RIP, Senior Chief Petty Officer Scott Dayton.
The first American serviceman killed in the Syrian conflict will be laid to rest Thursday at Arlington National Cemetery. As his family prepared for the private burial, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced a ramp-up of the U.S. involvement in the Syria fight with the deployment of 200 more troops.
Senior Chief Petty Officer Scott Dayton, 42, was a Navy bomb technician killed on Thanksgiving Day in northern Syria. He was one of about 300 U.S. special operations forces trainers, advisers and explosive ordnance disposal team members in Syria tasked with training local forces to defeat the Islamic State group.
He was killed by an improvised bomb in Ayn Issa, about 35 miles north of the terrorists’ stronghold Raqqa.
Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve has “reached a critical milestone,” Carter said, with American and local forces waging a two-pronged campaign to take Islamic State-controlled Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria.
Carter said securing Raqqa — “a hub for plotters of external attacks” — was a key objective after the coalition helped local forces halt the militants’ expansion, defending the border town of Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab, and retaking control of the Tishrin Dam and several northern towns and villages. Those efforts, along with the mission in Iraq, have severed the terrorists’ ground link between Mosul and Raqqa and limited the movement of personnel, finances and supplies for the Islamic State group, he said.[…]
Dayton, from Woodbridge, Va., was assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit Two in Virginia Beach. He had earned 19 awards during his 23 years in service, the Navy said.
At a private memorial service in Virginia Beach on Dec. 9, Dayton’s commanding officer at Mobile Unit Two said his death was not in vain.
“His legacy lives on in those that he selflessly led, in those that he thoroughly trained,” said Cmdr. Rudy Schoen. “And our adversaries will learn that as painful as it is to lose a warrior like Scott, it will not break our spirit. It will only galvanize us to train and fight even harder.”
Dayton is the fifth U.S. servicemember killed since the U.S. launched its campaign against the Islamic State group in 2014. U.S. special operators first deployed to Syria in October 2015.