Shepherd

"We are the most powerful military force in the history of man. Every fight is our fight. Because what happens over here, matters over there. We don't get to sit one out. Learning to use the tools of modern warfare is the difference between the prospering of your people, and utter destruction. We can't give you freedom. But we can give you the know-how to acquire it. And that, my friends, is worth more than a whole army base of steel. Sure it matters who's got the bigger stick, but it matters a helluva lot more who's swinging it. This is the time for heroes. A time for legends. History is written by the victors. Let's get to work."

- Shepherd describing the might of the United States military in the intro to "Team Player".

"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."

- General Shepherd's last words.

"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 alongside the Russians. We shoulda known they'd hate us for it. History is written by the victor. And here I am, thinking we'd won. But you bring down one enemy and they find someone even worse to replace him. Locations change, the rationale, the objective. Yesterday's enemies are today's recruits. Train them to fight alongside you, and pray they don't eventually decide to hate you for it too."

- Shepherd's opening speech in the first cutscene of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Lieutenant General Shepherd was an officer in the United States Army in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 who commanded the U.S. Army Rangers, Task Force 141 and Shadow Company. He starts out as a supporting character for the player, only to reveal himself as the main antagonist of Modern Warfare 2.

Second Russian Civil War
General Shepherd served as the supreme commander of the U.S. forces in the Middle East during the course of the Second Russian Civil War (see Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare), including the Marine Force Recon units killed when Khaled Al-Asad gave Vladimir Makarov the order to detonate a nuclear weapon in the capital city of the unnamed Middle Eastern country.

Inter-War Period
Losing the 30,000 troops under his command affected the General greatly and Shepherd developed a negative view of the world and international politics. In the time following his invasion of the Persian Gulf, Shepherd sought new ways of restoring the United States' reputation as a global power as well as its military might (and his own reputation as a military commander).

Sometime between 2011 and 2013, Shepherd with the help of John "Soap" MacTavish created Task Force 141. They evaluated recruits from the U.S. Army Rangers, Special Air Service and Canadian Special Operations Regiment. Shepherd also traveled to Mexico to recruit former S.A.S. member Simon "Ghost" Riley.

Operation Kingfish
In 2013, Shepherd commanded the 141 in a mission codenamed "Operation Kingfish", in which he sent 141 operatives Captain John Price, Captain John "Soap" MacTavish, Lieutenant Simon "Ghost" Riley, Sergeant Gary "Roach" Sanderson, and Delta Force operatives Sandman and Derek "Frost" Westbrook to an Ultranationalist compound in Ukraine on a capture/kill mission to apprehend an individual codenamed "Kingfish", who is later revealed to be Vladimir Makarov. The mission ends in a failure, as a large attack force of Ultranationalist troops attack the task force. Most of them survive, with the apparent exception of Price, who stays behind to allow the others to escape.

Pre War
"Makarov's no prize. He's a whore. A mad-dog killer for the highest bidder."

- Shepherd to PFC Joseph Allen about Makarov.

In 2016, General Shepherd served as the commander of the United States Army Rangers in Afghanistan and focused his efforts on the OpFor's occupation of the country and, seemingly, the hunt for international terrorist Vladimir Makarov. Shepherd felt that no justice had been sought for the men and women he had lost 5 years prior and that the U.S. military's power had waned over the years. These feelings would eventually drive him to carry out his goal of escalating a war between the new Ultranationalist Russia and the United States of America. To increase the power and standing of the military, Shepherd needed an enemy, something to rally the entire nation behind him. After hearing of Makarov's increased terrorist attacks throughout Europe in the three years since Operation Kingfish, Shepherd believed that Makarov's presence as a mark could indirectly help bring about his desired changes. Shepherd hand-picked Private First Class Joseph Allen, an Army Ranger, to go undercover within Makarov's terrorist group during their attack on Zakhaev International Airport. However, Makarov knew Allen's real identity, murdered him and left his body behind.

World War III
Russian authorities discovered Allen's body on the scene and confirmed his real identity. This incident prompted an angry response from the Russian people, demanded their government to take drastic measures against United States. Despite Makarov and his cell being responsible for the massacre, it was still believed the United States sponsored and supported his assault, as Makarov and his men appeared to be Americans due to their use of standard issue NATO weapons and American military jargon. After receiving tremendous pressure from Russian populace, Vorshevsky reluctantly announced a full-scale invasion of the United States, much to Shepherd's delight. Caught off-guard due to the suddenness of the attack (as the Russians had used a duplicate of an ACS module to confuse the early warning systems of NORAD) as a result, the United States government appointed him to lead America's defense against Russian forces as well as providing him vast resources to continue his hunt on Makarov. With 3.5 million soldiers at his fingertips, his plan to restore the United States as the mightiest force on the planet was now in motion, allowing him to plot his revenge against the Ultranationalists for nuking over 30,000 of his men in Saudi Arabia five years earlier.

While Task Force 141 was still out of the country hunting for Makarov, they learned from Alejandro Rojas (A Brazilian arms dealer who supplied Makarov and his men during the Airport massacre) that Makarov's worst enemy was an individual known as Prisoner #627, currently incarcerated in a Russian Gulag. Shepherd sends Captain MacTavish, Ghost, Roach and other members of the 141, along with a team of U.S. Navy SEALs on a mission to rescue the mysterious prisoner, who is revealed to be Captain Price. Upon his rescue, Shepherd reinstates Price as a field commander for Task Force 141.

