NCIS didn’t turn into TV’s most genuine navy franchise accidentally. On this unique roundtable and video, veteran advisors Leon Carroll, Alan Burghard, Michael Smith, and R.J. Cline reveal how they appropriate scripts, form storylines, and honor actual service members to maintain each salute, uniform, and funeral scene true to life.
The NCIS franchise has been on TV lengthy sufficient to really feel like a part of the cultural furnishings. It started as a JAG spinoff, grew right into a scores titan, and expanded into a global ecosystem with NCIS exhibits in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Hawai‘i, Sydney, and now Origins. And if you happen to can consider it, the principle collection NCIS is approaching its five hundredth episode, set to air on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.
However the actual secret weapon behind the model isn’t solely the forged chemistry or the case-of-the-week machine. It’s the real-life veterans and regulation enforcement execs who hold the uniforms squared away, the procedures credible, and the human value of service from turning into empty set dressing. It’s due to these specialists that the franchise grew to become, and has remained, probably the most correct on-screen portrayals of the Naval Felony Investigative Service.
Army Advisors Clarify How The Present Stays Correct
Actual NCIS brokers and navy veterans break down how they hold NCIS, NCIS: Origins, and the broader NCISverse correct for tens of millions of followers. On this in-depth interview, technical advisors Robert “RJ” Cline, Leon Carroll Jr., Michael “Mike” Smith, and LtCol Alan “Al” Burghard share how their real-world Marine Corps, Navy, and NCIS expertise shapes what you see on display.
In a wide-ranging roundtable (embedded within the video above), NCIS knowledgeable consultants and veterans Leon Carroll, Alan Burghard, Michael Smith, and R.J. Cline stroll via how they joined the franchise, what the job truly seems like, and the behind-the-scenes moments that reminded them the work is greater than TV.
Origins Season 2. Carroll stopped by to test in on Cline, whom he continues to mentor
as a part of the following era of NCIS technical advisors. Photograph taken August 15, 2025,
on the seashore in San Pedro, CA. (RJ’s second favourite photograph.)
The ‘OG’ NCIS Technical Advisor Who Constructed the Present’s Authenticity
Leon Carroll’s path to changing into the franchise’s technical advisory anchor is sort of comically humble—he admits he as soon as assumed TV episodes had been filmed in a day. That phantasm evaporated quick.
When the unique NCIS was gearing up, Carroll was again on obligation as a rehired annuitant post-9/11, serving to recruit new brokers so others may rotate into counterterror missions. A colleague requested if he’d be keen to seek the advice of a pair days per week.
His first day on set was a marathon. The day wasn’t simply lengthy—it was 21 hours, and he walked away considering, What did I get myself into?
That initiation progressively grew to become a career-defining position. Carroll’s relationships with the present’s management and performers helped set a tone that later rippled throughout the spinoffs. He described early moments the place he discovered the way to assert authority with out derailing manufacturing—and the way vital it was to introduce actors early so corrections didn’t really feel like ambushes.
It’s a surprisingly delicate tightrope: the objective is authenticity, however the methodology is collaboration.
when a forged stuntman was delayed. Burghard drove an opposing LAPD-marked car
for the scene on the request of the stunt coordinator. April 6, 2017, Los Angeles, CA.
How NCIS Retains Its Army Realism Constant Throughout Spin-Offs
Burghard—who served three many years within the Marine Corps and spent 25 years with NIS/NCIS—framed the consultants’ work as a mixture of script vetting, on-set oversight, and anticipating issues earlier than they hit a capturing day.
For NCIS: Los Angeles, that meant being current for all the pieces from idea drafts to weapon dealing with to how a group strikes via an area. When the present matured, he may step again from routine ops middle scenes. Early on, although, a brand new collection is “from name to wrap.”
His work on NCIS: Sydney provides a twist: completely different time zones, completely different cultural rhythms, and a franchise template that should match one other nation’s regulation enforcement actuality. He’s not bodily on set there, so he watches the completed product like some other viewer—whereas nonetheless attempting to guard the core credibility of the model.
Carroll additionally famous the broader reality many viewers nonetheless don’t absolutely soak up: NCIS is a worldwide group, with places of work far past what the exhibits highlight. The franchise could deal with every metropolis as a definite taste, however the actual company’s international footprint makes worldwide storylines much less of a attain than they appear.
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, following the filming of inside scenes. Pictured with forged,
active-duty Navy ship crew members, showrunner Chris Silber, producing director Tim
Andrew, co-showrunner Matthew Boseck, and crew. Approx. November 2021.
The Artwork of Fixing Errors With out Killing the Scene
Michael Smith brings a barely completely different angle. He’s a retired Navy Grasp-at-Arms Command Investigator who labored intently with NCIS lengthy earlier than strolling onto a set. He stepped into technical advising after the lack of Dwayne Swear, who had been a key advisor for NCIS: New Orleans.
Smith’s description of studying the job is likely one of the most vivid snapshots of how TV and real-world apply collide. He was instructed to sit down quietly and wait till requested. He knew immediately that wasn’t going to be his fashion.
