Our Heritage

Paul Kent

These first two pictures are of my maternal grandfather, John A. Keltus, born 1893. He was one of the first WW1 AAF pilots from Montana. He trained in the Curtis Jenny but never saw service in Europe as the war ended. He died in 1935, at the height of the depression, so I never new him. Ironically, years later we discovered he trained at Ellington Field, near Houston, Texas, where I grew up.

 

The third is a shadow box, made for me by my Mom, of my grandfather's 2Lt Bars, Pilot Wings, Prop and Wings, and US insignia..

This picture is of my great-grandfather Rodolphus Kent, born 1803. He was a Major on General Henry Hayes Lockwood's staff during the Civil War. He was 58 years old when he received his Commission, although at the time 45 was the age limit for entering the Army. I am in possession of a small brass candlestick holder supposedly used by him in his tent during the Civil War for illumination while he wrote. And from my deceased uncle I now have the writing table that was used in that same tent. Years later, my uncle removed the drawer and discovered the bottom was etched as a checkerboard.

 

These photos are of my great uncle Jacob Ford Kent, the eldest son of my same great grandfather who served in the Civil War. He graduated from West Point in 1861, the last class of the five-year course, and served in the Civil, Indian, and Spanish-American Wars. He was retired in 1899 as a Major General and lived to be 83. He has a Wikipedia page, HERE.