Lt General Hershel Shepherd

PERSONALITY It's unknown what Shepherd was like during his earlier years, but it's clear he cared deeply for his 30,000 marines as if he is like a father figure to them. However, after his 30,000 marines were killed in the capital city in the Middle East by the nuclear bomb under the order of Vladimir Makarov, Shepherd had become corrupted and ruthless as he swore vengeance toward the CIA's most wanted criminal. Shepherd created Task Force 141 (before he betrayed them) and Shadow Company to serve his purpose of killing Makarov when he was going to use his blank check of any resource to accomplish his goals. He hated Price for disobeying his orders to track down Makarov and when he launched a EMP missile to the United States to help the Rangers. After being called a "War Hero", Shepherd would kill all who got in his way when sending out his Shadow Company troops to terminate every single of Makarov's men and members of Task Force 141, including Price and Soap. When his base was compromised by Soap and Price, he ordered his troops to provide cover for his escape attempt. Shepherd had no qualms of using danger close which questions raised by Dunn and later Price, "Since when Shepherd did care about danger close." Shepherd viewed his troops as expendables to ensure he escapes from Soap and Price. He is also extremely jingoistic and wants to restore USA's military might, seeing the loss of his men in a nuclear strike as a huge humiliation to his country and being frustrated that people worldwide didn't pay much attention to it. Shepherd had little remorse over killing Roach and Frost. However, as ruthless and cunning as he may be, Shepherd was just as much of a pawn in Makarov's own grand plans. While General Shepherd initially thought he could achieve his ambitions by taking advantage of Makarov's airport massacre via planting PFC Allen into his group, ultimately, his plans of instigating a war with Russia was very much the same as Makarov's. General Shepherd's actions and plans were a result of Makarov who was pulling the strings behind the lines as a puppet master. Makarov was aware of Shepherd's turning point, thus leading the latter to unknowingly spearheading Makarov's plans. STORY Shepherd commanded 30,000 U.S. Marines and the military invasion force in the Middle East in 2011 in response to the live execution of President Yasir Al-Fulani by OpFor leader, Khaled Al-Asad. Unfortunately, he was helpless to assist his men when Vladimir Makarov detonated the nuclear device in the capital city, wiping out his fellow Marines and most of his invasion force involved in the battle. Losing 30,000 troops under his command affected Shepherd greatly, causing him to develop a sour view of the world and international politics. Sometime following his invasion of the Persian Gulf, Shepherd sought new ways to restore the United States' reputation as the global military power. The others were unaware that he secretly attempted to restore his own reputation as a military commander. He turns to a more drastic measures, and keeps an eye on a goverment funded experiment that enhances soldiers. Sometime between 2011 and 2013, Shepherd founded a new unit called Task Force 141 with the help of John "Soap" MacTavish from Special Air Service. They evaluated the recruits from the special forces units of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, which brings a sniper called Andrew "Ace" Baxter in on the team. Shepherd also traveled to Mexico to recruit a former SAS trooper, Simon "Ghost" Riley. In 2013, Shepherd commanded the 141 in a mission code-named "Operation Kingfish" which he sent Captain John Price, Captain John "Soap" MacTavish, Lieutenant Simon "Ghost" Riley, Sargent Andrew "Ace" Baxter, Sergeant Gary "Roach" Sanderson and the Delta Force operators, Sandman and Derek "Frost" Westbrook to an Ultranationalist compound in Ukraine on a capture/kill mission to apprehend an individual code-named "Kingfish" who was later revealed to be Vladimir Makarov. The mission ended in failure as a large force of Ultranationalist troops attacked the task force. Most of them survived with the apparent exception of Price who stayed behind to allow the others to escape but got captured and locked up to the Gulag. After the story when Soap angrily demanded Shepherd of Kingfish's identity, Shepherd throw the photograph of Makarov and tells him, "We'll get him". Also, during this time, Shepherd created Shadow Company, an elite military contingent that was fiercely loyal to Shepherd, which he used to his own ends. Between this and what was codenamed the Shadows Experiments, Andrew had his suspicions. Upon finding out the truth, he tried to expose Shepard, only to be murdered by the general. He took Andrew's 10 year old son Joseph in, making him another subject for the trails. Before the war began, Shepherd chose one of Sergeant Foley's best troops to reassign as a CIA agent to go undercover to Makarov's Zakhaev International Airport Massacre operation. He handpicked Private First-Class Joseph Allen and watched him in observation during his course of training. He then sent Task Force 141 to Kazakhstan to retrieve a