More than twenty-five years ago, Philippine-born Cindy Jose Scott was told that a serious medical condition affecting her voice would require her to refrain from speaking for at least two months. Already proficient in water color and other mediums, Cindy decided to take up oil painting to fill the time when she could not speak, never realizing her paintings would one day be displayed in the U.S. Air Force Fighting Squadron Headquarters in Tucson, Arizona; the home of a member of the Richard Nixon family; and on notecards featuring the birthplace of President Nixon sold in the bookstore at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda.
Just after Cindy’s eleventh birthday, her family moved to the United States and started a new life in a new country. In 1973, she married Wayne Scott, whose 29-year career in the United States Air Force would take them around the world. It inaugurated another new life for Cindy – as a military wife.
Combining their heritages, Cindy and Wayne have family members and ancestors who have served in nearly every war the United States has fought since the Revolutionary War. Moses Scott, Wayne’s 5th great grandfather fought in the Battle of Bennington in 1775, while his 2nd great grandfather fought in the Civil War. One grandfather served in World War I and another in World War II. Wayne’s father served in Korea and Wayne was on active duty during Desert Storm, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Cindy’s grandfather fought in the Spanish-American War and the Philippine American War, completing the family’s history of serving this nation in uniform.
Among Cindy’s most recent paintings is “Eagle Flight,” featuring the bald eagle and the F-15 and F-22 fighter planes, an emotional reminder that freedom is not free and we owe a great debt to those who have served our nation since its inception.
On June 20, 1782, the Second Continental Congress adopted a seal for the United States, featuring the bald eagle as our national symbol. Nearly two hundred years later, the F-15 fighter plane took its inaugural flight and entered service in 1976, the year of our nation’s bicentennial. Known as the F-15 Eagle, it has been one of the most successful fighter aircraft and remains in service today.
To obtain a print of Cindy Scott’s “Eagle Flight,” go to cydpublishing.com/orderartprints/.
To learn more about how the bald eagle became the symbol of America, go to [see 250 Seconds essay]