Roy Campbell

Colonel Roy Campbell was the original executive officer and the second commanding officer of FOXHOUND. He is one of Solid Snake's closest friends, and uncle of Meryl Silverburgh, although they later discovered that he is actually her biological father.

Early life and career
Roy Campbell served in the United States Marine Corps under the 5th Marine Regiment, namely as one of its truck drivers. However, he left after both his brother and he had fallen in love with the same woman. He stepped aside for his brother's sake, and used his joining the Green Berets as an excuse, especially when he wanted to serve his country anyhow.

Roy Campbell went on to serve in the Green Berets and Delta Force. In 1970, Campbell and a squad of Green Berets were dispatched by Fort Bragg to the San Hieronymo Peninsula, Colombia, to investigate a secret Soviet missile base that had been constructed there. However, the rogue CIA FOX unit, which had taken control of the base, anticipated their arrival and ambushed them. Eliminating most of Campbell's squad and taking him prisoner, he was left the sole survivor, though he suffered a broken leg during the skirmish.

Campbell initially attempted to escape from his cell by removing screws that sealed off a ventilation cover underneath the bunk, but he was relocated to a different cell before he had the chance to use it. This left Big Boss, the next prisoner, with an easy escape method. The two joined forces to bring down FOX, who were being commanded by Gene. Though he could stand up and move around in a limited manner, Campbell's broken leg left him unable to support Big Boss directly during combat operations, outside of driving a stolen enemy truck. Both decided to recruit former Red Army personnel over to their cause, in order to help prevent FOX from launching a nuclear weapon into the Soviet Union. However, Campbell quickly became diagnosed with malaria and a significant part of the mission concerned locating anti-malarial drugs, so as to save not only him, but to prevent the rest of their fledgling group from falling ill.

After FOX's medical chief Elisa provided intel to the resistance, Campbell was initially suspicious, having had previous experience of women "sweet talking him into getting his ass kicked." The group soon discovered the truth behind FOX's revolt and successfully destroyed their secret weapon, which they had dubbed the Intercontinental Ballistic Metal Gear, along with its test model, Metal Gear RAXA. Shortly after the end of the mission and his return to the United States, Campbell had to spend a long period of time in the hospital, including having to endure an annoying nurse.

Post-San Hieronymo
In 1971, FOXHOUND was officially established, with Campbell serving as a tactician and executive officer. Campbell would later have an affair with the wife of his brother, Matt Campbell, from which his daughter Meryl would be born during the late 1980s. Matt raised Roy's daughter as his own, but died before he could watch Meryl become a soldier. Roy Campbell was unaware that Meryl was actually his daughter, but shared a close relationship with her as an uncle. At some point, Roy became married.

When Solid Snake, one of the clones of "Les Enfant Terribles," joined FOXHOUND in the 1990s, Campbell felt nostalgic towards the young soldier due to his similarity to Big Boss. After Big Boss was revealed as the leader of Outer Heaven and was defeated by Snake, Campbell was appointed as commander of FOXHOUND and began revising the unit's methods with his personal touch. He discarded the codename system and adopted the use of high-tech equipment such as radars and spy satellites. By this point, he was also one of the few members of FOXHOUND to remember the unit during Big Boss's command. He also was awarded various titles during the late 1990s.



In December 1999, Campbell enlisted former FOXHOUND agent Solid Snake for Operation Intrude F014, during the Zanzibar Land Disturbance. With his supervision, Snake was able to defeat the forces of Zanzibar Land and retrieve the OILIX formula. When Snake encountered Big Boss once more, Campbell told him to forget that the man had once been his C.O. and that he was now just "another madman." After the fall of Big Boss, Campbell was the only other person who was aware that Snake had taken down his own father.

Post-Zanzibar Land
In the following year, Campbell retired as FOXHOUND commander for undisclosed reasons, although it is believed he was unhappy with the direction the unit was taking.

Campbell eventually discovered that Meryl was his daughter at least a day before the Shadow Moses Incident.

In February 2005, Campbell was called back to action by the United States Government when FOXHOUND, now led by Liquid Snake, took over a nuclear disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island, taking several people hostage. Among them was Meryl, who had been deliberately assigned to the facility by the Pentagon on the day of the takeover after having anticipated the revolt, and used this to coerce Campbell into cooperating. Campbell once again brought Snake out of retirement to neutralize the new FOXHOUND, though the desperation of the situation caused him to send black ops soldiers to his home to capture him, much to Snake's annoyance. Snake reluctantly accepted, and Campbell directed his mission from onboard the nearby Ohio-class submarine Discovery.

