonder if they will still be able to survive in the “real world.” The Sergeant worries about getting by without his wife, the Lieutenant about getting by without the Army, and Dunalley about whether or not his vow with Annabelle to pick up right where they left off is still possible (“This Time Next Year”).