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He was a really good dude who was loved by all and the AFSOC community is justifiably upset. Being a cop is not easy, daily life or death decisions, and as in this case you will be judged for the rest of your life by the choices you make. That being said, training and leadership set the tone and this department is floundering at best. As mentioned above this is the same department that mag dumped a police cruiser with a handcuffed person in the back because a freaking Acorn fell and hit the roof. This community has crime but nothing like other areas of the country. In the history of Okaloosa County the department has lost five officers to gunfire, four of those were domestic violence situations, the last one happened 2.5 years ago. Everything about this call is odd and to some degree the officer was led down a very bad path. HE certainly had poor training and I beleive in most other areas of the country domestic calls get two officers. They won't say who called, but the lady who meets the cop MUST be investigated. She guides the officer to Fortson's apartment then says she heard "something that sounded like domestic violence TWO WEEKS AGO." That is NOT exigent circumstances, there is no warrant, there is only hearsay, no probable cause, but the cop starts pounding away and ordering the door to be opened...a complete fail. Roger has zero duty to open that door and to be clear the courts have ruled that repeated official commands to open a door without a warrant probable cause invoke the 4th amendment. As far as punishment, Roger did not deserve to die, but he was one of the few that stepped forward and swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, I would hope all of us would honor his service and allow for the officer to enjoy the protections offered by that document. He deserves due process and if he is found guilty he should be held accountable, but should not be purposely thrown into the general population for "extra" justice. Rest easy Roger and thank you for your service.

Problem is after that Ferguson "hands up don't shoot" incident, I would imagine the overall quality of police recruits had to have dropped. The job never paid that great, much of the public hates you just because, and even if you do everything right you still run the risk of pilloried and left to hang by political prosecutors looking to make a name for themselves or to appease the mob. Throw in a higher turnover rate and being undermanned, under trained, and under funded and it is honestly surprising things like this are not happening more often.

Ah, okay. Well quit medicine then. Sounds gay.

Cops need to understand the the risk of death is not a hazard of the job to be mitigated at all costs. Sometimes death is the job. The military has understood this forever, it's the entire concept of "service." At some point the combination of bad training, low staffing, and low resources created a mindset that cops should be held to the same standard as the rest of the population. I think that's silly. If a cop sees someone with a gun, there's no acceptable excuse for killing that person unless they are actively using that weapon against the officers or bystanders. Just holding one isn't enough. Neither is waving it around, if the cops are the only ones at risk. And if somebody is in their own home, and there's no evidence that they are already committing a violent crime, cops shouldn't even have their hands on their guns. The entire paradigm needs to change.

https://tinyurl.com/29u5ntox

Well said, except for this part

The flying never got old. It was like sex. The other stuff certainly did. Go for it, you won't regret it.

Everything becomes just a job, not everything is as cool as flying. I spent lots of time not flying in the military and nearly 100% of the time I did not enjoy those duties. However, the flying I got to do was so fun/rewarding that it offset the mundane non-flying tasks for most of my career. Eventually the sting of those non-flying duties, paired with being gone (TDYs/Deployments), ever changing tactics/systems, it no longer offset it for me. This is when I knew it was time to retire. Do I wish I could still go hop in the jet and fly a High Aspect BFM ride, you betcha...do I miss all the other BS, not a chance. I would 100% say go for it, I can't imagine you'd ever regret it.

Flying is the fun part but that’s also a small part of it. For example, if you want to fly fighters, you’ll fly for an hour or two but the brief, debrief, and planning for that is probably 10x that much. Heavy pilots aren’t as intense on that stuff (still do it though) but they have other things to deal with way beyond just blasting off. Same with helos, bombers, you name it. Having said that, it’s way better than having a real job. And if you’re looking at the Guard, why not keep the medical job and be a pilot? Quite literally why the ANG exists is scenarios like that.

