Whiskey Hotel (level)

"So when are we goin' to Moscow?" "Not soon enough man. But I know we're gonna burn it down when we get there." "When the time's right, Corporal. When the time's right."

- A Ranger, Corporal Dunn, and Sergeant Foley

Whiskey Hotel is the fourteenth level of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Summary
You start where you left off in "Second Sun." From the bunker, your team emerges onto the South Lawn of the White House and meets up with Colonel Marshall. The Col. explains to Sgt. Foley that they're looking at the "high ground," seeing the American flag still up on top of the White House, which has been severely damaged and fortified with spotlights and machine gun nests. With power still in it, the squad should be able to talk to Central Command if they can retake the building. Sgt. Foley leads his team over the left flank to reach the West Wing. The machine gun fire will make it difficult to advance, especially on the harder difficulties, but destroying the searchlights does help make the gunners less attentive to you. Hearing from a speaker behind a painting in the Oval Office, the team has just 2:00 minutes before the Air Force initiates the "Hammerdown Protocol" and flattens the city in order to take out the Russians. The strike will be aborted only if green smoke is spotted on the roof of the White House. You then fight your way through the building and successfully reach the roof in the nick of time to pop green flares signaling the Air Force to abort the fire mission. As you look out at a burning Washington D.C., you see other buildings marked with green flares as the sun sets behind the Washington Monument. The battle for D.C. may or may not actually be won at this point.

Weapon Loadout
If the player started this level from the previous level, the player will start the mission with the weapons they had at the end of the previous level. If the player did NOT start this level from the previous level, the player will start with an M4A1 Carbine with an M203 Grenade Launcher and an M9.

Tips

 * Shooting out the spotlights placed throughout the outdoor portions of the level will cause enemy machine-gunners and snipers to be much less effective.


 * Take lots of cover and try to pick up powerful weapons. The area given has heavy resistance.


 * There is an ammo crate at the end of the bunker; if the player wishes to switch out their weapons for something different (such as the SCAR-H), one can return here for a full resupply.


 * A Dragunov can be picked up from a dead ground sniper near the crashed helo and jet.


 * Make use of the craters dotting the South Lawn. Hide in them when injured, as enemy fire will often miss you. Though don't linger too long, as grenades will start raining down on your position.


 * Although there is no visible timer for when they initiate the Air-Strike, it IS there. Make haste!


 * During the assault to retake the White House there will be a mounted machine gun on an upturned tree, manning this gun will leave you resilient to almost all enemy fire.

Intel Items
Intel No. 34 (1/2 Intel) Soon after exiting the oval office and engage in fire-fight, face west, it's on a leather couch.

Intel No. 35 (2/2 Intel) After winding up the last stairs and soon after you enter through a blown out wall, immediately turn North.

Trivia

 * Even though an EMP is taking place there are still intel laptops and other laptop's around the map with images on their screens.


 * Whiskey Hotel is the military designation for "White House", using the NATO Phonetic Alphabet.


 * There is no briefing at the beginning of this level. This is probably because the EMP from Second Sun disabled all electronic devices and that the story continues straight from the previous level.


 * The timer in this level is 19:28 (7:28pm), 31 minutes after the timer in "Second Sun," 18:57 (6:57pm). If the player was able to clear the previous level in less than 31 minutes, the time lapse of these events should be accurate.


 * As the countdown timer goes to 60 seconds before the White House is destroyed, you will enter a room that has the stairs that will lead to the next floor. If you turn left and look on a wall, you can see a stenciled graffiti of a nuclear mushroom cloud with the words "Death to USA" on it. You can also find this drawing in the multiplayer map Underpass.


 * If you do not go to the roof of the White House but instead go outside and wait for the time to run out, you will not see the jets arrive to bomb the area, yet bombs will still go off and kill you.


 * Like the previous level, enemies and allies alike visibly equipped with electronic sights still fire with the same accuracy, not thinking to remove them (whether or not the weapon still has iron sights).

Backyard

 * If you run ahead of Sgt. Foley, Col. Marshall will not move until Foley gets there.


