Air Force News, news from Iraq - Air Force Times

Charleston airmen become TV series extras

The second season of “Army Wives” will look familiar to airmen.

The Lifetime Television drama series is set in the fictional Army base Fort Marshall in Charleston, S.C. To add realism, the show’s producers have filmed at Charleston Air Force Base to get the look of a bustling military installation.

After the show’s first season, producers sought approval from the Defense Department to use actual military installations and people in the second season, said Capt. Wayne Capps, a spokesman for Charleston’s Reserve 315th Airlift Wing.

The storylines are approved by the Defense Department on a script-by-script basis.

While crews were scouting locations, Capps said he suggested shooting an aeromedical evacuation scene onboard one of the 315th’s C-17 Globemaster IIIs.

“They really liked the idea, so I gave them a lot of details and some pictures of what an aeromedical flight actually looks like,” Capps said. “Next thing you know, they wrote it into their script.”

The scene onboard the C-17 featured seven flight nurses and medical technicians from the 315th, who also used the opportunity to train on setting up the plane for a real medical evacuation mission.

The scene features a character from the show being injured in Iraq and evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, Capps said.

Crews filmed five or six scenes for the second season’s fourth episode on Monday at the air base. Others include a unit’s return from deployment, featuring some of the 200 reservists acting as extras, Capps said. The reservists were paid for their showbiz stints, he said.

The storylines shot Monday will be featured in an episode airing June 29.