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."

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

Biography
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, Shepard 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, Shepard 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, Shepard 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.

Shepard 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 Gary Sanderson 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.

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


 * Shepherd is a mean 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 on that of General Wade Eiling from the Justice League series
 * 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.