Major Shelnutt is an Army veteran with thirty-years of active duty service. He is married to Karyn and has five children. He is a proud grandfather and has a golden doodle named Scout and a Beta fish named Tater Tot. MAJ Shelnutt enlisted in the Army in 1989 and has served all over the southeast United States and the world, including Germany and the Republic of Korea. He received his commission as an Infantry Officer through the Officer Candidate School at Ft. Benning, GA. He deployed in 1997 to Bosnia-Herzegovina in support of NATO peacekeeping operations. He deployed to Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) for Operation Iraqi Freedom I and with the 3rd Infantry Division for OIF V. He deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2014. He has served in multiple staff and operational assignments over his thirty years. 

MAJ Shelnutt earned a Master's in Administration from Central Michigan University and a Bachelor of Science in History with a minor in Political Science from Austin Peay State University. He has published in Infantry Magazine and Savage Realms Magazine.

MAJ Shelnutt's goals as the Senior Army Instructor at South San High school are to uphold the mission of the JROTC program and set the conditions for all of his cadets to be successful in their post-high school lives.