Within the early days, he’d see one thing off on a ship set, dash up stairs, interrupt blocking, appropriate procedures, after which dash again to his monitor. The lesson wasn’t to go silent—it was to study timing and tone. As Carroll later put it, you don’t say individuals are fallacious; you supply an possibility that will get them to the best consequence.
Smith additionally revealed a key moral boundary: he goals for realism, however he’s cautious to not hand over exact, real-world tactical info that could possibly be misused. The present can look cool with out changing into a how-to information.
That stability—authenticity with out operational publicity—has turn into a defining philosophy throughout the franchise.
When NCIS Storylines Hit Near Dwelling for Veterans
If you need an immediate grasp class in what veterans discover, Carroll’s instance is ideal: a sundown sequence with the American flag descending in darkness. The flag wasn’t correctly lit.
That’s the form of element civilian audiences may by no means catch, however veterans will. Carroll stepped in and flagged the difficulty earlier than it went to air, as a result of errors like that may fracture belief and make viewers really feel the present isn’t respecting the tradition it’s borrowing.
Burghard echoed the larger level: the objective is respect. Even when a narrative wants a “dangerous Marine” or a corrupt determine to energy a plot, the present can nonetheless keep away from portraying service members as sloppy caricatures.
When NCIS Storylines Get Private for Veterans
R.J. Cline, advising on NCIS: Origins, occupies a singular lane: his present’s temporal setting forces him to suppose traditionally, not simply procedurally. He served via key shifts in uniform tradition and coverage from the early Nineteen Nineties onward and might draw on that lived timeline to maintain the interval particulars grounded.
However the half he appeared proudest of wasn’t a single prop or uniform repair. It was the present’s willingness to depict service members’ residence lives—displaying the psychological toll of the work relatively than holding all the pieces locked inside an workplace or a criminal offense scene.
For him, Origins has the prospect to remind audiences that the job doesn’t finish when the case ends.
The Proudest “Saves”: Honoring Service on Display screen
Burghard shared probably the most transferring behind-the-scenes moments: an episode centered on a veteran who dies with out household. The manufacturing needed the funeral element to really feel proper.
So he pulled in actual Marines and an skilled warrant officer to guide the honors. The group didn’t want rehearsal. The ceremony got here along with the quiet competence that solely individuals who’ve lived the ritual can convey.
Even an actor recognized for comedic power reportedly approached the day with a brand new seriousness, telling Burghard, in essence, that there could be no messing round.
Smith recalled one other deeply respectful sequence from Hawai‘i, involving the return of stays and full navy honors. The manufacturing used actual honor guard personnel, and the group insisted on getting particulars proper—even all the way down to who ought to ship instructions. When an actual petty officer out of the blue needed to carry out on mic in entrance of cameras, he found what many powerful professionals study the arduous manner: the lens can intimidate in a manner the sphere by no means did.
The consequence, although, was price it.
Why NCIS Is Quietly One among TV’s Most Veteran-Pleasant Franchises
One theme surfaced repeatedly: the franchise doesn’t simply depict service. It employs it.
Smith and Burghard each described the best way veterans in background roles usually turn into power multipliers—not simply extras filling a hallway, however individuals who instinctively perceive motion, posture, chain-of-command cues, and the way a uniform is worn on an actual base.
Carroll referred to as your entire universe “veteran-friendly,” and even when he pivoted into a tragic reminiscence—describing a former service member who appeared in an early episode and was tragically killed not lengthy after—his level remained clear: these aren’t summary story beats to the advisors. The navy group is private.
Recommendation for Veterans Who Need to Work in Movie and TV
Smith supplied a few of the most sensible steerage within the dialog for transitioning service members.
His suggestions had been refreshingly grounded:
- Write your story. Books and firsthand accounts nonetheless spark an enormous proportion of variations.
- Get on the lot any manner you may. Background, PA work, apprenticeships—proximity creates alternative.
- Construct relationships the identical manner you’d within the area. The business runs on belief, competence, and repute.
Cline added that the movie and TV ecosystem can really feel surprisingly acquainted for veterans—the hierarchy, the mission focus, the pace and coordination. Folks know their roles. Groups assemble, execute, and reset.
In different phrases, the tradition shock is likely to be smaller than many assume.
The Franchise’s Actual Superpower
While you step again, what these 4 advisors describe is greater than a guidelines of uniforms and acronyms. It’s a values system.
NCIS succeeds as a result of it remembers that authenticity isn’t solely factual accuracy—it’s perspective. It’s the tone of respect, the willingness to seek the advice of actual individuals, the hassle to depict service members as professionals relatively than props.
Sure, TV compresses actuality. Lab outcomes don’t come again in minutes. Circumstances don’t resolve cleanly in 42 minutes. Everybody on this roundtable understands that.
However the advisors’ job is to assist the franchise select the place to bend and the place to not. As NCIS heads into its five hundredth episode on March 3, 2026, that quiet line between drama and respect is what retains individuals coming again. And for the tens of millions of veterans and navy households who nonetheless tune in, that distinction is all the pieces.
