Gary "Roach" Sanderson

"Break's over, Roach. Let's go."

- Captain "Soap" MacTavish to Roach before their mountain ascent in "Cliffhanger."

Sergeant Gary "Roach" Sanderson is a playable character in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. He is a member of the multinational Task Force 141, falling under the command of Captain "Soap" MacTavish and operating behind the scenes during the Russian invasion of the United States in 2016. He is the main playable character in Modern Warfare 2.

Biography
Roach’s first appearance is in the level “Cliffhanger,” where he accompanies Captain MacTavish on a mission to infiltrate a Russian-controlled airbase in Kazakhstan. While climbing the mountains on the base's outskirts, Roach nearly falls to his death before being saved at the last second by MacTavish. The two manage to retrieve a stolen ACS module and then escape on snowmobiles. Roach is next seen during Task Force 141’s mission to Rio De Janerio to capture arms dealer Alejandro Rojas. Roach and the team pursue Rojas through the Favela and eventually capture him, only to be swarmed by local Militia. The task force is eventually extracted by Nikolai, who fought with MacTavish five years earlier during the events of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The task force then launches a raid on a Russian oil-rig armed with SAMs in order to clear the way to The Gulag, where Prisoner #627 is being held. After freeing Prisoner #627, who turns out to be Captain Price, Roach and the rest of the task force set out to infiltrate a Russian submarine base. Price boards the submarine and uses it to launch a nuclear missile at Washington, D.C., before detonating it in-flight. The final mission featuring Roach in Modern Warfare 2 is “Loose Ends,” where he, Ghost, and the majority of Task Force 141 attack Makarov’s safe house on the Georgian-Russian border.

Fate
When Roach and Ghost successfully retrieve intelligence from one of Makarov's safe houses on the Russian-Georgian border, the pair rendezvous with General Shepherd and his forces. However, before they can reach the chopper that will extract them, Roach is wounded by a close mortar strike. Roach comes close to blacking out several times while simultaneously firing at enemy soldiers with a dropped AK-47. Ghost comes to his aid and drags him to the extraction point, where Shepherd's forces rout the Ultranationalists. Shepherd emerges from the Pave Low and asks Ghost if they have the DSM, which Ghost confirms. Shepherd then betrays the two by shooting them both with his .44 Magnum, then taking the DSM from Roach's body. Both Ghost and Roach are then taken to a ditch and immolated by Shadow Company members as Shepherd looks on.

Trivia

 * Like his commanding officer Captain MacTavish (known as "Soap" in Modern Warfare), Sgt. Sanderson has a unique nickname: "Roach."
 * Like "Soap" MacTavish in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, he is saved by his Captain at the last moment before falling to his death.
 * It is possible that Roach has a background in demolitions or combat engineering, as he twice uses C4 explosives to great effect in-game.
 * Roach is the fourth playable character that is scripted to die.
 * Roach's voice can be heard if you make him fall down the cliff in Cliffhanger.
 * Roach most likely wears goggles throughout the whole game, as frost is visible on the screen in Cliffhanger, and petrol seeping downwards when he's doused in Loose Ends.
 * Like most Call of Duty playable characters, his appearance is unknown, however it is possible to tell what he is wearing from his hands and arms:
 * In Kazakhstan, he most likely wears the same clothing as Soap.
 * In Brazil he has long beige sleeves, wearing the same clothes as Ghost.
 * In Russia, he is wearing what the rest of TF141 is wearing: scuba gear.
 * In Russia, he most likely wears the same arctic gear as TF 141.
 * In the Russian/Georgian Mountains he wears the same clothing as Ghost.
 * Roach's arms are also visible on numerous occasions providing a character model. These scenes are:
 * When Roach grabs onto the Pavelow's ladder in The Hornet's Nest.
 * When Roach is pulled out the water onto the oil rig platform during The Only Easy Day...Was Yesterday.
 * When Ghost drags a heavily wounded Roach towards the extraction point in Loose Ends.
 * When Roach and Ghost are tossed into a pit by Shadow Company soldiers at the conclusion of Loose Ends.
 * In some Special Ops missions, the narrator (Ghost, Soap, or Price) will call the player "Roach." This is because sound files from the campaign mode are being reused.
 * In early screenshots of The Gulag, Soap can be seen from an angle where Roach's seat on the helicopter is visible. The seat, however, is entirely empty, probably because Infinity Ward did not design an actual character model for playable characters that are never seen, such as Roach and Private Allen. However, the screenshot may be a place holder or early pre-release version due to Soap having American flag patches on his suit, rather than British.