As a child and self-proclaimed Army brat, Tyler Dodd grew up across the world. From Virginia to Korea and more, following his father, an Army master diver from one country to another – thirteen moves before he was out of his teens. However, Dodd did not stop following his father when he reached adulthood. On Sept. 11, 2001, Dodd followed in his father’s footsteps as an Army diver – a relatively obscure job. Obscure or not, it is what Dodd grew up with, so he dove in and never looked back. He now finds himself on the island of Oahu in Hawaii as the most senior noncommissioned officer in the 84th Engineer Battalion, 130th Engineer Brigade, 8th Theater Sustainment Command, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. He continues to serve because the Army and his career as a master diver have provided him with an undeniable sense of purpose, which he humbly and gladly passes on as a senior leader.
Before Command Sgt. Maj. Dodd became the top NCO at the 84th Engineer Battalion, he moved from country to country with his father, who would later retire as an Army master diver. At the time, the job title was deep sea diver, and the community was so small and tight that everyone knew each other. To the young Dodd, he felt like they were part of the family.
“We lived in Germany; we lived in Korea; we lived in Florida. I saw the way this small, tight-knit community stayed together, and it was just an extended family,” said Dodd. “My dad knew everybody in his unit. Everybody in his unit knew him. We moved to the same places together. A lot of the kids from my dad's units I still know today.”
Despite the lineage and foundation his father had laid for him, Dodd did not immediately choose military service for his career path. Instead, he aspired to become a radio broadcaster, enrolling in college to complete a four-year degree. However, that all changed with a coalescence of good and bad events. First, the bad – Sept. 11, 2001.
“I was studying radio broadcasting – had my own radio show and everything – and then September 11th happened, and I went to the recruiter on September 12th,” said Dodd. “It moved me; it was, as it was for most young adults, and I'd imagine most people that can remember it, a significant emotional event.”
The good: his girlfriend was pregnant with his first child, Adrian, who is now 21. Though Adrian was a welcomed joy, Dodd, then a young college student, did not find himself prepared to provide for a new life.
“I had recently found out that my girlfriend at the time was pregnant, and I was kind of in this crisis mode,” said Dodd. “Then 9/11 happened and I kind of read the tea leaves and saw what was happening and thought my time would be better spent learning how to defend the country as opposed to just living in it and living off of it.”
With the short detour to college over with, Dodd merged back into a lane he was very familiar with – the life of an Army diver. In fact, his joining as a diver would end up making history. He and his father were the first father-son master divers in the Department of Defense. But the master diver title would not come for some years later because the young Dodd would first need to complete basic and advanced individual training, which is no small feat, said Dodd.
The military occupational specialty 12D – engineer diver – is not well-known, joining the ranks alongside fellow water-based MOSs 88K and 88L, which are watercraft operators and watercraft engineers, respectively. Dodd said engineer divers are like their land-dwelling counterparts, save for the apparent difference.
“We do anything that the Engineer Regiment does; we just do it underwater,” he said. “We make maps of the ocean floor. So, hydrology or hydrographic surveying. We do construction underwater so we can rebuild piers, warf supports. We do underwater welding, exothermic cutting.”
The job most bystanders associate with military divers is the explosives – silently infiltrating an enemy waterway and setting charges to take out critical infrastructure. However, Dodd admits his job is not that romantic.
“We're not the sneak-and-peek divers,” he said.
As far as underwater demolition goes, Dodd and divers like him focus on destroying obstructions to make way for watercraft and construction, just like their land counterparts would do for ground vehicles or building construction.
Dodd would learn many of these skills through two phases of training. Phase one lands trainees at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, where, according to the U.S. Army Engineer School, Soldiers are evaluated on their potential to pass the second phase in Panama City, Florida, which is six months of much more extensive practical and technical training, said Dodd.
After completing training, Dodd was assigned to Fort Eustis, Virginia, where he would later meet a young Pvt. Christopher Kratsas, a fellow Army diver from Lordstown, Ohio. In addition to numerous missions in the U.S., they would both deploy multiple times in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Middle East – a desert landscape ripe with opportunities for the new diver.
“Dodd and I worked together at Fort Eustis at the dive detachments for six years,” said Kratsas, who is now the first sergeant and master diver for the 7th Engineer Dive Detachment, 84th Engineer Battalion. “We did dive missions all over the country, from Washington State over to Rhode Island and down to Key West, Florida, and everywhere in between. We continued to do missions all over the world to include jobs in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Iraq during that time.”
to the shore during the 86th Dive Detachment's mission to remove sediment from water intake valves from the Tigris Riverr near here. (released)
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Because of how small the Army diver community is – about 140 total Army-wide – Kratsas would follow and serve with Dodd for much of his career.
