Palitz

Palitz (Russian: "Finger") was a member of an infamous sniper-spotter team from the Marine Corps involved during the Laotian Civil War, acting as the spotter. His partner was Glaz.

Biography
Palitz, alongside Glaz, were a sniper-spotter team within the United States Marine Corps. They were stationed in Camp Omega and eventually ended up making a trade as assassins during the Laotian Civil War. They were responsible for taking out Soviet personnel, several NVA high ranking members as well as the latter's families and children. This left them feared by the East even after the war was over. After they were withdrawn from the Laotian Civil War, Palitz, alongside Glaz, resumed work at Camp Omega, which also acted as a loophole preventing their extradition to Laos for war crimes they committed, despite talks about doing so as part of peace negotiations. Their actions resulted in the East living in constant fear of their return. Because of this, some KGB contacts Kazuhira Miller knew back when he was a trainer for Colombian guerilla group before meeting Big Boss and joining the Militaires Sans Frontières gave a tip on their location with the intention of having MSF assassinate them. According to Miller, his name alongside that of his partner were nicknames meant to reference that they were "less than human - no heart, just an eye to find their prey and a finger to pull the trigger." Palitz in the meantime spent any free time he had practicing his sniping skills near one of the refugee camps. Despite their inhuman reputation, the two were not immune to the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: Palitz has a prosthetic index finger (which he presumably hid with a black leather glove) due to an act of self mutilation as a result of his tormented memories of his actions during the war, which neither therapy nor drugs alleviated him of it. He was apparently horrified by his station being turned into a black site.

Behind the scenes
Palitz, alongside his partner Glaz, are central characters to the side op Eliminate the Renegade Threat. The player can either kill them or otherwise capture them though Miller prefers the former. Doing the latter will earn the player the Depth achievement/trophy. In addition, Miller's post-credits debriefing will be different depending on the player's actions: If the player managed to kill them, Miller will mention that their deaths will probably bring the war to an early end, although he will note to Snake that they seemed deeply afraid of something, possibly even moreso than of death itself, causing Miller to question what was going on at the camp (implying that Glaz and Palitz were horrified at the inhumane treatment of the prisoners at the prison facility and the facility's conversion into a black site). If the player extracted them, Miller's debriefing will reveal that they discovered that Glaz and Palitz, upon searching them during their arrival, had possessed artifical prosthetics: a glass eye and a prosthetic index finger, respectively, indicating that they had committed self-mutilation due to trauma that neither drugs nor therapy could fully alleviate, with Miller deciding that they were human after all. It should be noted that killing them does not impact the S-ranking of the mission.

Palitz doesn't wear the black leather glove in one of his photos but does in the mission itself.

If Big Boss interrogates Palitz, the latter will call Big Boss a phantom.