Spark

Dale Lynema ’93 is a Sergeant on the Marine Services Team for the Michigan State Police. One of 15 divers in the state, Lynema spends his days on Michigan waters conducting body and evidence recoveries. 

Lynema has been on the dive team since 2005. Back then, he divided his time between his state trooper duties and recovery missions. Now a full-time diver, Lynema spends most days on the job working with sonar and supervising the divers under him. He describes a typical day on the job as unpredictable, often “chaotic,” especially in the spring and summer when seasonal activity on the water increases. 

On the day we talk, Lynema, who thought he would be leading a body recovery mission in St. Joseph, Michigan, finds himself on his way to Lansing to pick up his autonomous underwater vehicle for a trip up to Little Bay de Noc to recover a lost kayaker. 

Lynema’s team employs a variety of technology to conduct body and evidence recoveries, but they primarily rely on sonar. He says murky conditions can often make it difficult for a diver to locate a body that may be trapped in debris. Using echolocation gives divers like Lynema a precise reading on a search area. “Our most tried and true technology is our side scan where you have a sonar unit with a cable attached and you’re towing it in the water with a boat. You’re able to see in real time.” 

Other tools of his trade include a battery-powered autonomous underwater vehicle and a diver-mounted display that allows a team member at the surface to see what a diver cannot see with the naked eye. Last summer, he conducted a recovery of a body trapped in debris. “Visibility was less than a foot by eye, but with the sonar I was able to locate the individual, work my way over, and make the recovery.” 

Dealing with deceased individuals has always been a necessary aspect of Lynema’s job as a state trooper, whether responding to a traffic accident, a homicide, or a drowning. He acknowledges his career choice is not for everyone, and yet, at a relatively young age, he knew he wanted to go into law enforcement. 

Lynema studied criminal justice for one year at Michigan State before transferring to Calvin at the beginning of his sophomore year to study history. “After the first semester I thought, ‘Who am I kidding? I want to be in law enforcement.’” He stayed at Calvin and graduated with a degree in criminal justice. 

“A liberal arts education was spot on. Even just to have dabbled in disciplines like philosophy and psychology, to understand, for example, mental disorders like schizophrenia, I think it helped me to be a much more well-rounded trooper when I got out on the road.” 

A member of the National Guard, Lynema has also served two tours of active duty. He was still a Calvin student when he went to Iraq as a trained medic in 1991. He served again as a Medical Service Corps officer in 2006 during Operation Iraqi Freedom. 

As a Christian, Lynema “tries to lay his faith on his sleeve as much as possible” and says he enjoys interacting with various kinds of people from all walks of life—whether working with colleagues who don’t know the Lord, encountering people who have made poor decisions, or offering closure to those who have lost loved ones to tragic accidents. 

Though despair may seem like a natural response to the situations he regularly encounters, Lynema’s nearly three decades with the state police have affirmed people do change. “Sometimes what I do can be that catalyst for people to take a step back and say, ‘Okay, this isn’t how I want to live my life, or this really didn’t end well.’” 

For those who don’t get that second chance, Lynema’s work offers families, friends, and communities closure in their pain. “You see how fragile life is when somebody’s life is cut short, sometimes through no fault of their own—that’s always rough. But doing a recovery allows families and even communities to continue in the grieving process.” 

“God has control, and I truly believe that,” says Lynema, whose faith not only guides him while on duty but in his day-to-day family life as well. He names the sacrifices: missed milestones and long hours on the job, but he also names the graces: a supportive wife, gracious kids, and a large extended family who has, for generations, passed down that faith he holds dear.