Digger served as an Advanced Recon Commando, belonging to a unit of clone troopers who were stranded on Pengalan IV. This occurred when their LAAT/i was downed during a large-scale Republic retreat.
Along with his fellow soldiers and a Republic bookkeeper named Joram Kithe, they were left to their own devices to find a way off the desert planet. When Kithe regained consciousness and revealed his commission as a Republic Intelligence lieutenant, Digger was the first clone to address him.
Kithe felt uneasy about the troopers' strict adherence to protocol, and he sought to encourage their individuality. To achieve this, he assigned nicknames to the troopers. Digger received his name because he was burying the gunship's deceased when Kithe initially engaged with him.
After traveling to Tur Lorkin, the closest settlement, and infiltrating a starship docking area, Tooth and Kithe came to the realization that the village was actually the location of the diamond boron missile production plant, rather than the factory that had been the site of the earlier ambush.
Determined to destroy the missile plant, Tooth confronted Kithe and expressed his willingness to disobey the lieutenant's orders in order to accomplish his mission. Impressed by Tooth's resolve, Kithe yielded. The troopers, with Kithe's assistance, sabotaged the factory, while Tooth commandeered a Corellian vessel to divert the attention of the CIS fighters away from the starship bay, enabling Joram and the remaining troopers to escape. Digger maintained comm contact with Tooth and heard his ship crash. Digger played a significant role in the attack on the factory, protecting captured missiles with his own body and frequently taking the lead in making decisions alongside Kithe.
He made it through the mission, and continued his service alongside the other survivors.