Huey Emmerich

Huey Emmerich was a mechanical engineer, responsible for the successful implementation of bipedal locomotion technology used in the Peace Walker Project. He was the father of Hal Emmerich.

Early Life
Huey Emmerich was born on August 6, 1945, the day of the Hiroshima bombings, his father being one of the members of the Manhattan Project. He was born a paraplegic, unable to walk because his spine was abnormally shaped. At some point, Huey obtained a specially designed wheelchair, which was technologically-advanced for its time, one of its features being the ability to traverse stairs. He joined NASA after graduating from MIT, where he worked alongside Strangelove. He later met and became colleagues with Aleksandr Leonovitch Granin. During Operation Snake Eater, Granin revealed to Naked Snake that he was going to send his designs for Metal Gear to Emmerich, although this never occured as the blueprints were later stolen by Ocelot.

Huey was once considered to be part of a project involving space rockets, but he was eventually relocated after it was cancelled due to détente. At some point, Huey received blueprints for a bipedal locomotion system from CIA Station Chief Hot Coldman, which had originally been developed by the Soviets. It is implied that Coldman and Huey had "stolen" the blueprints from the Soviet Union. He was then hired by Coldman to build the "Perfect Deterrant" for the Peace Walker Project.

Operation Peace Walker
Main Article By 1970, Huey was willingly working for Coldman, having been convinced that Peace Walker was to be used solely as a deterrant, never to be launched even once. Huey was also responsible for developing three prototype AI weapons. Huey later learned of Coldman's true intentions of actually launching the weapon, in order to prove its power as a deterrant. He then got into an argument and refused to cooperate with Coldman any longer. As a consequence, Coldman hurled him down a stairway, wheelchair and all.

After Big Boss destroyed the Pupa AI Weapon, Huey encountered Big Boss, who tried to lie about why he was in Costa Rica, claiming that he was an entomologist trying to find a Ulysses/morphos butterfly for the Washington Treaty. Huey then explained the nature of the AI weapons, as well as the project. He also explained his origins, and suggested a way to stop Peace Walker: Snake could try to sabotage the AI designed for the Peace Walker in Strangelove's lab. Huey then gave his ID card as well as a love letter addressed to Strangelove for Big Boss to deliver (although he allowed Big Boss to believe that it was a recommendation letter). Huey then decided that he might quit working in the field of science due to his role in nearly causing a disaster. However, Big Boss suggested that he join Outer Heaven, as he fit into the group anyway.

Afterwards, Huey was placed under the R&D division of Big Boss's Militaires Sans Frontieres, providing information about the AI units and Peace Walker, as well as developing a similar weapon to Peace Walker under Kazuhira Miller's suggestion. Huey gave Big Boss intel in regards to the location of Peace Walker's final testing base: an underground base disguised as a mine. He later operated the entire Mother Base as its skeleton crew while the majority of the Militaires Sans Frontieres headed towards Nicaragua to put a stop to Coldman's plans and then later helped Big Boss communicate with the Pentagon, after Coldman activated Peace Walker and nearly caused an all-out nuclear war.

Afterwards, Huey participated as a referee in a soccer match between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and at one time even tried to stop a fight from breaking out, as they were not supposed to be enemies, quoting Big Boss during this point. After ZEKE was completed, it was armed with a nuclear warhead recovered from under Lake Nicaragua's waters, which formerly belonged to Peace Walker. When Big Boss asked Huey why he decided to arm ZEKE with nuclear weapons, citing its similarity to Peace Walker, which he despised, he claimed that it was because the two were actually different with intentions: the CIA won people over with charm, and turned their backs on them when things got hairy, whereas Big Boss was honest about his intentions, so he trusted Big Boss with the decision. After ZEKE was damaged due to Paz hijacking it, he suggested to Snake that he could have a mock battle against ZEKE so that the next time something similar happened, Big Boss would be prepared. He also visited Strangelove and, after learning that ZEKE had a backup AI so that it could at least walk, asked Strangelove what he needed to ask her some time ago: if she despised him. Strangelove then asked if Huey wanted to ask her out. Huey denied this, to which Strangelove responded that it was a shame as she "had her heart broken before," and that she was only interested in those who could stand up for themselves. She told him that if he loved her, he should "come walk with her" mentioning that some miracles are unexpected and that "love is blind," hinting that she might have been attracted to him at that point.

Later Life
Huey eventually retired and got married, fathering a son in 1980, whom he named "Hal." Huey later divorced Hal's mother, and went on to remarry a British woman named Julie Danziger. Unfortunately, Huey later discovered that his new wife was having an affair with his son, and decided to drown himself in the family pool, nearly taking Julie's daughter Emma with him.

Trivia

 * "Huey" was not Emmerich's real first name, but a nickname given to him by Strangelove, during their time at NASA. Huey was the name of a crippled service robot in the science fiction film Silent Running (itself part of a trio named Huey, Dewey and Louie, after Donald Duck's nephews). The film was directed by Douglas Trumbull, the man who did the special effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey.
 * Huey dreaded being around water. Ironically, Huey would later commit suicide by jumping into a swimming pool. Not being able to use his legs, Huey would have had little chance of turning back once in the water.

Mother Base Staff
Huey is a unique staff member at Mother Base, available after Snake defeats the Pupa AI Weapon. His skill, "Bipedal Weapons Design," allows Metal Gear ZEKE to be developed if he is assigned to the R&D Team.


 * Life: 1000
 * Psyche: 1000
 * GMP: 1096


 * Combat Unit: E
 * R&D Team: S
 * Mess Hall Team: D
 * Medical Team: -
 * Intel Team: A

Behind the Scenes

 * In a pre-release interview for Peace Walker, Hideo Kojima hinted that Huey was "exactly the person that everyone thinks he is." Somewhat ironically, most fans believed that he was Hal's grandfather, but this was eventually revealed not to be the case.
 * If the player decides to read Huey's letter through the Model Viewer, a Briefing File will be unlocked in which Huey, as soon as he learns that Snake not only failed to deliver the letter to Strangelove, but also read it, tells him off. Either way, whether Strangelove ever recieved the letter is not revealed. The letter is written in a humorous fashion, portraying Huey's nervousness in communicating to the woman he admires, with some of his words explicitly transcribed as being stuttered.
 * Strangelove telling Huey to "walk with her" near the end of Peace Walker may be a reference to the ending of the movie that inspired her character, in which the titular Dr. Strangelove, who has been wheelchair-bound like Huey, rises to his feet for the first time in the movie and excitedly shouts the last line of the film: "Mein Führer! I can walk!"