During the course of the mission, Campbell was forced to keep many secrets from Snake, including the true purpose of his mission and his injection with the assassination virus FOXDIE by Naomi Hunter, in order to ensure the safety of Meryl and himself. This resulted in a strain in Snake's friendship with Campbell, especially after Campbell also promised that he would brief Snake in full as a condition of him accepting the mission. Due to these constraints, Campbell became increasingly angered with the suspicious motives behind the operation, eventually coming to believe that the clandestine group known as the Patriots were behind the events.

Campbell eventually learned from data analyst Mei Ling that a member of their radio support team, Master Miller, was actually an imposter working for the Sons of Big Boss and was stationed within the base. The real Master Miller had died three days earlier, which Campbell had been unaware of due to his Codec link to him being cut, and thus was unable to warn Snake before he unwittingly activated Metal Gear REX.

After Snake successfully neutralized the threat from Metal Gear, Campbell revealed the truth of the mission to him and tried to call off an air strike directed at the base, but was subsequently placed under arrest by Secretary of Defense Jim Houseman. However, while he was detained, he managed to make contact with President George Sears and inform him of Houseman's actions, resulting in the Secretary being arrested for stepping out of line. After Snake defeated Liquid, Campbell was exonerated of all charges, as blame was laid on Houseman instead. In case the U.S. Government changed its mind, Campbell secured a copy of all the mission data recorded by Mei Ling as an "insurance policy," in order to protect her, himself, and Snake from arrest.

Post-Shadow Moses
After the events of Shadow Moses Incident, Campbell continued with his retirement. He later revealed to Meryl that he was really her father.

In 2009, a man resembling Roy Campbell served as Raiden's commanding officer during the Big Shell Incident. However, this Colonel was later revealed to be an artificial construct created by the Patriots and generated by GW, the AI system onboard Arsenal Gear.

Post-Big Shell
Sometime after the Big Shell Incident, Raiden and Campbell actually physically met, with Campbell taking on a sort of "commanding officer" role in Raiden's life. Campbell and Rosemary devised a plan to protect Raiden and Rose's son from the Patriots. They broke all ties to Raiden, who had disappeared into the Alaskan wilderness, and pretended to marry. Campbell played out his new life to the fullest, not even being able to tell his own daughter Meryl the truth.

In 2014, Campbell, now working for an oversight committee in the United Nations responsible for monitoring PMC activities, contacted his old friend Solid Snake, along with his partner Hal Emmerich, after he had discovered the whereabouts of the long missing Liquid Ocelot. Not content with the UN and other governments simply ignoring Liquid's attempt to plunge the world into total war, in effect aiding the economy of the 21st Century, Campbell took the matter into his own hands and hired Snake to perform an assassination. Upon reaching the Middle East, Snake met up with Meryl, Campbell's daughter, who revealed to Snake that Campbell had remarried to Rosemary and she was no longer speaking with "that womanizing piece of shit." Campbell was visibly upset when Snake divulged his daughter's opinion of him, but Campbell had to keep the secret that his marriage to Rosemary was a lie up until Raiden was done with his mission in order to protect John. During the events of the mission, he also attended a UN Swap Meet that dealt with ration tasting, to which the deciding votes were that French rations tasted the best, the Italian and Japanese rations weren't too bad either, and America's rations were voted unanimously as the worst rations at the swap meet, to which he told Rosemary "over a hundred times" about it, and later told Snake, heavily hinting at Rosemary's horrible cooking skills.

At the end of the mission, Campbell attended Meryl's wedding to Johnny Sasaki, finally making amends with her after years of deceit and not speaking. He congratulated Meryl for getting married but she ignored him. Campbell began to walk away before Meryl pulled her Desert Eagle from her holster. He then returned to her, putting himself point-blank near the muzzle, and then pulling it to his own neck. She then released the magazine, forcefully telling him, "You're going to walk me down the aisle." Campbell laughed and told Meryl that finally, they had plenty of time to get to know each other. Campbell remarked how beautiful Meryl looked, making both her and Mei Ling, Meryl's bridesmaid, break down in tears. Campbell is last seen seemingly overhearing Otacon's conversation with Sunny in regards to Snake's whereabouts, and quietly thanks Snake for all he has done for him.

Personality and traits
Roy Campbell, during his youth, was a loyal soldier, although also hesitant in regards to combat. He once asked Naked Snake about whether it was all right to be afraid in battle, although he misinterpreted Snake's answer about how fear when used appropriately will aid a soldier in battle to mean that its all right to have a little cowardice on the battlefield. He also didn't appreciate it when higher-ups within the United States Government hid information from him for political reasons. He also had some fascination with girls, and was willing to give dating advice to his soldiers, although several times, he misinterprets the soldier's questions regarding aspects of the battlefield for wanting advice on dating.