“CSM Dodd is a second-generation Army master diver, thus very versed on all things dive,” said Kratsas. “He was always one rank above me throughout my career; he was my sounding board for all of my questions. If there was anything I was ever unsure about, he was the first call I would make.”
Dodd fondly recalls that time and those missions – specifically Iraq.
“I maybe look at it through rose-colored lenses, but it was really just the formative time of my career,” said Dodd. “I joined the Army to do exactly this. And this is what I'm doing even though we're in the middle of the desert.”
A fair question is, 'What are divers doing in the middle of the desert?' However, Dodd points out that “two of the largest rivers in the world flow straight through Iraq – the Tigris and Euphrates.”
When Dodd and his squad of fellow divers arrived in Iraq, they were tasked to support river crossings across the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and inspect infrastructure located alongside and across bodies of water, such as ports, dams, and bridges, which were critical to operations in that area. Dodd would inspect the infrastructure for structural integrity and enemy maleficence. They even inspected ships coming into port for various reasons. They conducted operations as far south as the Port of Shuaiba in southern Kuwait to as far north as Balad, Iraq. In addition to these dangerous tasks, a more somber aspect of the divers’ mission was to recover human remains – often those of their brothers- and sisters-in-arms.
“When we're doing [remains recoveries] in Iraq, generally the unit that lost the Soldier is the one that is pulling security for you too. So, that also just hits really hard because you know that they just lost somebody that's very, very close to them, and we're bringing them home, so we're helping to bring closure to not just the family who is going to receive the remains but to that unit.”
Dodd recovered remains from downed aircraft to tanks – all impacting him and those receiving the remains, he said. Sometimes, the organizations he supports are not from the DOD but are governmental agencies, such as the FBI. Regardless of who he and his team are supporting, the task remains difficult and sobering.
“It's just very somber; it's tough, but it's something that needs to be done,” said Dodd. “You need to do it, and I think we do it in a very professional and honorable way to bring honor to the fallen.”
As equally humbling but less immediate is the recovery and repatriation of remains from more distant wars, such as World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. This mission is conducted by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which continually searches for over 83,000 unaccounted-for service members across the world, said Kratsas. After many years as a diver, Dodd became the first master diver to work at the DPAA and to lead the underwater team there. He spent 300 days a year for four years at the DPAA, traveling globally and recovering fallen service members.
“You know doing these missions that eventually these remains are going to get back to their family members, and their family members are going to get to have closure and have peace from it,” said Dodd.
Kratsas followed and served alongside Dodd at DPAA as the lead master diver, the second of their kind.
“Searching for and finding remains of fallen service members is an experience like no other,” said Kratsas. “I think it is a lot different for divers than it is for land teams. Underwater, when you find remains, it’s only you, silence, and the relationship you have developed with the service members you are looking for. Finding them and bringing them home to their families who have been waiting decades for the answer to, ‘Where is my loved one?' is a feeling that is unexplainable. I get choked up on every story, and I couldn’t be more proud and grateful to be able to bring closure to families.”
The mission is so impactful for those with the honor of participating that it can influence career trajectories.
"I would say that [remains recovery] was probably the most impactful job that I've ever had in my career, and in serving there for four years, I'd say made me want to continue serving,” said Dodd.
And Dodd would continue serving but in a different capacity. At the time a master sergeant, Dodd would depart the agency to become a sergeant major, allowing one of his Soldiers to take his place in such a pivotal role for the uniformed services and the United States.
When he was offered the opportunity to become a sergeant major, he took it as an opportunity to give back to the Army, which had given him so much, including the family he adores. Throughout his career, his family has been the primary motivator for his continued service, with the love of his job a close second. His blended family includes his wife of over 10 years, Jen, and four children aged six to 21.
Because they sacrificed time away from their husband and father, they enabled him to provide for them while doing something he cherished. However, to continue to serve in the Army as a sergeant major, he would have to give up that very thing.
Since there are no sergeant major positions within the dive community, Dodd would transition to senior leader positions within the Engineer Regiment, ultimately leading him to his first command sergeant major job at the 84th Engineer Battalion, which involves a lot more walking on land, but his experiences in the water were immediately transferable, he said.
“What I found is that what you are physically experiencing doesn't matter as much as what you feel emotionally and how you work through problems,” said Dodd. “I can tell a story about doing a 190-foot dive to somebody that's not going to relate, but I can I remember what it felt like to do that, and I can understand this person is going through a challenge here. What I've found is it's really just a relational thing. Being able to relate to people, not through your individual experiences but through our experience of being part of this organization, is really what I found effective.”
Kratsas experienced Dodd's mentorship throughout his career and continues to see it today, he said.
