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On Feb. 8, thousands of mourners filled the United States Naval Academy’s chapel in Annapolis, Md., to pay their respects to Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent, 35, who was killed by a suicide bomber at a restaurant in Manbij, Syria, last month, along with three other Americans. Kent was stationed at Fort Meade, Md., where she was assigned to Cryptologic Warfare Activity 66, a Navy unit that supports the National Security Agency and military special operations forces. She was supporting the latter at the time of her death.

During the ceremony, a bugler played taps. The Navy hymn “Eternal Father” rang from the pipe organ. But the memorial service departed from most of those that the Academy chapel has hosted in the past — in more ways than one.

Kent, who was killed on her fifth combat deployment, was honored by her fellow chief petty officers with what one of her friends and a fellow enlisted service member called a “sea of khaki” — per a request from Kent’s family, hundreds of sailors wore their tan-colored, short-sleeve service uniform, instead of the much more formal white or navy blue dress uniforms typically worn at a memorial service for a fallen sailor. In the Navy, the khaki uniforms signify an enlisted sailor’s rank as a chief (an E-7 or higher) and their transition to that of a leader and subject-matter expert in their field. Commissioned officers in attendance wore their khakis, too. Lt. Jeff Spindle, the chaplain conducting the service, wore his, as did Adm. John Richardson, the Navy’s chief of naval operations.