While emotionally this might temporarily feel good, this also isn’t the answer. Prison shouldn’t be where we send people hoping that they’ll be harmed by other prisoners. I don’t blame you for saying it as I’m sure I’ve done the same in the past, it’s just that if we’re going to live in a better society then prisons also need to be decently safe for the prisoners. And that doesn’t necessarily mean they get video games, delicious meals, brand new gym equipment, etc.

AFSOC SMA shot and killed by police. SMA was in his home, responding to knock at door, apparently no announcement from police, nothing seen out peephole so he rightfully went and got his gun. While coming back to door, police broke in and shot him. Bodycam will set the truth free. Happening too often. This is from the same department that had the cop who lit up the occupied police cruiser due to acorn falling from tree. He resigned and is able to work elsewhere. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/roger-fortson-us-airman-shot-killed-florida-sheriffs-deputy/

Possibly the best exchange on BO ever! OP, medicine is a noble calling and I salute you for pursuing it. However, the first time you kill someone who deserves it (while flying) you’ll realize the deep truth in Danger’s post. My advice: fly. If you have the itch you’ll forever regret not scratching it. 7000 hours mil flying & 2000 civ flying; I'm not bored at all!

Him Him

Except out of Niger, we are getting out of Niger very fast. The US military will begin plans to withdraw troops from Niger

I love flying as well. I never looked at military flying as a job, it was more of an adventure (probably the gayest thing I've ever said). I hated the non flying part. I did not excell at that portion of the USAF. I even liked flying for the Regionals. I miss it. Flying that is.

20-25 days out of the month I loathe every second of my job. The other 5-10 days I'm sitting in the cockpit either flying to some place you've never heard of and am expected to just make it work or in a low level formation at the end of which I'm getting off a bunch of dudes cursing up a storm as we're stop to stop eating up leads wake like it's your favorite cousin. Those are the days I love my job. Flying is a drug and we're all a bunch of addicts.

If someone gets scared away because of anonymous online posts, then he was probably not gonna cut it anyway. This isn’t a USAF recruiting website. Yeah, a bunch of us are old and tired of some of the bullshit. However, I don’t think any pilot hates the flying part. Your posts are super weird. Are you a pilot?

Flying is the only “job” I had that never felt like a job. It never got old. I’ve never met a pilot in the military that regretted becoming a pilot.

What is happening on BO. Positive posts about the AF. Wow, I don’t even know what to say. The now banker who was scared off after posting he got an AD slot might be a pilot now if he posted a few years later.

The homestation flying definitely gets monotonous especially when combined with the environmental aspects but its still involved flying at low levels through the desert and shooting machine guns often combined with other airframes and missions. Like Danger said though, flying was probably 20-30% of my week. Sometimes more sometimes less. The office jobs have to get done. To top it off, we pretty frequently were involved in real world rescues. There isn't a better feeling in the world that hopping on board your aircraft and saving someone's life.

I’ve been in the HC-130J for 6 years now, and flying is always awesome. At this point in my career routine sorties are a reprieve from admin duties and tasks. After making instructor I’ve found it extremely rewarding from brief, execution and debrief both homestation and deployed. There is a bit for the variety of mission events we accomplish and it is always different knowledge levels across crew positions and individual experience. Hopefully landing on unlit LZs or flying dissimilar formation at on NVGs will never feel like a job. If it does that would be my cue to leave.

I'm getting ready to retire after 21 years and change AD; the flying never got old for me, loved every minute of it and would do it all over again in a heartbeat. Like Four Fans said, it's all about perspective. Anyone can find a reason to be unhappy in any location or career field, likewise you can almost always find the good in most situations. Best of luck to you.

Lots of rumors on this one, with no real solid evidence. It's going to suck for this girl if it turns out to be false, because her name has already been drug through the mud. Like the accused rapists that turned out to be innocent and just a victim of a scorned chick, it's really hard to unring that bell.

Any and all occupations can feel like nothing more than a job after a given amount of time. How you view it is 100% up to you. If you're a pessimist at heart, you'll be pessimistic about it. Likewise if you're an optimist. It's all perspective. Choose yours, every single day, wisely.