Shannon Kent

May 11th, 1983 – Jan 16th, 2019

Chief Kent hails from Upstate New York where she attended SUNY Plattsburgh for two years prior to joining the Navy. She entered the Navy in 2003 as Cryptologic Technician Interpretive (CTI), and graduated, with honors, from Defense language Institute with an Associate’s Degree in Arabic. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology in 2015 and completed her Master’s Degree in Military Psychology from Adler University in July 2018. She was accepted to attend the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USUHS) PhD program in March 2018 to attain a doctorate in clinical psychology.

Chief Kent’s first duty station was Navy Information Operations Command Georgia where she volunteered for an Individual Augmentation (IA) and deployed to Iraq with SEAL Team 10 in 2007. She was transferred to Naval Special Warfare Support Activity Two (SA-2) and deployed again to Iraq with SEAL Team 10 in 2009 and SEAL Team 4 in 2010-2011. She made her first deployment to Afghanistan with SEAL Team 4 in 2012-2013. Her most recent deployment was from November 2018 – January 2019 with a Special Operations Unit where she was killed in action by an Improvised Explosive Device, (IED) while conducting operations against ISIS.

She was stationed in Maryland with the newly established Cryptologic Warfare Activity SIXTY SIX (CWA-66) as the Leading Chief Petty Officer of the Technical Support Activity (TSA) leading joint service members conducting sensitive global operations using signature reduction methodologies, sometimes in the most austere environments, answering national intelligence requirements. She also served as the Detachment Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge for Network Exploitation and lead for emerging technology solutions.

Chief Kent was married to her best friend, an Army Special Forces Green Beret. She has two beautiful boys, Colt and Josh [REDACTED]. Some of her notable accomplishments include Language Professional of the Year (LPOY) in 2010 and Overt HUMINT Collector of the Year in 2012. She was also awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal (two), Combat Action Ribbon, and various unit and campaign medals.