DAYTON-SCOTT

FIRST  AMERICAN  KILLED  IN  SYRIA  COMBAT

Scott Cooper Dayton was born on September 30, 1974, in Woodbridge, Virginia.  At the age of 18, he joined the Navy on February 17, 1993, attended recruit training in Orlando, Florida, and then did back-to-back decommissioning crew tours of two ammunition ships, the USS PYRO (AE-24) and then the USS FLINT (AE-32).  Dayton was then ordered to the pre-commissioning crew of the guided missile destroyer USS COLE (DDG-67) and served aboard the ship until early 1999, a year before the ship was attacked by terrorists in Yemen.  His next three years were spent pushing recruits at Recruit Training Command before entering the EOD program in 2002, attending dive school and EOD school before his initial tour at EOD Mobile Unit One in San Diego.  This was followed by addition training at EOD school before transferring to Norfolk where he served two sea tours at EOD Mobile Unit Two at Little Creek, separated by a shore tour at the EOD Training Unit at Fort Story in Virginia Beach.

In May 2014, EODCS Dayton was assigned to EOD Mobile Unit Two in Virginia Beach, Virginia.  On November 24, 2016, while serving with Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, he was unfortunately killed in an improvised explosive device blast near Ayn Issa in northern Syria, the first American serviceman to die in Syria combat.  His body was returned to the United States and was buried with full military honors at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.  During his military career, EODCS Scott Cooper Dayton obtained qualification as a master EOD technician, naval parachutist, military freefall parachutist and enlisted surface warfare specialist.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)