Body camera footage released by the Okaloosa County Sherriff’s Office Thursday shows a deputy knocked several times on an apartment door and announced himself as law enforcement before fatally shooting a Black airman seconds after he opened the door. The footage shows Senior Airman Roger Fortson, who appears to be holding a firearm at his side, open the door to unit 1401 as the deputy tells Fortson to “step back.” Immediately, the deputy opens fire on Fortson, who appears to lift his other arm across his body as he twists away and falls to the floor, before yelling three times for Fortson to ..read more

Sometimes, life can be stressful, and sometimes, to manage one’s mental health, one might need a little puppy love. That’s what Warrior Canine Connection, a Maryland-based nonprofit that trains service dogs to provide recovery care for veterans and military families, highlighted Wednesday during a live “puppy cam” event with officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Health and Human Services. About half a dozen six-week-old puppies scurried around the HHS lobby on their little paws while Dr. Shereef Elnahal, the under secretary of health for the Department of Vete ..read more

A key Republican lawmaker accused Veterans Affairs leaders of knowingly misusing nearly $11 million in incentive pay awards to benefit senior department officials instead of retaining in-demand staff following the release of a critical report by a federal watchdog on Thursday. The controversy stems from erroneous bonuses doled out to senior executives last summer and fall as part of the $117 million Critical Skill Incentive Payments program authorized by Congress. Money from that fund has been given to more than 13,000 staffers with high-demand skills in an effort to keep them in VA hospitals ..read more

By the summer of 1965, just months after the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade landed at Da Nang, the intensity of the Vietnam War was surging. Ramping up, too, were the rules of engagement. President Lyndon B. Johnson was reportedly quoted as saying American pilots could not bomb an outhouse without his approval. Frustrated pilots found themselves “flying into heavily defended areas on predictable flight paths that exposed them to great risk while yielding often token results,” Stuart I. Rochester wrote in “The Battle Behind Bars.” It was in this environment that then-Capt. Harlan Page Chapman ..read more

JERUSALEM — The first aid ship bound for an American-built floating pier to be installed in Gaza departed early Thursday. But it’s unclear when the corridor will be up and running, and humanitarian groups say there are still major obstacles to getting food to starving Palestinians in the war-ravaged enclave. Cyprus announced the ship’s departure even though the U.S. military has not yet installed the pier and questions remain as to how the aid will be distributed. Even when the route is up and running, it won’t be able to handle as much aid as Gaza’s two main land crossings, which ar ..read more

Fewer than one-third of Veterans Affairs police officers completed their annual suicide prevention training last year, leaving thousands of law enforcement personnel underprepared to handle mental health crisis situations on department campuses, according to a report from department whistleblowers released Wednesday. VA leaders said they are looking into reports of the training shortfalls, which were brought to light by Senate Veterans Affairs Committee ranking member Jerry Moran, R-Kansas. In a statement, department press secretary Terrence Hayes said officials are focused on “ensuring our em ..read more

Senior Airman Roger Fortson was home alone in his off-base apartment causing no trouble and FaceTiming with a woman when a Okaloosa County Sheriff’s deputy, responding to the wrong address for a disturbance, broke through his door and fatally shot him Friday, an attorney for the airman’s family said Wednesday. Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney hired by Fortson’s family, detailed the account in a news release, which was also posted on Twitter Wednesday, asking for transparency and the immediate release of body camera footage of the incident. Air Force IDs airman fatally shot by Florida sheriff ..read more

The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that the country was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S., Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday. The shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, according to the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The focus of U.S. concern was the larger explosives and how they could be used in a dense urban setting like Rafah where more than 1 million civilians are sheltering afte ..read more

“This is Ed Kennedy in Paris. The war is over and I am going to dictate. Germany has surrendered unconditionally,” the war correspondent said, according to an account of the call by Tom Curley, the Associated Press’ former president. “That’s official. Make the date[line] Reims and get it out.” With that wire, AP war correspondent Edward Kennedy landed the biggest scoop of his career — while simultaneously ruining it. Only able to dictate about 200 words before the connection was lost, Kennedy’s news about the conclusion of the world’s largest and bloodiest conflict traveled with such speed tha ..read more

LAOAG, Philippines — U.S. and Philippine forces, backed by an Australian air force surveillance aircraft, unleashed a barrage of high-precision rockets, artillery fire and airstrikes Wednesday and sank a mock enemy ship as part of large-scale war drills in and near the disputed South China Sea that have antagonized Beijing. Military officials and diplomats from several countries watched the display of firepower from a hilltop along a sandy coast in Laoag City in Ilocos Norte, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s northern home province. More than 16,000 military personnel from the United ..read more