| About |
Kent Douglas Shilling, 40, of Danville, passed away Monday, February 22, 2010, as a result of a plane crash, doing what he loved. He was a native of Bryan, TX and a former resident of Watson, LA where he was a 1987 graduate of Live Oak High School. He attended Louisiana State University from 1987-1989 and enlisted in the United States Navy in March of 1990. He served and defended his country in Portugal and Mayport, FL and completed his naval duty in March of 1996. In 1998 he enlisted in the Louisiana National Guard then enrolled in Louisiana Tech University, majoring in aviation. Kent was fluent in Portuguese after teaching himself while living there. He also was fluent in Arabic having attended the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, Monterey, CA. From June 2002 to March 2003, Kent served with the National Guard in Afghanistan, then returned to complete his Bachelor of Science degree at Louisiana Tech in aviation in 2004. In 2004, Kent enrolled in the graduate program at Central Missouri State University where he earned a Masters degree in Aviation Management. Kent went to Danville, KY in 2006 as a corporate pilot, then began his own business, Douglas Aviation (www.douglasaviation.org), as a full-time flight instructor. On the day of his death, Kent was offered a leadership role in a new aviation program being initiated at a private university in Kentucky. |
