Shepherd

"Five years ago, I lost 30,000 men in the blink of an eye. And the world just fuckin' watched. Tomorrow there will be no shortage of volunteers, no shortage of patriots. I know you understand."

- Shepherd before attempting to execute "Soap" MacTavish

Lieutenant General Shepherd was an officer in the United States Army in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. He was voiced by Lance Henriksen.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
General Shepherd served as the supreme commander of the US and coalition military forces in the Middle East during the course of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, including the Marine Force Recon forces killed when Al-Asad detonated a nuclear weapon in the capital city. It was possible he was callsign "Overlook", the voice heard in Shock and Awe. After losing 30,000 troops as a result, Shepherd became disenchanted with the world, seeking a way to fully unleash the military might of the United States, as well as spark a restoration of American power and influence around the world, something he felt had waned in recent years.

To accomplish this, Shepherd needed an enemy, something to rally the entire nation behind him. To that end, he began to work with Russian Ultranationalist Vladimir Makarov to sow the seeds. Shepherd becomes the commanding officer of Task Force 141 with the intent of "stopping" Makarov and handpicks Joseph Allen to be an undercover agent. It is later implied that Shepherd revealed Allen's undercover status to Makarov to facilitate a war between Russia and the United States. As a result, the United States is invaded, and in response, Shepherd is named supreme commander of all US military forces around the globe, just as he had planned. With the full power of the US armed forces at his fingertips, Shepherd was in a perfect position to realize his ultimate goals: to make the United States the mightiest power on the planet, and style himself as the hero who made it so. While doing so he procures another team of elite US Army soldiers to be part of his Shadow Company, their goal is to do General Shepherd's bidding no matter what.

Shepherd later deploys Task Force 141 to recover intelligence pertaining to his scapegoat, Vladimir Makarov. Shepherd eventually reveals his true colors when he executes Ghost and Roach in the Caucasus mountains after the latter raid an Ultranationalist safehouse and retrieve intelligence that could implicate him, and attempts to have his Shadow Company men assassinate Captain Price and Captain "Soap" MacTavish in Afghanistan. With his status as a war hero secured, the ruthless officer betrays his Ultranationalist partners, both in an attempt to remove any last link to his treacherous actions and the deaths that resulted from them, and to gain further glory as the man who brought down Makarov. Makarov survives his betrayal, however, and prepares to go into hiding, while Price and MacTavish figure out Shepherd's agenda and attack his base in the Afghan cave system known as Site Hotel Bravo.

After having his helicopter shot down, MacTavish attempts to kill Shepherd with a knife, only for Shepherd to take down MacTavish and stab him in the chest. Shepherd later attempts to execute MacTavish, only for Price to intervene in a hand-to-hand fight. Just as Shepard gains the upper hand, MacTavish removes the knife from his chest and throws it into Shepherd's eye socket. Shepard's death would mean that the US military is now without a commander, yet as long as the truth of the conspiracy remains hidden, his death would have little effect on the rapidly developing US-Russian war.

Quotes
"Get up, Private Allen! Rangers lead the way!"

- Shepherd telling Joseph Allen to go with the rest of the US Army Rangers

"The more things change the more they stay the same. Boundaries shift, new players step in, but power always finds a place to rest its head. We fought and bled along side the Russians, we shoulda known they’d hate us for it. History is written by the victor, and here I am thinking we won. But you bring down one enemy and they find someone even worse to replace him. Locations change, the rationale, the objective. Yesterdays enemies are today’s recruits, train them to fight along side you and pray they don’t eventually decide to hate you for it too."

- Shepherd

""We're gonna re-write history, boys."

- Shepherd

Trivia
"Since when does Shepherd care about danger close?"

- Cpl. Dunn and Captain Price


 * The United States does not allow 5 star Generals because they have to much power and can rival the President. However, in times of total war, a four star general can be granted 5 star status by Congress. Only a hand full of generals have had 5 star status, Douglass MacArthur was demoted when disagreeing with President Truman's policy of limiting the Korean war to avoid a larger war with China. MacArthur could have started a world war with China if Truman had not stepped in and stopped him from invading. It is no far to say that this concept may have been inspiration for the character of Shepherd.
 * Shepherd is a man known by his men (Cpl. Dunn and Captain Price pronounced the exact same sentence at different moments) for not caring about the safety of his soldiers, especially during artillery fires.
 * It is possible that the design for General Shepherd was based of ruthless Generals such as General Wade Eiling from the Justice League series and General Thunderbolt Ross from the Hulk.
 * After you chase down Shepherd, you can see the multiplayer map "Rust" in the background.
 * No matter where you aim with throwing knife, it always lands in his left eye.
 * When you approach Shepherd, hide behind cover with the barrel and wait a moment, he opens a conversation with you, as long as you don't get too close to him. He says: "You know what they say about revenge... you better be ready to dig two graves... Go ahead and end it. It won't change anything. Hmph... I knew you couldn't do it. You're a good warrior... but you could never take that extra step... to do what was absolutely necessary."
 * His talk before trying to kill Soap is a direct reference to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Because he is talking about the 30,000 USMC troops that were lost when the nuclear weapon detonated. But he is a US Army general so he shouldn't be in charge of marines, so there likely were US Army personnel there too.
 * Despite being a high-ranking officer who is rarely in battle, Sheperd seemed to have great skill in hand-to-hand combat, which is shown when he countered Soap's attack on him, and when he engaged Price in a fist fight.
 * He is also the first main villain to be American as he is secretly manipulating the storyline from behind the scenes until he executes Ghost and Roach he reveals his true motives.
 * Although part of his motivation is based off losing Marines to the nuclear blast in the Call of Duty 4, this is inaccurate as an Army officer would never be in command of a Marine Expeditionary Unit. The only way an Army officer could have operational control of a Marine Corps unit would be at the theater/regional level, such as CENTCOM, which is commanded by a full General (four stars), not a Lieutenant General (three stars). It is possible he was demoted as a result of the nuclear explosion.