He was also shown to be a skilled strategist, having come up with some of the strategies in the Resistance, as well as leading the Resistance when Snake was captured until he and the other soldiers rescued Snake during the San Hieronymo Takeover, as well as his earlier mentioned restructuring of FOXHOUND after he took command due to Big Boss being unveiled as the leader of Outer Heaven and his presumed death in Operation Intrude N313.

Solid Snake found Campbell to be a poor liar. During the Shadow Moses briefing, Campbell claimed that he was involved in the mission because he was awaiting action in the military, before admitting that it was actually due to Meryl being held hostage. Indeed, throughout the mission, whenever Campbell attempted to express surprise regarding the FOXDIE virus and Metal Gear REX, Snake often suspected him of knowing more than he let on.

Behind the scenes
Colonel Roy Campbell (ロイ・キャンベル大佐) first appeared in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. His in-game character portrait was modeled after the likeness of actor Richard Crenna from the Rambo films, in which he played Colonel Trautman. The MSX2 version of Metal Gear 2 spelled his last name as "Kyanbel", although this was changed to "Campbell" in Metal Gear Solid and later releases of Metal Gear 2 changed the spelling to "Campbell" for consistency.

Campbell has appeared in some form or another in all but two games in the Metal Gear series (the original Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker). Only his likeness appeared in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, though this turned out to be an elaborate deception, although the real Colonel Campbell does make an appearance in two of the non-canon Snake Tales; "Confidential Legacy" and "Big Shell Evil." Campbell is consistently assigned the radio frequency of 140.85 throughout the series, which is also given to Major Zero in Metal Gear Solid 3 due to his similar role as mission commander.

According to the user's manual for Metal Gear 2, Campbell was formerly known by the codename of Chicken Fox. However, due to his own statement in Metal Gear Solid that Gray Fox was the only FOXHOUND member to receive the name "Fox," it is now considered to be non-canonical. The idea of Gray Fox being the exclusive holder of the name was first introduced in Metal Gear Solid, whereas the earlier games make no such claim.

In the novelization of Metal Gear Solid by Raymond Benson, Campbell admitted to Snake that Meryl was his daughter after both Snake and Meryl made it out alive, something he only does in the actual game in the alternate ending where Meryl dies.

In the Japanese versions, Takeshi Aono voiced Campbell in most of his appearances while Toshiro Furukawa voiced Campbell in Portable Ops. Aono and Furukawa previously worked together for two versions of the same character in the Dragon Ball anime, where the former voiced King Piccolo and the latter voiced his son/reincarnation, Piccolo Jr.

Campbell reveals to Snake that Meryl is his biological daughter in two non-canonical events: the Otacon ending of Metal Gear Solid and the stamina kill ending of Snake Tale C in Substance

In his drawings from Metal Gear Solid, Campbell had green as his eye color, but in Metal Gear Solid 4, he had blue eyes, as shown during Act 1 Liquid Sun when he and Otacon meet snake aboard the helicopter.

Metal Gear: Ghost Babel
In the non-canon game Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, Campbell got Snake out of retirement, citing that Galuade, the base belonging to the Gindra Liberation Force, was the same place that Snake partook in Operation Intrude N313. Campbell himself was blackmailed by Steve Gardner into participating in the mission with the threat of exposing his involvement in killing off Black Chamber. His reasons for retiring from FOXHOUND were also elaborated in this game, as he, under misinformation from 'Anonymous' (a.k.a. Steve Gardner), wiped out Black Chamber with the FOXHOUND unit, under the mistaken belief that they were terrorists, and didn't find out until after the fact. It's also hinted that Campbell's favorite drink is malt that is straight up and neat.

Snake Tales
The real Colonel Campbell makes a reappearance in two non-canon stories in Snake Tales: The first, A Wrongdoing, has him acting as Snake's mission operator after Snake is dispatched to the Big Shell to rescue the US President from a hostage takeover that involved Fatman, and that Richard Ames and Jennifer are two people he should make contact with.

