If you guys can wait a couple months---I leave for home late November, will be back in the office round mid December, I can get some hats...they're not overly fancy, but we don't wear "overly fancy"
Anyway, the original episodes of JAG and NCIS were based "very loosely" on actual NCIS cases. If you have expanded Cable, and get the Military Channel or Discovery ID, there's a show out there called "The Real NCIS", which follows real Agents and real cases---also a show out there called Recon, Military CSI..I've been on both of shows <<No autographs please--just kidding>> ......
In regard to the CBS show, they show a lot more "Field Work" than three Agents would normally do. ****Usually****, and this is very dendent on the office you're assigned to, there's a whole team of Agents (called the Major Case Response Team--MCRT--it's on the side of the "ambulance-van" in the show) that crawls all over the scene. Sometimes it is only three agents.
I used to be the MCRT Leader at Southeast Field Office (Mayport, NAS JAX in Jacksonville, FL and Submarine Base Kings Bay, GA), but was assigned to Kings Bay--which was a smaller office. Mayport and NAS JAX usually had 5 or 6 guys on call for the team, I may have only 3 at Kings Bay...it just depended. Big offices like Norfolk and Camp Lejeune...they have more...
The show also focuses on a team from DC that launches to other offices--that doesn't happen, cases are handled within the Geographic Responsibility of the individual Field Offices (except in extreme circumstances)...
However, in order to have a good show, the "fly away team" concept is the way to go, and the writers do and EXCELLENT job of portraying intra squad dynamics, which can be...."interesting"...
I think they do a decent job getting the nuts and bolts of what we do, though sometimes the show more friction with the FBI than actually exists, one of my best friends is my FBI counterpart....and I turned down the FBI b/c I didn't want the pay cut to move to San Francisco--we all handle ourselves in a professional manner (usually--exept when my counterpart is wrong--which is most of the time
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They don't show the hours of tedious paperwork that's involved, or the administrative burden general law enforcement entails, but ratings would pretty much drop if they did
We also don't shoot as much...thank God, or I'd be in Admin hearings all the time
Unfortunately, there is no Abby---though I know the inspiration for her character quite well---and they're pretty much dead in line--except for the tattoos--and no advanced lab. We used to have our own labs, but shut them down to use the U.S. Army Criminal Investigative Lab in Atlanta---though we have just decided to "restart" our labs...
I'll be happy to talk about what I do (or what I'm allowed to say) if you guys want, but I dont' want to bore you and I think you get the picture....
Just remember that to work the cases they work--there's some SERIOUS paperwork to go along with it--just like it was when I was a local Detective.
Oh yeah, I've made guys do reports over again, too---they really love that.
And, uh.....I outrank Gibbs....LOL
Stay safe DisneyFed! Anchors away and all that stuff!
I'd also love to hear about Abby's inspiration as well, if you can share anything. Abby is my favorite character... well, Abby and Gibbs. 
And it has it's own NCIS agent, even better!
