In June 1992 Scott Dayton threw his graduation cap up in the air on the PSHS football field and headed to “Grad Night” and “Beach Week” in Ocean City, MD, like most of us. We maybe don’t remember so many details from that week? Certainly ONLY because 30 years is a long time…?

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–on 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 was killed by wounds sustained in 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 our Class of ‘92 have gone on to do wonderful things with their lives and careers since that smoldering hot day in June 1992. 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.

Scott Cooper Dayton was so many things to so many different people over his life cut too short.  We can and should celebrate that life with laughter and fun (the way he would want) and all that we can  squeeze in over the weekend we have together in October (but it won’t be enough time—and frankly, only a tiny fraction of the lives he touched will even be there…because he was THAT loved…and THAT well-respected). In the days and weeks leading up to the Class of ‘92 Reunion, by raising money for a scholarship fund in Scott’s honor, we can also make sure everything he represented —that his spirit represents: courage, bravery, honor and discipline in the face of evil and despite fear, is not forgotten.

By creating and maintaining an annual high school scholarship in Scott’s name, as a class, not only can we can make sure his spirit and memory live on, we can honor his wife, kids and family. By putting his legacy out there each year and choosing a student or students who will carry his memory through this scholarship award, Potomac students 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 in some way. Everything I thought I knew or remembered from high school melted away —and 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. I hope we can come together again to make this scholarship a reality and something we can maintain for years to come.

**Scott’s wife Kristin will serve on the student selection committee; as will I (Jen Markiewicz Wagman) as the scholarship administrator—through a dedicated tax-exempt IRS account created for administration of this specific scholarship. Once we determine the amount of the award(s) to be given, the money will be given directly to Potomac HS (acting as the 501(c)(3)—at least first year) to be given to recipient(s). 

I will create an on-line sign-up form to discuss the application and rules committee later this fall.