Meryl Silverburgh

Meryl Silverburgh (メリル・シルバーバーグ), born 1987, is the commanding officer of Rat Patrol 01. Prior to her inauguration as commander, Meryl was a well-known career soldier due to her involvement in the FOXHOUND Rebellion of 2005, her first mission where she worked with famed mercenary Solid Snake. She was thought to be the niece of former FOXHOUND commander Roy Campbell but was later discovered to actually be his daughter.

Early life and career
According to official records, Meryl Silverburgh is the daughter of Roy Campbell's younger brother, Matt Campbell. However, more recent evidence shows that Meryl was born after an affair between Roy Campbell and her mother. When Meryl was young, Matt Campbell was killed in action during the Gulf War. After that, she took on her mother's maiden name.

Raised in a house of military traditions, Meryl trained herself throughout her childhood in the 'arts' of soldiery. She admired the FOXHOUND unit, viewing the days when her uncle and Solid Snake were members in the unit’s heyday, and wears a paint tattoo of the unit's (more cartoon-esque) secondary logo on her left shoulder. She joined the armed forces after graduating high school and received extensive psychotherapy to prevent any attraction to the opposite sex.

She was recruited by FOXHOUND and assigned to the Shadow Moses island in 2005 as an emergency replacement when several soldiers were reported missing. Following her arrival on the island, the unit involved with the exercise revolted along with members of FOXHOUND and took over the nuclear disposal site on the island along with Metal Gear REX which was secretly being developed there by ArmsTech. Though initially believed to be an unfortunate coincidence that she was assigned to Shadow Moses the very same day FOXHOUND rebelled, It's later revealed that the Pentagon had deliberately assigned her to Shadow Moses Island that same day in order to force Roy Campbell to hide vital information from Snake during the events of the FOXHOUND Rebellion. Meryl refused to join in with the rebellion and was taken prisoner and placed on the same holding cell level with DARPA Chief Donald Anderson. Before this however, ArmsTech President Kenneth Baker gave Meryl a PAL card before he underwent his torture session with Ocelot. This PAL card could be used to activate or deactivate REX, and could only be used once. Afterwards, she managed to escape confinement and met up with Solid Snake, who had been forced out of retirement by the U.S. government in order to neutralize the terrorists and the two eventually began working together. She managed to stay hidden by disguising herself as one of the Genome Soldiers using the clothes she stole from Johnny Sasaki, the guard that was watching her cell.

Later, the pair met up on the B1 Floor of the Nuclear Disposal Facility. She gave the PAL card to Snake and then the two headed to the Commander's Room where Psycho Mantis controlled Meryl's mind. Meryl held her gun against Snake, but Snake, realizing she was not herself, managed to knock her out. Snake then dispatched of Mantis and he and Meryl headed North in order to destroy Metal Gear. However, Meryl was shot and subsequently captured by FOXHOUND member Sniper Wolf. In an attempt to rescue Meryl and complete his mission, Snake engaged in a sniping duel with Wolf and was eventually lured into an ambush by her where he was also captured. Snake is then put through a series of torture trials by Revolver Ocelot.

Snake was strong enough to outlast Ocelot's torture and manages to escape from his confinement. Meryl is later rescued by Snake after his fight with Liquid and the two manage to escape together after the destruction of Metal Gear REX. Snake and Meryl decided they would retreat and live normally.

After Shadow Moses, she re-entered the military thanks to Campbell's connections, where she was posted to the Army's PMC watchdog, the USACIDC (U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command), as the head of her own team, Rat Patrol 01. In 2014, she became involved in a secret operation to capture Liquid Ocelot.

When she meets Snake again for the first time during the Guns of the Patriots incident in the Middle East, she expressed her shock upon looking at Snake's more aged appearance. She was once more shocked (and infuriated) that Campbell sent him to the Middle East. In an attempt to take Liquid by force, in Eastern Europe, she became involved in a massacre that wounded her and her unit, as well as killing most of the nearby military soldiers and damaging some of the vessels.

Meryl also helped Snake infiltrate Outer Haven, and she and Johnny attempted to hold back Liquid's forces while Snake headed to GW's control room. After the incident Meryl and Johnny married, and Meryl made peace with her father, Roy Campbell.

Behind the scenes

 * Meryl Silverburgh is voiced by Debi Mae West (credited as Mae Zadler in the original Metal Gear Solid) in English and by Kyoko Terase (credited as Megumi Terease in Policenauts) in Japanese.
 * Meryl and Olga Gurlukovich have the same Japanese voice actress (Kyoko Terase).
 * The original Metal Gear Solid (and the remake, The Twin Snakes) featured an alternate ending in which Meryl dies at the end if the player submits to Ocelot's torture. This ending is non-canonical due to her appearence in MGS4.
 * Policenauts_Meryl.jpg's character is based on a character of the same name from Hideo Kojima's game Policenauts. In addition to having similar character designs, the same Japanese voice actress (Kyoko Terase) and backstories (both were former FOXHOUND members). Further likening the two characters is the fact Meryl's partner in Policenauts is named Dave Forrest (who secretly loves her), which is also Solid Snake's real first name. In MGS4, the likeness is taken even further with the inclusion of Meryl's earrings, which are handgun bullets, probably .45 ACP, just like the original Meryl wore. Her partners in MGS4 are also named Ed and Jonathan, which are the same names of her partners in Policenauts, Ed Brown and Jonathan Ingram. While the Meryl from Policenauts has the same name, the same Japanese voice actress, and a similar appearance, they are not meant to be the same character.
 * In The Twin Snakes, Meryl's eyes are a hazel brown, but in MGS4 they're blue.
 * Meryl makes appearances in the Snake Tales included with Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance reusing Olga Gurlukovich's voice clips.
 * Also in Substance, in Snake's VR Mission Variety Level 04, Meryl is seen lying on the floor. Snake must take out 26 enemy "soldiers" that are converging on her location within a 3 min. time limit.
 * In The Twin Snakes, if the player unlocked the Tuxedo for Snake, she will be wearing a female version of Snake's sneaking suit, looking similar to her appearance in the MGS Radio Drama.
 * A costume available to download for LittleBigPlanet allows the Sackboys to dress up as Meryl.

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Meryl Silverburgh