"Tank" Dempsey

"Time to shock some meat-bag ass! Oorah!"

- Tank Dempsey (after getting the Wonderwaffe DG-2)

Tank Dempsey was a Marine Raider and is a playable character in the Zombies game mode. He is only seen in the missions Shi No Numa and Der Riese in Call of Duty: World at War, but in Call of Duty: Black Ops he appears in all four original zombie maps and Kino Der Toten. He is voiced by Steve Blum.

Biography
"Tank Dempsey: American hero. Give him a loaded weapon, a good woman, and something to shoot at and he’s happy. Cross him and he’ll rip your guts out and use them as a bandolier. Dempsey was selected for this mission after he showed his true grit at the battle for Peleliu. His unit was captured during the early raids before the main invasion, and he spent 2 weeks in a rat infested bamboo cage submerged in malarial water. Eventually, he gnawed his way through the cage, and then gnawed his way through his captors armed only with a Bobby pin and his Medal of Honor which he keeps secreted in various body cavities. There is no before the war for Dempsey, there is no after. There is only the legend of Tank Dempsey, and how he won the war for the rest of us. Leaving behind a wake of destruction and meat sacks wherever he goes, Dempsey is the man to have on your side when faced with an undead apocalypse".

His mission was to recover Peter from Group 935, but somehow his memory was wiped from Element 115 according to a document in Vbush. Richtofen is aware of this memory wipe as the document says he's observing him, Takeo, and Nikolai.

