Kent, Warren Thompson

Born May 19, 1894, in Clifton Heights, Pennsylvania. Son of Henry T. and Louise Leonard Kent. Educated William Penn Charter School, Philadelphia, and Cornell University, Class of 1914. Joined American Field Service, April 14, 1917; attached Transport Sections 526 and 251 to October 14, 1917. French Automobile Officers' Training School. Commandant Adjoint. Declined commission Motor Transport Corps; enlisted U. S. Aviation. Trained 2d Aviation Instruction Centre, France. Commissioned First Lieutenant, February, 1918; attached 49th Squadron, 2d Pursuit Group. Shot down and killed, September 7, 1918, near Thiaucourt. Buried Pannes, Meurthe-et-Moselle, by Germans. Body transferred to American Cemetery, Thiaucourt, Meurthe-et-Moselle.

IN the aftermath of sordid materialism, which so fatefully followed the war, it is potent tonic to our depleted souls to recall a patriotic fervor and consecration to duty, such as Lieutenant Warren Kent's. It stabs our consciences awake and makes us grateful that we have such rare reminders, "lest we break faith with those who lie in Flanders Field."

The high strain of this patriotism is best expressed in the following letter written to his mother a few weeks before he was killed. It is characteristic of all his thought:

"The day of reckoning is coming, and the wind sowed must fructify into the harvest of the whirlwind: God grant I may have some share in this retribution. My name is on the list to replace someone who is in a squadron now at the front. It should not be long before I finally reach there. I hope nothing may arise to cause any change, but I will nevermore think I am there until I am actually over the lines with machine gun loaded for the defense of everything worth living for. If it is worth living for, so is it also worth dying for, if necessary. As I wrote before, Mother dear, pray not that I be spared, for while I wish to live and return to you, it is selfish to wish preference for what is dear to us, when so many can not return. Pray only that I may do my duty, and well, and that I may do enough before lost, if so required, that my living may at least be an advantage. If this can be I will die with complete satisfaction. Be perfectly willing to lose me. The price is so cheap for the good to be attained."

Lieutenant Kent came naturally by this high sense of duty as his ancestors shared that sturdy patriotism which laid the foundation of our republic. Coupled with an intense devoutness, this urge to defend to the very last breath those principles he cherished was not to be resisted. Before our country entered the war, Lieutenant Kent was convinced it was our duty to champion the righteous cause of the Allies by active assistance in their struggle, and he and his cousin, Kent Keay, appealed to Colonel Roosevelt to be allowed to join the expedition he was planning at that time for service in France.

He sailed overseas with a unit from his university, Cornell, on April 14, 1917. Immediately after his arrival he was asked to drive a munitions truck. He accepted willingly, welcoming the most active service possible. He became an ardent admirer of the French people and was keenly touched by their suffering. He writes of it to his mother. "To walk down the streets and see the splendid women in mourning --- you can hardly pass one who is not,----when you see the youths and men bearing scars of the conflict, you cannot help but feel that we have been dilatory. It would rend your heart to see the number of women in mourning. They are mourning for men who have served you as well as the one who mourns."

Subsequently, having passed through a French school to qualify as an officer in the automobile service, he declined a commission offered him in the Quartermaster's Department and enlisted in aviation instead, completing the course and receiving his commission early in 1918.

Though an exceptionally fine flyer, on September 7, 1918, he was taken in a disadvantageous position and shot down by one of von Richtoffen's circus while flying near Thiaucourt with the Forty-ninth Squadron of the Second Pursuit Group.

Death held no terrors for him and he fully justified his own words, "If you have to run the chance of death at all, you had better run the full length and sell your life most dearly."

• Tribute from Memorial Volume of the American Field Service, 1921