Photo By Capt. Maria Mengrone | Texas Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Shawn G. Dagley 627th Dive Detachment, 386th...... read more read more
GALVESTON, Texas – It’s been one year since Staff Sgt. Shawn G. Dagley, 627th Dive Detachment, 386th Engineer Battalion, 176th Engineer Brigade donned his dive gear for the final time and took a plunge, with his Soldiers, into the shark tanks at the Moody Gardens Aquarium in Galveston, June 6, 2015 to conduct the underwater casing of the colors ceremony, marking the end of the unit.
“While we were operating we conducted 500 to 600 successful dives with zero incidents or injury,” said Dagley. “We stayed proficient and put divers in the water every opportunity we had.”
The dive team was activated in 2007 as part of a reorganization of the Texas Army engineer guard forces. During the dive teams eight years of service, the unit was able to foster working relationships with various agencies to further maintain defense support of civil authorities.
“We worked with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Public Safety, FBI, and active-duty Coast Guard divers,” said 1st Lt. Roman M. Jansky, outgoing commander, 627th Dive Det., “Dagley reached out to these agencies and allowed us to be on call to assist in counterdrug operations, while deterring human trafficking and conducting searches of ship hulls.”
Although the unit was small and comprised of approximately 20 soldiers Dagley’s experience helped improve the dive teams overall skills needed to meet the challenges of the U.S. Army Combat Dive School.
“Standing up the unit was our mission and figuring out how we were going to evaluate, recruit and build up stamina to make it through the Army dive school was tough,” said Maj. James M. Proctor, former commander, 627th Dive Det. “When Staff Sgt. Dagley came along he helped us crack the code on how to get our soldiers through phase 1 and phase 2 of dive school.”
To become Engineer Divers, soldiers must go through the first phase, a three-week course, before moving on to phase 2, a rigorous 26-week course.
Dagley, a former 11-year U.S. Navy diver, implemented the red, white, and blue phase to the unit’s evaluation of the Diver Physical Fitness Test to help prepare guardsmen for dive school. The test consists of a 500 yard swim in 14 minutes, 42 push-ups in two minutes, 50 sit-ups in two minutes, 6 pull-ups and a 1.5 mile run in 12 minutes or less.
“It was a new perspective that Dagley brought, to break up the training into phases,” said Procter. “He made it so that soldiers passed their test at the blue phase which was passing all events at 20 percent over the standard; this made all the difference for us.”
Although the program has ended, Guardsmen will not forget the experience and values gained from Dagely during his eight years as the instructor.
“Staff Sgt. Dagley was the heart and soul of the unit. He was the one consistent thing that held the unit together,” said Capt. Jacob A. Patterson, former commander, 627th Dive Det. “I was sad because we worked so hard and to see that capability go away was hard. But, at the same time, I’m proud to see the growth from where we started to where we ended with this unit.”
Dagley shared his respect and love for diving with his family and carried his passion for the dive team beyond work.
“We even named our son Gage, after the instrument diver’s use to measure pressure since I knew he loved diving so much,” said Kelly, Dagley’s wife. “When my husband found out about the unit he was devastated, he wished it wasn’t going away. These dive guys will always be in our lives; they’re like family to us. He still thinks he could have done more to keep the unit going.”
The 627th was the National Guard’s first team of divers.
“The Texas Army National Guard accomplished something with us, we were an engineer asset doing real-world missions,” said Dagley. “It hurt me to see the unit disband because we did everything we could to become a fully deployable unit. I will miss it.”
| Date Taken: | 06.06.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 06.06.2016 16:23 |
| Story ID: | 200146 |
| Location: | CORPUS CHRISTI , TX, US |
| Web Views: | 368 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, A year later, Texas guardsman reflects on dive team legacy, by CPT Maria Mengrone, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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