 * Sgt. Foley has an astounded expression when he first sees the White House.


 * In the previous level, "Second Sun", Ramirez's uniform and wrist-GPS have been heavily damaged, but now they are back in pristine condition. It is possible he acquired new ones off-screen.


 * Although the GPS unit looks fine in first-person view, if you pause the game, the minimap is full of static.


 * You can find a mounted M249 SAW in the beginning of the level mounted on a downed tree.
 * The SAW mentioned above is exactly the same as the one in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, as the bullets on the belt don't move when you fire it.

West Wing and Oval Office

 * After you enter the Oval Office the Russians on the White House and Colonel Marshall will disappear.
 * The "Hammerdown Protocol" you hear about from the speakers when you're in the Oval Office was also featured in the movie "Cloverfield."


 * There is a copy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein on the President's desk.

Executive Residence and Rooftop

 * Even when there's no timer appearing on the screen towards the end of the level, you do need to get to the roof within two minutes (at lower difficulties). If you take too long on Veteran difficulty, you will be killed by the Air Force fighter jets. You don't need to pop the flares yourself once you've got there, as there is always another friendly AI soldier who is also popping flares.


 * Your flare is scripted to force your view upwards around the time the fighter flies overhead, as long as you pop it soon after the prompt shows up. If you pop the flare after the fighter passes, you will look up at empty sky.


 * For a very brief moment it is possible to see "Tactical Insertion" onscreen as you pop the flares. The same model is used, though with different animations.


 * When you drop your flares, they disappear as soon as they hit the ground. However, the AI soldier's flares stay on the ground.

Setting

 * The White House apparently sustained heavy damage as a result of the conflict and the EMP, as parts of its facade are bombed out, the South Lawn is a mass of craters, and an Mi-28 and MiG-29 almost crashed into the West Wing.


 * The fate of the President is unknown, and it is implied he evacuated the city, as Foley and the squad come upon the Presidential Bunker, which is completely destroyed and empty. Since the EMP was observed to take out all air transportation and probably ground transport, if the President was not evacuated earlier, little hope for his life remains in fast transportation, although it is known that the two 747s that become Air Force One with the President on bourd is EMP shielded.


 * The heavy amount of fortification and presence of equipment and jeeps suggest the Russians were attempting to turn the White House into a makeshift forward operating base when the EMP struck.


 * The Washington Monument is shown to be in line with the White House's South Lawn. It is actually to the southeast of the White House, so if one were to look at its location in game from the White House's South Lawn, it would be actually be slightly to the left.


 * An explosive of some sort apparently barreled through the White House's roof, as the staircases and ceilings have collapsed and there is a gaping hole in the roof.


 * The "Hammerdown" radio broadcast mentions that if the listener is able to receive the transmission that means he is currently inside a "hardened high-valued structure." If HQ already knows about the earlier EMP this means that the "hardened high-valued structures" are immune to EMP detonation. Other structures designated as such appear to be the U.S. Capitol Building, the Smithsonian Museum, and the Washington Monument.


 * The fighter jets that break off the airstrike, though glimpsed only briefly, are not USAF jets, as their overall profiles match that of the MiG-29.


 * In "Second Sun", you go through the Eisenhower Building to the President's bunker on the east wing. In a real map, the Eisenhower Building is actually west of the White House, whereas when you start you somehow come out east of the White House when the previous level you ended to the west.

Miscellaneous

 * The ending to this mission bears a strong resemblance to the climax of the movie The Rock in that the protagonist must pop a green signal flare to abort an incoming airstrike. In the trailers for the game, a Ranger is even seen getting down on both knees with a flare in each hand exactly like the end of The Rock.


 * In the conference room, you can see the phones all say "COD4," a direct reference to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.


 * There is a glitch on this level. When you go through the broadcast station, look at the first door on the right. Then smash the first two windows on the bottom and crawl through it. Then you're outside and can run through the ground. Because the clipping is remarkably complete for an inaccessible area, it is assumed that the player was originally going to be allowed to go here, but it was closed off.