The second, Confidential Legacy, has Colonel Campbell calling Snake out of retirement after a tanker containing a Metal Gear from Eldera was hijacked by soldiers under Gurlukovich's employ. Campbell explains the reason he's hiring Snake is not only because he wants an ally in his vendetta against Gurlukovich that he had during the Cold War, but also because his niece, Meryl, is also involved in the takeover. After Snake learns that the Metal Gear was significantly older than he thought, and that Meryl was allied with the Gurlukovich Mercenaries for reasons relating to her father Matt Campbell, Campbell explains to Snake that Matt Campbell was involved in a top secret mission during the Cold War in Eldera, run by a pro-American dictator at the time, which involved the military conducting the top-secret project of developing Metal Gear in Eldera. The project ended up terminated around the same time the Cold War ended as well, but Matt ended up going AWOL when the Americans were planning to withdraw. He also explains that Matt was found dead, and that, because of America's withdrawal, the pro-American regime also collapsed and Eldera was plunged into eternal civil war from an uprising of minority groups (an action that was instigated by Spetsnaz groups under Gurlukovich's employ), he suspects Gurlukovich of personally killing Matt, explaining his desire for revenge against Gurlukovich (a suspicion confirmed by Gurlukovich shortly after Snake and Meryl fought each other). In the Meryl Lives ending, he debriefed Snake in the cell that was originally Meryl's cell, telling Snake that the Metal Gear was obsolete and a failure, worth less than scrap metal, and likewise its nukes were nothing more than cheap imitations, and that it was in fact Roy, not Matt, who was Meryl's birthfather, and leaves to tell Meryl the truth. Snake also realized upon learning this that Meryl's true lineage was the true reason behind Matt accepting the mission to Eldera as well as his being manipulated by Gurlukovich and then killed.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
During the Time Paradox continue screen in Metal Gear Solid 3, Campbell's voice can be heard chastizing Snake for killing Ocelot and EVA, as doing so would damage the continuity of the Metal Gear timeline.

Campbell, along with Solid Snake, makes a cameo appearance in the Snake vs. Monkey minigame that is included in earlier releases of Metal Gear Solid 3. The Colonel briefs Snake about his newest mission to catch experimental mechanical monkeys, much to Snake's dismay, who responds angrily that Campbell could have gotten someone else to do the job and frustrated that he had to be brought out during vacation. Campbell then explains that Otacon has connections with the person who is involved with the monkeys and it was Otacon who recommended Snake.

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
"A survivor of the Green Beret unit dispatched to the San Hieronymo Peninsula, he was rescued by Big Boss and subsequently joined forces with him. Provides mission support to team members from his truck."

- Character description in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus

In Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, the young Roy Campbell wears camouflage clothes, which are identical to the Tiger Stripe camo in Metal Gear Solid 3. If Snake attempts to contact Campbell a few times during a mission, he will sometimes give Snake hints on how to get a girl (under the guise of giving him advice to control and command his troops). If the player controls a recruit, he also talks about how he and his brother were in love with the same woman (which may be Meryl's mother) but insists that she didn't dump him. Some of his calls also have him misinterpreting the soldiers requesting for advice in regards to getting close to the enemy or being ambushed as asking for advice on dating.

Due to Campbell's physical and medical status during the San Hieronymo Takeover, he is the only main character in the original release of Portable Ops that is not playable in the main game. However, players can unlock Campbell in the expansion Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus by completing the Infinity Mission under extreme mode. He comes with an M16A1, and his career is Headhunter, which allows him to detect the enemies abilities. When unlocked, a message will state that Campbell's leg has healed in place of the usual "A new soldier has been recruited" message.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Colonel Campbell is among one of three Metal Gear characters (the others being Mei Ling and Hal "Otacon" Emmerich) who appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and gives Solid Snake advice and detailed background regarding his opponents via Codec (a hidden taunt; one of Snake's many Easter eggs).

If Snake's opponent is Luigi, his AI clone takes his place and bombards Luigi with verbal insults rather than providing Snake with relevant and needed information. To this, a sudden role reversal occurs, in which Snake yells out for Campbell to "snap out of it" in the Game Over fashion. Also, as Snake tries to give credit to Luigi's efforts in the field of battle, Campbell rambles the phrase "La-li-lu-le-lo!" repeatedly.

Campbell also appears in the game's E3 trailer in 2006, contacting Snake's Codec and informing him of an invitation to participate in the upcoming Smash Bros. installment, to which Snake simply replies that he is performing a reconnaissance operation, investigating a battle between Kirby, Link, Pikachu and Mario through his trademark box.

If Snake attempts to get information about Falco, although he ends up having to talk to Slippy Toad because the latter hacked into Snake's Codec, it was implied that he was actually intending to call Campbell.

Metal Gear Ac!d
Although Roy does not appear in the game, he was briefly mentioned by Roger McCoy, where he explained that Solid Snake was chosen to partake in the mission on Lobito Island under Campbell's recommendation.

Appearances

 * Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
 * Metal Gear Solid
 * Metal Gear: Ghost Babel (non-canon)
 * Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (non-canon appearance in "Snake Tales")
 * Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (non-canon voice cameo)
 * Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
 * Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus (non-canon)
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl (non-canon)
 * Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots