440th Airlift Wing helps 'Move that bus!'

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Steve Staedler
  • 440th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
Pope Field, N.C. (AFNS) --  Airmen from the 440th Airlift Wing got a taste of Hollywood recently as ABC's reality television show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" was here to film scenes for an upcoming episode.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition renovates homes for families facing recent or ongoing hardships.

Show host Ty Pennington, the cast and crew were in Fayetteville, N.C., to renovate the Steps-N-Stages Jubilee House, a veteran women's shelter founded by 15-year Navy veteran Barbara Marshall, officials said. The house staff offers shelter, support and services, such as mentoring and life coaching for homeless women veterans. Along with housing three women veterans and their children, each week the Jubilee House works with more than 30 homeless women veterans seeking assistance.

Airmen here provided support each day for the seven-day project in more ways than one. Airmen from the 440th AW were on hand from the first day of the surprise "door knock" to day two, when 109 women, both service members and veterans, who on Pennington's command literally began to pull the house from its frame. Each day afterward, Air Force members were there to help rebuild the home from the ground up.

On day five, the television set was on the Pope Field flightline. Because this special, two-hour episode focuses on women veterans and service members, part of the show's script called for Pennington to interact with female Airmen on the Pope Field.

The scenes include Pennington learning about the Jubilee House renovation while walking on the flightline; coordinating an airdrop of supplies with Maj. Deanna Franks, the 440th AW director of staff and a C-130 Hercules pilot; and helping Senior Airmen Kasumi Bailey, Nicole Ramsey and Michelle Seal along with Airman 1st Class Brittany Hauck load a pallet onto an aircraft. The scene will depict a pallet of building supplies being loaded onto a C-130 to be air dropped at the Jubilee House.

Renovations of the Jubilee House garnered attention from the White House. As part of her ongoing Joining Forces initiative to aid and support military families, first lady Michelle Obama was on hand July 21 when Pennington and the crowd shouted "Move that bus!," the show's catch phrase for the reveal of the renovated houses.

A few Airmen were directly included in footage captured with Mrs. Obama as she toured parts of the house. Others, along with members from each branch of the U.S. military, were prominently placed in a military section of the set when the bus moved to reveal a brand new, 6,000 square foot Steps-N-Stages Jubilee House. The old house was 1,600 square feet.

After the reveal of the house, Mrs. Obama, visited the service members, hugged and thanked as many as she could for their service.

The Jubilee House episode is expected to air Sept. 25.