Scott's Story

In June 1992 Scott Dayton threw his cap up in the air on the football field of Potomac Senior High School in Woodbridge, VA and headed to “Grad Night” and “Beach Week” celebrations along with most of his classmates who had graduated with him. 

Some of us went to colleges and universities, some of us went to trade schools or into family businesses, some started working, some started families. Some, like Scott, enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces and wrote a blank check to the United States of America, “payable up to, and including, his life.” 

On November 24, 2016–Thanksgiving Day— while most of us were watching football, eating turkey and pumpkin pie—about as Americana as it gets—America cashed Scott’s nearly 24-year old blank check. He had been set to retire only a little over a year later. 

Scott, a decorated and highly experienced Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal (“EOD”) specialist, was the first American service member to die fighting the Islamic State in Syria (“ISIS”). He died from wounds sustained by an improvised explosive device (“IED”) blast in northern Syria—about 35 miles north of the ISIS stronghold in Raqqa in the town of Ayn Issa when the IED exploded.  

Scott was part of the about 300 U.S. special operations troops operating inside Syria supporting Kurdish and Arab fighters opposed to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.  

He had enlisted in the Navy in February 1993 and was a surface warfare sailor until joining the EOD community in 2002. He is survived by his beautiful wife Kristin, and two kids Hayley and Cole in Virginia Beach where his Unit was stationed.  

Scott’s commendations include: the Bronze Star, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, seven Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, Combat Action Ribbon, Navy Unit Commendation, Navy “E” Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, two Iraq Campaign Medals, and Sea Service Deployment Ribbon. 

Many in the PSHS Class of ‘92 have gone on to do wonderful things with their lives and careers since that smoldering hot June Graduation day. Many have achieved great things professionally and personally. Many proudly and honorably serve or served our country in the Armed Services Active Duty and Reserves, National Guard, state and local police, as well as other state and federal law enforcement agencies during an unprecedented historical period of terrorism both abroad and in our homeland. We didn’t know it when we graduated in 1992, but that summer really wasn’t so far from the end of normal life as we had come to know it. Within 9 years, the entire world was going to change forever. And the War Against Terrorism that would bring our country to the Middle East, including our classmate Scott, would be underway. 

By creating, funding and maintaining an annual scholarship in Scott’s honor, the PSHS Class of 1992 endeavors to ensure that everything he represented —that his spirit still represents: courage, bravery, honor, and discipline in the face of evil—despite fear—is not forgotten. 

This scholarship will preserve his legacy through student applicants and their families who will honor his memory by telling his story to future  generations. They will receive just a small reminder regarding for whom THEY have the privilege of representing BECAUSE of his service and sacrifice. Scott came from POTOMAC SR. HIGH SCHOOL in Woodbridge, Virginia. He was proud as hell—as he should have been. 

I was never more proud to be a member of the PSHS Class of ‘92 than in the days, weeks and months following Scott’s death. Everyone was trying to do something to help—we were a family sharing a genuinely devastating loss no one else could understand. Whether you knew Scott well, or just knew of him…you felt this loss.  

Instead of continuing to focus on his loss, we are doing what Scott would have liked to see—shifting the focus to everything he GAVE—and GIVING BACK. That’s Scott Dayton’s Legacy.  

With the continued support from the community, however small or large, we can do that.