A Tragedy in Florida
I need to write about this because it's essential.
So, I don't know all the details. Frankly, at this point, it doesn't matter because a police officer killed an Airman. The fact that he was a Black man makes it even worse.
SrA Roger Fortson was a battlefield Airman. Respect that, people.
RESPECT IT.
This young man volunteered to serve this country during a recruiting crisis and became an AC-130J gunner. So, he volunteered twice. Because you have to WANT to do that type of work.
Do they let anyone become an AC-130J gunner? NO. It's hard. It takes a strong young man to step up and do that. Seeing young people step up to the plate to take my place brings me hope.
Just today, while I was at the gym, a 17-year-old girl was training for a slot in the Air Force Academy. It motivated me.
Because Airmen motivate me. They bring out the best in me. And I'm so sad that he's been taken from all of us—what a gift, a national treasure. He would've made all of us—every single one of us—better.
SrA Fortson was an Air Commando. He was our nation's best.
SrA Fortson should be alive right now. He should be having fun and enjoying life as a real warrior. I fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I was/am an intel weenie by heart. I was lucky enough for operators to let me play with them sometimes.
SrA Fortson was an operator—at the tip of the spear.
We cannot expect our warriors—who we train to kill—not to answer doors with a gun. I'm sorry. I answer my door with a gun. Why? Because that's how I've been trained. When something scary happens, reach for the gun.
You can quibble with that approach, but SrA Fortson was an AC-130J gunner. He was a gunslinger.
I mourn for his family. I pray for them. They loaned us their greatest treasure — their son. Their son was trained to protect us from threats abroad. And now he's been killed at home by a police officer inside his own apartment.
That's not right. It's just not.
May his memory be a blessing--to his Air Force family, but, most importantly, to his family grieving the unimaginable.
I mourn with you. I respect what he did for us. A tremendous loss and tragedy. I pray his family reads your comments. You said it perfectly.
I will withhold judgment on this specific shooting until a fuller story emerges. Objectively speaking, I'm fully within my rights to answer my door as the Airman did. It doesn't matter whether I would handle it differently, a middle-aged dude living in the suburbs. It's about the perceived threat, right? Hypothetically, if there were cases locally of home invasions where the perpetrators impersonated law enforcement, how might that change how I would answer my door?