Miscellaneous locations

This article is a list of miscellaneous locations that are mentioned and/or appeared in the Metal Gear series.

Bikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll is an uninhabited atoll in the Micronesian Islands and is a member of the Marshall Islands. Bikini Atoll was a site of more than 20 nuclear weapons tests between 1946 and 1958, including the first test of a practical hydrogen bomb in 1954. Big Boss took part in one of these tests, called Castle Bravo, or more accurately, Bravo Shot.

Colombia
Colombia is a country in South America. The San Hieronymo Peninsula, under the control of the FARC guerrillas, is located on the central Colombian coast, almost directly below Cuba. It was home to a secret Soviet Missile Base during the 60s and early '70s.

The Barranquilla Coast is also located in Colombia, which is where Big Boss stationed his army, the Militaires Sans Frontieres, in 1974, at the time under the employ of the Colombian government to take out guerilla units.

Cuba
Cuba is an island nation in the Carribean. The country was rather infamous for the Cuban Missile Crisis that occurred in October of 1961. As a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis being averted, America had to allow the Soviets to take back Dr. Sokolov (which was covered up by the Turkey Deal) in exchange for the Soviets pulling out of Cuba, as well as the Soviets secretly building a missile base in Colombia.

Approximately thirteen years later, Cuba was also involved in a nuclear attack, only this time it was the one being threatened by nuclear attack. Vladimir Zadornov, a KGB Agent, betrayed the Peace Sentinels leader, CIA Station Chief of Central America Hot Coldman by switching the false data (imaginary data of a missile strike programmed to trick Peace Walker into launching a nuclear strike) to Cuba, so that America would end up being blamed for the incident by the international community (as the missile was technically launched from an American Base located in Nicaragua, a country with a pro-American regime). Unfortunately, Vladimir severely underestimated Coldman, as while he hadn't initially thought of Cuba as being a target, he eventually decided that Cuba being the target would be perfect for his test, and nearly caused a catastrophic, all out nuclear war.

Galzburg
Galzburg is a region in the Republic of South Africa, on the southernmost tip of the African continent. It was located 200 kilometers south of Big Boss's fortress state, Outer Heaven.

Grenada
Grenada was an island in the Carribbean Sea located next to Cuba. In 1977, thanks to Chico leaking a photo of Chrysalis to a magazine publisher making it seem as if it were a UFO photograph, the prime minister of Grenada, Sir Eric Gairy, requested that the UN establish an agency to study the "UFO problem" both due to the magazine photo as well as reports spawning all over the Americas about UFO abductions and Cattle Mutilations. It was later invaded by America and NATO.

In the NES manual for Metal Gear'', it was stated that prior to Operation Intrude N313, Solid Snake had taken part in the Grenada Invasion. Based on the information presented in later installments, Snake would have been 11 years old at the time, thus making his involvement extremely unlikely.''

Lobito Island
Lobito Island is the location of a physics and chemistry laboratory, within the Moloni Republic in South Africa.

Nicaragua
Nicaragua is a country in Central America. Bordering Costa Rica, Nicaragua is a country under political turmoil, with the Somoza regime putting its citizens in a harsh treatment. This was the location that the Sandinista National Liberation Front, also known as the FSLN, was originated by the KGB in its plot to control Central America and win the Cold War. A United States Missile and Supply Base was located near Lago Cocibolca on its eastern shore, established around the time of the 1972 Nicaraguan Earthquake. On Lago Cocibolca, there is also a volcanic island called Ometepe which was formed from two connected volcanoes in the shape of a porongo (spanish word for "gourd"). One of the volcanoes, Concepcion, still smokes and erupts once in a while. The other, Maderas, has not erupted in recorded history and contains a crater lake. However, Amanda states that it might erupt again if one of Peace Walker's nukes was detonated within Maderas if it had a factory inside, due to the nuke's detonation destablizing the magma underneath with terrible consequences for Nicaragua if that were to happen.

Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, commonly known as the Soviet Union) was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. In the early 1960s, the Cold War between the USA and the Soviet Union reached a vital point following the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. In 1962, a U2 Spy Plane photographed a Nuclear Weapons Disposal Facility in Cuba, gaining evidence that the Soviets were in fact using it to store live missiles, sparking the fear of nuclear war. President Kennedy made a deal with Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev, that in return for the US not invading Cuba, the Soviet Union would remove their missiles. As a result of their failure to establish a Missile Base in Cuba, the Soviet Union searched for two years for a new location to build their missile base, eventually finding the San Hieronymo Peninsula.

In actuality, the US's part of the deal was not just to not invade, but in fact to provide the Soviet Union with scientist Nikolai Stephanovich Sokolov. In 1964, in an operation known as the Virtuous Mission, Naked Snake was sent to rescue Sokolov and return him safely to the west. The operation was, in official records, a disastrous failure. However, in a follow up mission, known as Operation Snake Eater, Snake was succesful in destroying a secret nuclear weapon, being developed by the extremist GRU Colonel, Volgin. Afterwards, the Soviet Union hailed Naked Snake, now known as Big Boss, as a hero due to his fight against Volgin, given Jonathan's comments, during the San Hieronymo Takeover, to Big Boss. When the era of Detente began in 1970, the Soviet Union, in order to participate in the SALT Talks endorsed by Nixon and Brezshnev, halted on the construction of the San Hieronymo Missile Base, and forced the personnel to remain stationed on the base cutting off supplies as well as communications being cut, which ended up creating an uprising as soon as the FOX Unit took over the base, and was nearly the target of the ICBMG.