downed ACS module. In the battle for occupying Afghanistan in 2016, Shepherd needed an enemy as part of his plan to increase the U.S. military. After hearing Makarov's increased terrorist attacks throughout Europe, Shepherd believed that the former's presence would be a mark to indirectly help and bring his desire changes. It was also around this time that Soap, Roach and Ghost found Joseph Baxter, finding out about the soldier enhancement program. The boy was the only survivor. The boy remained quiet about Shepard's involvment at first, due to Shepard keeping him from speaking out. Now he had Task Force 141, Shepherd sent former Ranger-turned CIA operative, Private First-Class Joseph Allen, undercover in Moscow under an alias, "Alexei Borodin," to infiltrate Makarov's Inner Circle as they planned to attack Zakhaev International Airport. Unfortunately, Makarov knew of Allen's undercover status (which Shepherd probably deliberately leaked to him) and he killed him in order to place the blame solely on America for the massacre, much to Shepherd's delight. As a result of the sudden Russian invasion on the U.S. mainland, the government appointed Shepherd to lead the defense of his country, setting the stage for his revenge on the Ultranationalists. After analyzing the bullets from the massacre, Shepherd sent Task Force 141 to Brazil to find and capture the Inner Circle's arms dealer, Alejandro Rojas for interrogation on Makarov which the only man whom Makarov hated worse than the Americans was locked up in the Gulag. Shepherd now realized that the downed ACS module was actually copied by the Inner Circle to wage war and kill thousands of Americans. After Task Force 141 escaped from the Brazilian Militia, Shepherd commandeered Sgt. Foley and his unit with the assistance of a Stryker code-named “Honey Badger” to get them to 4677 Brookmere Road to destroy the anti-aircraft batteries and then search and extract a high value individual (codename: Icepick) but they were too late, the HVI was killed by Viktor, only to take what was left of the HVI's briefcase. Shepherd assigned Task Force 141 to link up with the SEAL Teams to destroy the mobile SAM sites and extract oil workers in the oil rigs to get to the Gulag to rescue prisoner #627. When the jet fighters attacked the tower and almost knocked down the helicopter carrying Soap and Roach, Soap demanded for Shepherd to get the fighters to ceasefire, only for him to reply that he was trying to buy him time as one man in the Gulag would not hold any meaning to the Navy. When the Navy fired without any orders, Soap demanded Shepherd to tell the Navy to ceasefire. Before going to rescue 627, Joseph joined the Task Force as a sniper, getting the codename Archer due to his use of archery and crossbows over traditional weaponry. The Gulag breakout was his first mission. After rescuing 627, who was none other than John Price, Shepherd ordered Soap to escape the Gulag since the Navy once again disobeyed his commands of ceasing fire. Sometime after the rescue of Captain John Price, Shepherd planned a personal war against the Ultranationalists and anyone who knew of Joseph Allen. Shepherd sent Roach and Frost to collect any intelligence related to Makarov before mercilessly executing them and giving them a sadistic funeral pyre as his elite private army soaked them in gas and he lit them on fire with his cigar. Then, his men began their plan to kill Makarov's men and the rest of Task Force 141 in order to tie up loose ends regarding what he did. At the vehicle boneyard in Afghanistan, Makarov, who knew Shepherd's true intentions, revealed the location of his command base, "Site Hotel Bravo", to Price and Soap, knowing they would tie up his own loose end in the form of the General himself. Makarov then goes into hiding before Price and Soap escaped in Nikolai's C-130 Hercules. After the rescue, Price and Archer had no allies they could trust (Soap wasn't there because he was killed by an explosion caused by Makarov), and decided to go on a suicide mission to kill Shepherd for betraying Task Force 141. With his command collapsed, Shepherd tried to escape in a Pave Low helicopter, but it was shot down by Price as soon as he got in. Shepherd escaped the crash site and pinned Archer down after stabbing him with his knife, attempting to execute him. Price saved Archer, and the two fought. Just when Shepherd was about to beat Price to death, Archer pulled Shepherd's knife out of him, and threw it directly into Shepard's left eye, killing him and avenging the deaths of the 141 members, as well as the innocent people at the airport he deliberately allowed to get killed. Shepherd was later buried at the Arlington National Cemetery, and he was called a "War Hero" by many people at that time and, unfortunately, Archer and Price were declared war criminals after his death. However, their names were cleared when Price and Yuri conducted a joint operation with their Delta Force counterparts to rescue the President of Russia, Boris Vorshevsky, and his daughter Alena from a diamond mine in Siberia, restoring the President's goal of developing peace and friendship between the United States, Russia and NATO.