Quotes

 * Shi No Numa/quotes
 * Der Riese/quotes
 * Kino Der toten/quotes

Trivia

 * Dempsey appears to like the Monkey Bomb as he will sometimes say "I'm going to miss that little guy..." once he throws it. All characters express liking, due to its usefulness and entertainment value, but Demspey seems to comment about it the most. One exception is when Nikolai receives one, his lines will often be negative.
 * His favorite Perk-a-cola seems to be juggernog.
 * Dempsey is based around a stereotypical, exaggerated war hero.
 * Dempsey is voiced by Steve Blum, the voice of Captain Foley from Call of Duty.
 * Dempsey bears a resemblance to Polonsky, although he appears to be slightly more muscular. This is just the result of the developers re-using existing character models.
 * Dempsey may be based off Commander Jack Dempsey, a championship boxer, who fought at Peleliu.
 * Though the player never sees him, Dempsey fought at Peleliu during the Marine landings.
 * It seems that Dempsey shows disrespect and a disapproving attitude towards Nikolai Belinski by ignoring all his compliments. This is probably because of the standard attitude of American soldiers toward Communists in World War II, and Nikolai, being of Soviet affiliation and the fact that Nikolai commonly expresses belief in the ideals.
 * He also seems to loathe Doctor Richtofen, mocking him throughout in Shi No Numa and Der Riese.
 * He seems to somewhat respect, to a limit, Takeo Masaki, despite the latter being affiliated with the Imperial Japanese Army.
 * Dempsey frequently comments on his hatred towards the Zombies. Common quotes include "Freakbag", "Meatsack", "Freaksack", or even, in Der Riese, "Freak-bag-meat-sacks". Other names include "maggot-whores", "pus-buckets", "bone monkey", "maggot-sack" and "gut-bag".
 * In Der Riese he may sometime yell "Nikolai/Takeo/Richtofen they're swarming, I'll come save you!" even when the player is not dead and there are only three or more zombies alive. This could be that he is mocking the others, as they all frequently do to each other. The animosity is much reduced between Shi No Numa and Der Riese, and none is shown between Takeo and Richtofen.
 * His favorite weapon seems to be the BAR, as it is American made. Interestingly, in Black Ops, his favorite weapon appears to be the M16. The M16 is also American made.
 * When Dempsey gets a headshot, he sometimes mentions the fact that they aren't keeping score, but ironically, a headshot score is being kept. However, in Kino Der Toten he references to this statement, "Wait, we ARE keeping Score?"
 * In online Nazi Zombie co-op games on Shi No Numa and Der Riese, the person who is the host will play as Dempsey.
 * Dempsey seems to like German heavy weaponry, such as the MG42.
 * Dempsey often calls the Wunderwaffe DG-2 the “Wonder Waffle”, which leads many players to do the same.
 * In one of his quotes in Der Riese he says: "Imagine that! We need to turn the power on; how original!", making a reference to the fact that, in Verrückt, you must turn on the power first, in order to use the Electro-Shock Defenses and the Perk-a-Cola machines. This is the same in Kino der Toten, as he may also say "It's like deja vu all over again." Richtofen also references this as in Kino der Toten, he says "Oh, we have to turn the power on, how original!" Given Dempsey's experience with dealing with the Zombies in Verruckt and Richtofen having created the Zombies and seen the original outbreak in Der Riese hearing these statements from them become even more understandable.
 * Oddly, in Shi No Numa, Dempsey says "What in the world is a root beer shelf?" after purchasing the Double Tap Root Beer. This is odd as it is polite. He would normally say "what the hell" or "what the fuck".
 * According to Dr. Richtofen, Tank always tries to be the center of attention. Treyarch could've made Tank like this because the player hosting the game is Tank.
 * He apparently hates fish since when he drinks the Quick Revive soda in Der Riese and Shi No Numa he shouts "I fucking hate fish!".
 * He also seems to hate teddy bears, as he occasionally says "I always hated frickin' teddy bears," when he gets the Teddy Bear from the Mystery Box, perhaps referencing the association between teddies and misfortune in CoD (one in Pripyat in CoD4, one with the HVI in Exodus in MW2 and these box bears)
 * Dempsey mentions at random "Who is this Dr. Maxis I keep hearing about?", meaning he doesn't know much of what is going on, this is most likely due to his mind being wiped by Maxis and Richtofen as discovered in Black Ops.
 * Very rarely, whilst using the Pack-a-Punch machine, Dempsey will sing the jingle for the Juggernog vendor.
 * Dempsey was featured in Treyarch's Shi No Numa example map, nazi_zombie_kyassuru (nazi_zombie_castle in English).
 * Dempsey occasionally says "Gotta link up this terra.. er, tele... bah... machine," when he opens a teleporter room. Although, he sometimes says "Hmm... teleporter... Could be useful if we link 'em up," making him successfully say "teleporter" without struggling.
 * When Dempsey uses the Juggernog machine he will sometimes say "I'm always into Juggernog!"
 * When listening to the Juggernog song, he may say "God, I want to fucking do that chick!" or "I wish I could meet the chick who sang that jingle!". Also in Kino der Toten he will say Reach for me Jugger-girl, oorah..'
 * Although usually expressing the standard love of the Wonder Weapons when he has them, he does express some disdain prior to acquiring them, such as "Why are the Krauts so interested in this energy shit? "Pussies don't like lead I guess," and "I still prefer lead over this electric shit,".
 * Dempsey is one of the first characters to break the fourth wall in the Call of Duty series as he speaks to the "player" when out of ammo. Though they all will at basically the same time when the Shi No Numa music egg is activated.
 * By Kino Der Toten, Dempsey has grown a small beard, and is covered in dirt and blood. This is probably because since the characters have teleported straight from map to map, they have not been able to shave or clean themselves.
 * On the terminal in Black Ops a secret file says that Dempsey was sent in with the Marines into Verruckt to recover Peter (The hanging man from Shi No Numa) who was undercover in Group 935. They were sent because their attempts at contact failed. The file states"We fear that *Peter's* identity has been compromised. Sending in a marine recon unit to extract *Peter* from the asylum before it is too late. Operation leader will be one *Tank Dempsey*... 'The asylum must be contained at all costs."
 * One quote that Tank has for the M16 is a description of it. This is odd, as the M16 was never in service in World War II, and had only just been released in the 1960s the present era that Dempsey was only just recently transported to.
 * Dempsey often refers to the player during Kino Der Toten, saying "Hey player, if we don't get some ammo soon, we're going down!"
 * Based on the above file it can implied that Dempsey's real name is in fact Tank.
 * In a file on the Black Ops computer terminal, it says that in part of Dr. Maxis' super-soldier experiments were Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, and Takeo Masaki.