Fortson was assigned to the 4th Special Operations Squadron as a special missions aviator, where one of his roles as a member of the squadron’s AC-130J Ghostrider aircrew was to load the gunship’s 30mm and 105mm cannons during missions.
He was aircrew, not one of the operators that go through the Selection Pipeline.
I’m a prior Special Operations Airman myself. Worked on a different version of the C-130 as a radio operator. It’s still almost a year of additional training after BMT and usually involves a stint at a general aviation school, then technical training for your specific role on the aircraft, then specific training on your assigned airframe, then a SERE school (survival, evasion, resistance, escape…basically how to not get caught after you’re shot down and how to handle being a POW if you are caught), then a bunch more training at your first unit. Still a pretty intense first year of service. What a fucking waste.
He was aircrew, not one of the operators that go through the Selection Pipeline.
ok, thanks for that. But still though.
Yeah it’s fucked up
I’m a prior Special Operations Airman myself. Worked on a different version of the C-130 as a radio operator. It’s still almost a year of additional training after BMT and usually involves a stint at a general aviation school, then technical training for your specific role on the aircraft, then specific training on your assigned airframe, then a SERE school (survival, evasion, resistance, escape…basically how to not get caught after you’re shot down and how to handle being a POW if you are caught), then a bunch more training at your first unit. Still a pretty intense first year of service. What a fucking waste.
They aren’t putting Gomer Pyle on that plane. Not everyone whose special ops is Delta or Pararescue.