Pine Plains Post Office To Be Named After Naval Officer Killed In Syria

PINE PLAINES, NY — A Hudson Valley area resident that was killed in the line of duty is being honored in her home town of Pine Plains, New York.

A post office in Pines Plains will soon bear her name.

Congress has passed a bill that will rename the Pine Plains Post Office, changing it to the Senior Chief Petty Officer Shannon M. Kent Post Office.

Kent was one of four Americans killed this past January during a suicide bombing in Syria.

She was part of a group that met with local military officials in the northern Syria buffer zone between Kurdish fighters and Turkish forces, considered to be a stable area.

The Manbij bombing killed a total of 19 people including Kent, a Green Beret, two U.S. civilian contractors, allied coalition fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces, and civilians. Kent was the first female combat death in Syria since combat operations began against ISIS in Syria.

The married mother of two grew up in Pine Plains, having graduated from Stissing Mountain High School in 2001 before enlisting in the Navy.

She was fluent in 10 languages and rose quickly through the ranks as a cryptologist at Fort Meade.