Kent J. During ( Missoula 1968 )
posted: Apr 18, 2022
Colonel (Ret.) Kent James During (US Army, CA National Guard) died April 6, 2022, due to complications from pneumonia. He most recently lived in Prescott, AZ and prior to that, Lodi, CA. Kent was born in Yosemite Valley Hospital in 1946 to Harry and Mary During. Harry was a Park Ranger in Yosemite, and they lived there through Kent's first grade. The family then moved to several national parks including Carlsbad Caverns, where Kent graduated from high school.
Always an adventurer, he then spent summers as a smokejumper in Montana's Bitterroot Valley.
When Kent went to Utah State, his childhood love of skiing overrode his studies, so Uncle Sam said, "Off to Vietnam you go." He thought military service would be better from the air than the ground; he pursued helicopter school and served as a pilot until the end of the war.