Torpedo Man

Chief Dale Dryer was one of the best torpedomen in the United States submarine service. Aboard the USS Annapolis (SSN-760), Dryer built a reputation as the kind of sailor every weapons division wanted and every command depended on. With eighteen years of naval service, multiple commendations, expert marksmanship ratings, submarine weapons expertise, and service as Leading Chief Petty Officer for Torpedo Division, Dryer became the “go-to guy” for nearly anything involving weapons: torpedoes, rifles, shotguns, handguns, machine guns, ammunition, ordnance handling, and improvised combat solutions.

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That reputation became legend during a classified special operations mission in the Arctic Ocean.

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The USS Annapolis had been sent beneath the ice to break through and deploy a specialized radar and electronic tracking system in one of the most remote locations on Earth. During the mission, the submarine was attacked by forces loyal to one of the Atlantic Kingdom’s regional warlords, who intended to seize the submarine and steal its nuclear weapons. As the crew fought to hold the invaders back inside the boat, Chief Dryer made a decision that was equal parts desperate, brilliant, and insane.

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Dryer, who was also a qualified Master Diver, donned a cold-water diving suit, strapped on a modified air pack, sealed weapons and ammunition inside waterproof protective bags, and loaded himself into one of the submarine’s torpedo tubes. He launched himself out of the USS Annapolis, swam through freezing Arctic waters, broke through to the surface ice, and came up behind the attackers topside. Armed and alone, he took out more than a dozen hostile troops on the ice before reentering the submarine through an upper hatch. From there, he flanked the Atlantic Kingdom warlord and his boarding force, turning the battle in the crew’s favor. In the close-quarters fight that followed, Dryer shot out the warlord’s eye, forcing him and his surviving warriors to retreat.

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For his bravery, quick thinking, and impossible combat improvisation, Chief Dryer received the Navy Star. When he returned home, he was celebrated as a naval hero.

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The Navy also saw something else in the incident: a tactic that should never have worked, but did. Dryer’s torpedo-tube deployment proved that a properly armored, underwater-capable weapons specialist could be used for extreme submarine defense, special operations insertion, and hostile vessel assault. A Navy weapons designer contacted Dryer and brought him into a classified development program built around that very concept. The result was the Torpedoman Project.

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Dryer became the primary test operator for the first Torpedoman armor prototype. The early Torpedoman Mark I Armor was designed to give a submariner the mobility, protection, firepower, and underwater propulsion needed to survive the kind of impossible mission Dryer had improvised aboard the Annapolis. During one of the armor’s trial phases, a band of women gun-runners and high-end thieves known as F.E.M.S. attempted to steal the suit. Dryer once again responded with instinctive speed. He donned the armor and used it to subdue the attackers before they could escape with the prototype.

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After a SECNAV-level review, Chief Dryer was permanently assigned the armor under strict conditions. He would remain available to the U.S. Navy, either on active duty or reserve status, for missions requiring him and the Torpedoman system. Over time, the armor’s support field team was replaced by an automated Armor Repair Unit (ARU), making Torpedo Man more mobile and deployable. He began conducting special operations alongside Navy and SEAL units, especially missions associated with SEAL Team 8.

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Eventually, the Torpedoman Project lost funding. Rather than let the armor and its operator disappear into bureaucratic storage, former U.S. Navy Captain Jonathan Argough, operating through Naval Intelligence channels, reassigned the project to the secretive COMSUBRON Alpha program. Soon afterward, Dale Dryer was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy and transitioned into GUARD service. With the creation of the Seaguardians, the Torpedoman Project was formally transferred into the team’s operational structure.

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Today, Dale Dryer continues to serve as Torpedo Man, one of the Seaguardians’ heaviest armored combat assets. In battle, he is a direct, disciplined, high-speed assault specialist capable of operating in the air, underwater, aboard submarines, across hostile vessels, and in the middle of extreme maritime combat. He is a submariner to his core: practical, tough, mission-focused, and often stoic while deployed.

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At home, however, Dale is a devoted husband and father. His tough “at sea” attitude stands in sharp contrast to the open love he shows Joanne and their children whenever he is in port. His family grounds him, and he treats the Seaguardians as an extension of that same loyalty. He may not always say much, but he considers the team his people.

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Among the Seaguardians, Dryer has formed an especially strong friendship with Hurt Locker. The two can talk for hours — or days — about weapons, ammunition, old movies, improvised gear, bad jokes, and technical details no one else on the team has the patience to follow. Their bond is strange, blunt, and oddly wholesome, built on mutual respect and shared enthusiasm for things that go boom.

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Torpedo Man is not flashy by personality, but his armor and battlefield presence are impossible to ignore. He is the Seaguardians’ living torpedo: launched into danger, built to hit hard, and almost impossible to stop.

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