The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources held a memorial service Monday morning for the 10 conservation officers who’ve died in the line of duty. The ceremony was held at the Kentucky Conservation Officers Memorial at Fish and Wildlife’s main campus in Frankfort. Captain Greg Watts, a conservation officer for nearly 25 years, was there.
“It's important to always remember the lives of these individuals. You know, they were fathers and brothers and sons and husbands. And so it was not just their loss for us, but it was a loss for families as well. And we try to honor them.”
Watts said he worked with the last conservation officer who died in the line of duty – Douglas Bryant, who was killed in an auto accident 20 years ago last Friday. He said it’s an honor to protect the commonwealth’s natural resources. Some don’t feel the same way, though, and Watts said poachers are among the chief threats of people in his line of work.
“That's one of the dangers and that's one of has been one of the causes of several of our officers to lose their lives. But we've also lost officers in auto accidents. And we've lost several officers who were engaged in attempting to rescue other people who were caught in floodwaters.”
Watts said his two brushes with death came when he was trying to help people in floodwaters. He said with God's blessing and His watchful hand, he survived.
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