Fort Meade sailor among 16 killed in ISIS attack
Suicide bombing in Syria killed four Americans
A Navy cryptologic technician stationed at Fort George G. Meade has been identified as one of the Americans who lost their lives in a blast set off by a suicide bomber in northern Syria this week.
Chief Petty Officer Shannon M. Kent was among the 16 people killed when an attacker outfitted with explosives targeted troops conducting a routine patrol in the town of Manbij on Wednesday. She is the first female Navy service member killed in the battle against ISIS since the U.S.-led coalition started fighting the group in 2014.
The 35-year-old sailor, a native of Pine Plains, New York, and the daughter of New York State Police Officer Col. Stephen J. Smith, graduated from Stissing Mountain Junior/Senior High School in 2001 and enlisted in the Navy shortly after in 2003.
Stissing Mountain Principal Tara Grieb said Kent was an honor student and described her as a “wonderful person.”
“We are very proud of her service,” she said. “We support her family 100 percent during their time of sorrow.”
Also killed in the attack were Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan R. Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Florida, who was based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; and a civilian, Scott A. Wirtz, from St. Louis, Missouri. The Pentagon has not yet identified the fourth American casualty, a civilian.
The attack, which also wounded three U.S. troops, was the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in Syria since American forces went into the country in 2015.
Kent enlisted in the Navy in December 2003 and graduated from boot camp at Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Illinois, in February 2004.
She had previously been assigned to the Navy Information Operations Command in Fort Gordon, Georgia; the Navy Special Warfare Support Activity 2 in Norfolk, Virginia; the Personnel Resource Development Office in Washington, D.C., and the Navy Information Operations Command at Fort Meade.
“She was a rock star, an outstanding chief petty officer, and leader to many in the Navy Information Warfare community,” said Cmdr. Joseph Harrison with the Commanding Officer of Cryptologic Warfare Activity 66, where Kent was assigned.
In New York, flags at both Stissing Mountain and the Pine Plains Town Hall will be lowered in honor of the “town hero” and will remain that way until her burial.
“We mourn the death of Dutchess County’s Shannon Kent in Syria earlier this week,” County Executive Marcus J. Molinaro said.