Lt. Col. Kent R. Crenshaw USAF (Ret.)

The Roman philosopher Seneca, in responding to the complaint that life is too short, said “it’s not that the time is too short; but that we waste too much of it”. The measure of time for Kent Crenshaw was his pilot log book and he did not waste the time he had. He was devoted to aviation both professionally and privately. He invented excuses to fly if there was no reason apparent. Earth was not going to bind him by the laws of the lesser of us that did not seek the freedom of flight.

Kent was not average at anything he did. He was a perfectionist. He graduated from West Point in 1969 and traded the long grey line for Air Force blue. His DNA was from a WWII bomber pilot father buried now at Arlington, within calling distance from where Kent rests among our heroes. Kent had two tours in Vietnam, receiving three Air Medals and a Distinguished Flying Cross for his service.

Always the student, Kent was accepted to the Air Force Institute of Technology were he received his M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering in 1976 and found his passion second only to flying as a professor in the Department of Aeronautics at the United States Air Force Academy from 1977 to 1980.

Kent was still the age where the call for adventure would be the force that guided his next path in life. His history of accomplishment in both academics and flying allowed him to come to Edwards Air Force Base to attend United States Air Force Test Pilot School in 1980 completing the course as a distinguished graduate.

Kent returned to the Air Force Academy for two more years and then returned to Edwards as Chief of Academics at the Test Pilot School.
On the wall of the long hall in the school is a plaque that measures your success by the standard of those who receive the knowledge. By the students the plaque proclaims, “Kent Crenshaw, Most Outstanding Instructor” for which he was very proud.

His tour at the school complete, Kent became a squadron commander at Edwards and completed his Air Force career in 1989, first going to Northwest airlines but reversing course and returning to Edwards as a Northrop test pilot on the B-2. With the B-2 test program complete, Kent still longed to fly and joined Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation becoming a senior engineering test pilot, doing what he had devoted his life to, up to the last moment. A life not as long as we may have wished, but one we could all agree was one that Seneca would say was complete.