For 15 years, Shannon Kent‘s job was to gather intelligence against the United States’ deadliest enemies. The U.S. Navy Senior Chief Cryptologic Technician worked alongside the National Security Agency (NSA) in some of the world’s most dangerous areas. The information she acquired would often lead to surgical strikes from American special operations forces around the world – and she was among the best at her job.
Tragically, her years-long career in gathering intelligence is not the only legacy she leaves behind. Kent would become the first female service member killed in Syria when an ISIS suicide bomber attacked a restaurant in the northern Syrian city of Manbij in 2019. The 35-year-old left behind a husband and two children.
Shannon Kent was a native of upstate New York and was an outstanding student-athlete and scholar as a youth. She enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 2003, became a Cryptologic Technician, and was assigned to support the Navy’s special warfare operations. Not only did she excel at her cryptological work, but she was also fluent in Spanish, French, Portuguese, and four dialects of Arabic, working her way up to a role as the NCO in charge of the NSA’s operations directorate. By 2007, she was deployed to Iraq in support of Navy SEAL operations there, a role she repeated in Afghanistan in 2012.
Honoring Shannon Kent: The Legacy That Inspires
In 2018, Kent’s career was slated to go even higher, with a slot to attend a clinical psychology doctoral program at the Uniform Services University of the Health Sciences. She told her husband she wanted to help alleviate the suffering of returning troops with post-traumatic stress disorder. A previous thyroid cancer diagnosis led the Navy to rescind her clearance to attend the school, and a waiver request was denied, as the Navy considered a cancer diagnosis to be a disqualifying factor in receiving a commission.
In lieu of attending the doctoral program, she deployed to Syria in November 2018 to continue her secretive intelligence-gathering work with the Navy’s Cryptologic Warfare ;;Activity 66. Their mission was to track the remnants of ISIS still operating in the country despite being systematically dismantled and destroyed in the years preceding her deployment. It would be her fifth combat tour.
On Jan. 16, 2019, an ISIS suicide bomber detonated himself at a popular restaurant in Manbij, a known hangout for American troops and other anti-ISIS fighters. The blast killed four Americans, including Shannon Kent. Her husband, Joe Kent, is a former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier to raise their two sons, who were then one and three years old.
In the months and years that followed, Shannon Kent was posthumously promoted. Her husband wrote the incredible story of Kent’s life and service, “Send Me: The True Story of a Mother at War,” with journalist Marty Skovlund, Jr. The Navy also began to reevaluate its commissioning and training acceptance practices to emphasize the contributions of sailors who have deployed overseas and reconsider medical waivers for cases like Kent’s.
President Donald Trump paid tribute to her service when her remains arrived at Dover Air Force Base, and New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered the state flags to be flown at half-staff in her memory before Shannon Kent was interred in Arlington National Cemetery.
Read About Other Profiles in Courage
If you enjoyed learning about SCPO Shannon Kent, we invite you to read about other profiles in courage on our blog. You will also find military book reviews, veterans’ service reflections, famous military units and more on the TogetherWeServed.com blog. If you are a veteran, find your military buddies, view historic boot camp photos, build a printable military service plaque, and more on TogetherWeServed.com today.
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