Betrayal of Task Force 141
When the fighting in America is halted - temporarily, at least - the Department of Defense gives Shepherd a "blank check" to use any resource available to the United States military to hunt down Makarov. Shepherd has pinpointed Makarov's possible location to two places: an aircraft boneyard in Afghanistan and a safehouse on the Georgian-Russian border. He sends Price and Soap to the boneyard, while Roach and Ghost are sent to the safehouse. Upon arriving at the safehouse, Roach and Ghost locate Makarov's entire operations playbook and download it onto a DSM.

Having now obtained what he needed to cement his status as a war hero, the ruthless officer betrays Task Force 141 in an attempt to destroy any link to his treacherous actions and so that he could bring down Vladimir Makarov himself. Shepherd arrives with Shadow Company at Makarov's safehouse and kills both Roach and Ghost and recovers the DSM.

At the same time, Shepherd sends Shadow Company to eliminate Price and Soap as well as Makarov's Ultranationalists. But the two learned of the traitorous general's agenda and resolve to infiltrate Shepherd's secret base in the Afghan cave system, Site Hotel Bravo.

Death
"You know what they say about revenge....you better be ready to dig two graves."

- Shepherd taunting Soap to try and kill him.

Shepherd eventually learns of Price and Soap's presence in the base and orders all Shadow Company personnel to evacuate. In an attempt to kill them, Shepherd self-destructs the base in a sea of C4s and orders a Danger Close artillery strike on it, but both fail to kill the two surviving task force members. Shepherd commandeers a Zodiac speedboat and attempts to escape via the river, with Soap and Price in hot pursuit.

After a lengthy chase up the river, a Pave Low (Warhorse 5-1) arrives to pick up Shepherd, but Price disables it by shooting at and damaging its rotors, causing it to crash land. After they do this, Soap and Price's Zodiac plunges into the waterfalls below. Shepherd flees the scene of the crash with some injuries, followed by a dazed Soap who attempts to kill Shepherd with his only remaining weapon, a combat knife. Shepherd incapacitates him by slamming his head into a rusted car and proceeds to stab him in the chest. Just as Shepherd is about to execute Soap with his .44 Magnum, Price tackles Shepherd, causing him to miss his shot Price kicks his revolver away,Soap tries to grab it but Shepard kicks it away then stomps on Soap's face, when Soap awakes the two are engaged in brutal hand-to-hand combat, Shepherd eventually overpowers Price and gains the upper hand he then begins to beat Price to death. However, Soap manages to regain consciousness and uses his last bit of strength to pull the knife out of his chest and throws it at Shepherd. The knife pierces Shepherd's left eye, killing him. Soap and Price then proceeded to flee the scene with Nikolai, leaving Shepherd's body behind in the desert.

Legacy
Shepherd was later laid to rest in and was seen as a war hero by many. John "Soap" MacTavish and John Price were seen as war criminals after his death. However they would later clear their name after rescuing the Russian President Boris Vorshevsky and his daughter Alena (although Soap was killed by that point by Makarov) and helped to bring peace between the United States, Russia and NATO, ending World War III.

Trivia

 * In S.S.D.D., he lacks plot armor and can be killed, but the player will still be reprimanded for friendly fire.
 * Robert Bowling gave his full name on Twitter as Hershel von Sheperd III, though it is not clear if this was intended as a serious statement; in addition, the Tweet misspelled "Shepherd" as "Sheperd."
 * He is the first antagonist in the Call of Duty series to be an American.
 * In Team Player, Shepherd's name will appear as "General Shepherd," but in S.S.D.D. and Loose Ends his name will appear as "Gen. Shepherd."
 * In the last page of the comic book Modern Warfare 2: Ghost, the Task Force 141 member who finds Ghost looks similar to General Shepherd only without a mustache.
 * When he is pinned down with Hunter 2-3 in "Team Player", he can be seen using an M4A1. This is the only time in the game that he uses a weapon other than his .44 Magnum.
 * Shepherd only fires his .44 Magnum three times in the whole game, and only one shot has the original gunshot audio, which is, when fired his gun at the end of Endgame.
 * When Shepherd betrays Roach and Ghost in Loose Ends, his .44 Magnum uses Desert Eagle's firing sound when shooting Roach, and Intervention's when shooting Ghost.
 * Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has multiple mentions and allusions of Shepherd.
 * In Hunter Killer, there is a magazine on one of the beds in the submarine mentioning Shepherd.
 * A picture of him is seen in Special Ops mission Stay Sharp.
 * There is an emblem of Shepherd in multiplayer.
 * In Vortex, the scarecrows dotted around the map wear Shepherd's uniform.
 * In Soap's Journal, Soap refers to Shepherd's mustache as a "Caterpillar".
 * If the player aims a Thermal Scope at Shepherd while he's driving the Zodiac, the player can see that everyone in the Zodiac will glow, but Shepherd will not.
 * Shepherd's betrayal is the first of five betrayals in the Call of Duty series.
 * The game files spells his name as "Shepard."
 * In the final mission of Modern Warfare 2 when killing Shepherd, the Throwing Knife will always hit him in the eye no matter where the knife is aimed.
 * He is the only Antagonist not to be a member of the Inner Circle and Russian Army.