“CSM Dodd is more than a subject matter expert, he thinks situations out to the end, no details are overlooked,” said Kratsas. “He has looked over my [evaluations], wrote several, and gave me guidance, which has definitely helped get me to the first sergeant position. He has been a great mentor.
“He cares about the Soldiers. He has a unique ability to talk to people and make them feel special. He somehow is able to identify troops on the wrong path, motivate them, and get them to want to work.”
It is not a coincidence that Dodd has built a solid reputation with his Soldiers, as he has a personal formula for success. Dodd has found three fundamental tenets throughout his career: maintain a sense of humor, stay humble, and always look for opportunities to work hard.
“I think my dad told me that when I went to basic training to maintain my sense of humor. I didn't really get it,” said Dodd. Not long after his dad imparted his wisdom, he figured it out.
Mere days into basic training, the young Dodd was running to formation after changing into the duty uniform of the day, except he had put on the wrong version of the now-retired battle dress uniform, or BDU. He was quickly called out in front of the entire formation and told in no uncertain terms how much of a failure he was. New to the military and the process of Soldier building, his mind was swirling; he thought this was it – this was how his Army career ended. After the significant emotional – and very public – event, Dodd was directed to run back upstairs to the barracks and change. As he ascended the stairs faster than ever, his mind raced faster back to his father's words, "Don't lose your sense of humor." He then realized how ridiculous his situation was and laughed. No one was going to die; it was an easy mistake; his career would remain intact. This mindset would be helpful later in his career when lives were at stake.
"Then you get to Iraq, and then you and your closest friends are dodging mortars, like literally jumping out of your cots, running into the closest bunker you can find, and laughing because they can't hit you,” said Dodd. “If you can't find something to laugh about in a stressful situation, you're in a bad place.”
He would survive that and many other harrowing situations above and below the surface, which helped him practice his second tenet: stay humble.
Dodd recalls former Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Daily saying that no one wants to, in so many words, work for a jerk. Dodd connected with this.
“When you start getting responsibility, like becoming a sergeant, you want to flex that,” he said. “And it takes people that you respect, it takes your mentors a lot of times to say, ‘Hey, man, bring it down a notch.’ You don't have to be a jerk to get your point across.”
To Dodd, being humble and not being a jerk goes hand-in-hand with his third tenet: being a hard worker. He believes hard work does more than build the organization and complete the mission. Kratsas has witnessed this attribute in Dodd.
“You will not find anyone who works harder than CSM Dodd,” said Kratsas. “He is always looking for ways to improve the organization. If he is not with the troops, he is writing white papers, doing peer and subordinate reviews, conducting sensing sessions, anything he can do to make some aspects of the Army better.”
Dodd has an intrinsic desire to be better and work harder regardless of whether anyone is taking notes, and he believes hard work is more than visible actions.
“I feel like it goes without saying, but I think a lot of times I do have to say, ‘It's not because the organization needs you to work hard,’ but I think it's good for your soul,” said Dodd. "It's good for your spirit to say, ‘Man I put in a [heck] of a day's work today.’ Sometimes I'll be late because I've been nugging out something or because I want to get it right. If I'm off by a little bit, Soldiers might not care, right? My boss might not care. But I will. So, having that work ethic to just want to do it and do it right.”
He said that this work ethic and dedication to service keeps him driving forward in his career with aspirations to give back to an Army that has given him so much. What the future holds for Dodd is up to the Army, but it is also heavily influenced by his family.
“I feel like the Army has given me a purpose, motivated me, and it's given me a direction to go with my life,” said Dodd. “I have served a full career, and I'm barely in my 40s, and I feel like I have a whole life to live after I retire. I'm waiting to see what the Army has to offer. Leaving here and how it suits my family.”
Dodd also feels so content and fulfilled with his career that he feels no desire to search out something else, he said.
“It's given me the fulfillment, the camaraderie, the actual experiences, the memories, the direction, the understanding that I can set goals and I can achieve those goals,” said Dodd. “Sometimes I cannot achieve those goals, and I can fail, but I know how to get back up and keep trying and recalibrate myself.”
From the family perspective, Dodd looks forward to being more and more present as a father beyond what a typical Soldier’s life affords. This is a primary motivator for his future career.
“I've got a six-year-old, an eight-year-old, a 10-year-old, and a 21-year-old,” said Dodd. “I feel like the Army has taught me a lot of life lessons that I'd like to impart to my kids, and I want the opportunity to be there to do that. So, I guess what the future holds is being a father now. Not necessarily stay-at-home-father but focusing a lot on my family.”
From being an Army brat of an Army master diver to becoming an Army master diver with children of his own, Dodd has watched his life take a familiar arch that has left him fulfilled and motivated for what’s to come. Whether above or below the water, he plans to serve the Army and his family and look for opportunities to better himself and those around him for the foreseeable future.
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