Kent began his reenacting career in 1996 while supporting his young children’s interest in Civil War reenacting during the “Herr’s Ridge” event. After supporting the medical airlift during a weapon malfunction at that event, Kent would enter the hobby as a medical officer where he would join his modern day career as a paramedic in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with his period impression. Kent would serve as a reenacting medical staff for many events between 1997 and 2003.
After a hiatus from reenacting while serving as a Weapons of Mass Destruction response instructor with Homeland Security in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and then an Emergency Management Specialist with the United States Senate Sergeant at Arms in Washington, D.C.; Kent would re-establish his reenacting career by starting the Provisional Hospital of Virginia in 2012. The provisional hospital focused on educating the story of medical intervention after the field hospital experience. The provisional hospital included a full, 8-bed hospital tent set up, baker’s tent for quartermaster’s corps, officers tent, hospital laundry, hospital kitchen and supporting functions of a provisional and way hospital. The hospital would attend a number of reenactments and living histories until the spring of 2016 when it was downsized to its current state as a working apothecary. Kent not only served as a reenactor, but also served as a member of the modern medical staff during events. He was also commissioned by the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association (GBPA) to build and prepare the GBPA’s medical museum and gift store in Gettysburg, Pa. in 2016. Kent has written a number of articles on medical activities, attended over 70 reenactments and living histories as a presenter, functioned as a guest lecturer at no less than 20 events, and has been mentoring young military and civilian reenactors within the medical activities of the war since 1998. In the summer of 2016, Melissa and Kent Schod would restructure the Provisional Hospital of Virginia from a working provisional/way hospital to a working apothecary and medical purveyor’s impression. Melissa also assisted in the construction and preparation of the medical museum in Gettysburg, Pa. In September of 2016, Melissa and Kent formally joined all of their impressions when they married in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They are expecting their first child, Grace Elisabeth, in 2017. |