At some point later, the Soviet Union dispatched a KGB Operative named Vladimir Alexandrovich Zadornov into Costa Rica, adopting the alias of "Ramon Galvez Mena," a Professor of Peace, to help spread Communism across Central America to split America into two and thus win the Cold War, as well as trick Coldman into forging an alliance with him and then use Peace Walker to launch a nuke towards Cuba from an American Base in Nicaragua to ensure their plan succeeded.

Alaska
The northernmost state of the United States of America. The name Alaska comes from Alakshak, a word meaning peninsula in the Aleut language. The northern part of Alaska is rich in nature and inhabited by many wild animals such as caribou and grizzly bears.

At the end of Operation Snake Eater, Naked Snake and EVA flew to Alaska before going to visit Langley.

Solid Snake and Master Miller have both lived in Alaska, and is the location of the Fox Archipelago and Shadow Moses Island. Snake retired to Twin Lakes, Alaska after the Zanzibar Land Disturbance of 1999. He also stated that he was supposed to take his dog-sled team to Anchorage for the Iditarod a day after the Shadow Moses Incident.

Raiden also traveled to Alaska during the time between the Big Shell Incident and Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection to try and live life like Snake did after he had started flashing back to his days as a child soldier, leaving Rosemary.

Galena, Alaska
Galena is a small town located in mainland Alaska, home to a United States military air base.

Naked Snake and EVA landed here shortly after the aftermath of Operation Snake Eater.

During the Shadow Moses Incident in 2005, two F-16s were dispatched from Galena in order to provide a diversion for Solid Snake, so he could infiltrate the facility more easily. Both F-16s were shot down by Liquid Snake.

Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia
Arlington National Cemetery is a graveyard for fallen soldiers and veterans, as well as a burial place for US Presidents. It was created during the Civil War. After the events of Operation Snake Eater in 1964, The Boss, despite her status as a traitor in the United States, and as a war criminal in the Soviet Union, was allowed to be buried in Arlington National cemetery, where her protége Naked Snake, a.k.a. Big Boss, visited and paid his respects.

Solid Snake later visited this grave to pay his respects to Big Boss, and was paying his respects when called in by Roy Campbell to participate in the mission to assassinate Liquid Ocelot. Shortly after completing the mission, as well as ending the Patriots, he revisits Arlington so he can erase his genes and memes, and later has his last meeting with Big Boss, before the latter succumbs to FOXDIE.

New York City, New York
New York City is the largest city in the United States of America. Divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island, it is an important economic structure of the United States. It was initially founded by the Dutch and initially called New Amsterdam, but was surrendered to the British, and renamed New York in honor of the Duke of Albany and York. In 2009, a large portion of New York was destroyed after Ocelot (assuming his Liquid persona) set Arsenal Gear on a direct course towards Manhattan.

Federal Hall, NYC
Federal Hall is a building on Wall Street, NYC. It is the site of President George Washington's inauguration ceremony, and a statue of him (which has since become both a landmark and an icon) stands outside to commemorate the occasion.

Raiden met Rose for the first time on April 30th, 2007, on the steps of Federal Hall. Two years later to the day, Raiden fought and killed Solidus Snake at the climax of the Manhattan Incident.

Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Portsmouth was the fourth most populated city in Rockingham county of New Hampshire. It is a historic Seaport as well as the home to the Pease Air Force Base. After the destruction of REX by operative Solid Snake and the death of Liquid, nearly all of the surviving Genome Soldiers were transferred to the Pease AFB in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where they were imprisoned for the official reason of treason, although Nastasha's book implies that they were actually sent there so the Patriots could continue experimenting on them. Johnny Sasaki somehow managed to avoid being sent there.

Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is also the hometown of Major Zero.

Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Fort Bragg is a major United States Army installation in North Carolina. Named after Confederate General Braxton Bragg, it is the home for several airborne units and special forces units.

The Boss was offered to teach at the newly instated HALO Military School at Fort Bragg in 1957. In 1970, Roy Campbell of the Green Berets was stationed in Fort Bragg when he and his unit were dispatched into Colombia to investigate San Hieronymo when it was mysteriously nearing completion until they were ambushed by the FOX unit.

Cheyenne Mountain
Cheyenne Mountain is a mountain located on the outside of the southwest of Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States. It is home to the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station and the Cheyenne Mountain Directorate. It was formerly named the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center as well as nicknamed Crystal Palace. It is also the headquarters for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, also known as NORAD, which is unusual in that, outside of it being built within a 2000-ft mountain, NORAD is also a joint military effort by the United States Army/Navy/Marine Corps/Coast Guard/Air Force and the Canadian Forces.

In November 23rd of 1974, NORAD Headquarters in Cheyenne Mountain picked up trajectory data that led the NORAD staff to believe that the United States was going to suffer a Nuclear Attack from the Communists side. Because most of the White House Cabinet was absent from the United States to attend the SALT II talks in Vladivostok, The Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff were forced to make the decision as to whether to make a retalitory Nuclear Strike to the East. In actuality, the trajectory data was fake: Part of a rogue CIA project backed by CIA Station Chief of Central America Hot Coldman, called the Peace Walker project that started leaking falsified trajectory data to NORAD.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is an underground set of caverns. It was a National Park for tourists to explore the caverns. However, the Government used the caverns since at least the FDR administration during World War II as a safehouse in case America was ever directly attacked by the Axis Forces, and has also used it for other research projects.

According to the novel, Carlsbad Caverns National Park was where the Les Enfants Terribles project was done, or at the very least the portion of the project that resulted in the births of Solid and Liquid Snake.