Roy Campbell

Colonel Roy Campbell (ロイ・キャンベル大佐) is best known as 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.

Background
In 1970, Roy Campbell served in the Marine Corps, the Green Berets and Delta Force. Shortly after the FOX unit rebelled and took over the San Hieronymo Missile Base with threats to launch a top secret weapon into what was believed to be the Soviet Union, he and a squad of Green Berets were dispatched by Fort Bragg into Colombia to investigate why the San Hieronymo Base was being built. The FOX unit anticipated their arrival and ambushed them, murdered his entire squad and took him prisoner, leaving himself the sole survivor. He became involved in the downfall of the original FOX unit in 1970, where he met Big Boss in a prison at the San Hieronymo Peninsula, and the two joined forces to bring down FOX (lead by Gene). Unfortunately, at the time, Campbell had a broken leg and was unable to support Big Boss outside of driving a stolen enemy van between mission sites. Also, early on in the mission, he was diagnosed with Malaria and a significant part of the mission was to try and find medication for the Malaria strand that Campbell has, so as to save not only him, but the entire unit. Recruiting members of the Red Army who were stationed at the base over to their side, they discovered the truth behind FOX's revolt and destroyed their secret weapon of the Intercontinental Ballistic Metal Gear, as well as destroying Metal Gear RAXA, ICBMG's test model. Shortly after the end of the Mission, Roy Campbell had to endure a lot of time at the Hospital due to his broken leg, including having to endure an annoying nurse.

Post-San Hieronymo
A year later, Big Boss and Campbell officially set up FOXHOUND. Roy Campbell served as a tactician and executive officer, operating under the codename of Chicken Fox, due to specializing in desk work over field work. During this time, Campbell had an affair with the wife of his brother (Matt Campbell) and from this his daughter Meryl was born. It is unknown whether Matt ever found out that he was not really Meryl's father, but Campbell eventually found out at least a day before the FOXHOUND Rebellion, and planned to tell Meryl after the operation was over.

Many years later, after Big Boss was discovered that Big Boss was their leader of Outer Heaven and defeated by rookie FOXHOUND operative Solid Snake, Campbell was appointed as commander of FOXHOUND and began revising FOXHOUND'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.

Campbell brought out former FOXHOUND agent Solid Snake during the Zanzibar Land uprising and served as his commanding officer during Operation: Intrude F014 in 1999. With his supervision, Snake was able to defeat the forces of Zanzibar Land and retrieve the OILIX formula.

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.

In 2005, Campbell was called back to action by the US Government when FOXHOUND, now led by Liquid Snake, took over a nuclear disposal facility and held several people hostages, including Meryl Silverburgh, who was assigned to the disposal facility on the day of the takeover. Campbell once again brought Snake out of retirement to neutralize the new FOXHOUND, although the way he decided to bring Snake out of retirement both confused and annoyed Snake, as he did it in a way that made it seem as though Black Ops were hired to kill/capture him. However, during the course of the mission, Campbell was forced to keep a lot of secrets from Snake, including the true purpose of his mission and his injection with FOXDIE by Naomi Hunter, in order to ensure the safety of Meryl (the Pentagon had deliberately sent her to Shadow Moses on the same day as a bargaining chip to ensure his cooperation). Eventually, Campbell revealed the truth at the end of the mission and tried to call off an air strike directed to the base, but was arrested by Secretary of Defense Jim Houseman. However, while he was imprisoned, he managed to somehow contact President Sears and tell him about the air strike, thus resulting in Jim Houseman being arrested for going out of line. After Snake defeated Liquid, Campbell was exonerated from charges, as blame was laid on Houseman instead.

After the events of Shadow Moses Revolt, Campbell continued with his retirement. He later revealed to Meryl that he is really her father.

In 2009, a man resembling Roy Campbell served as Raiden's commanding officer during the Manhattan Incident lead by Solidus Snake. However, this Colonel was later revealed to be an artificial construct created by The Patriots and generated by GW, the supercomputer of Arsenal Gear. Sometime after the Manhattan Incident, Raiden and Campbell actually physically met, with Campbell taking on a sort of "commanding officer" role in Raiden's life. Campbell and Rose devised a plan to protect Raiden and Rose's son. 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 a counter-terrorism branch of the United Nations, 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.

At the end of the mission, Campbell attends Meryl's wedding to Johnny Sasaki, finally making amends with her after years of deceit and not speaking. He congratulates Meryl for getting married but she ignores him. Campbell begins to walk away before Meryl pulls her Desert Eagle from her holster. He then returns to her, putting himself point-blank near the muzzle, and then pulling it to his own neck. She then releases the clip, forcefully telling him, "You're going to walk me down the aisle.". Campbell laughs and tells Meryl that finally, they have plenty of time to get to know each other. Campbell remarks how beautiful Meryl looks, making both her and Mei Ling, Meryl's bridesmaid, break down in tears.

Trivia

 * Roy Campbell's frequency is the same as Major Zero's frequency 140.85.
 * Despite his injuries during the San Hieronymo Incident, there were a few occasions in which he was able to stand up and move around in a limited manner, implying that his leg was broken only to the extent of slowing him down.
 * During Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection, Meryl tells Snake that Campbell was married at least once before.
 * Roy Campbell was somewhat aware of The Patriots's existence prior to the Shadow Moses Incident, as he began to suspect their involvement in said event during Snake's mission.

Behind the Scenes

 * Campbell was originally modeled after the likeness of actor Richard Crenna from the Rambo films, in which he played Colonel Trautman.
 * Campbell has appeared in some form or another in all but one game in the series. The only game in which Campbell has not appeared in is Metal Gear. Only his likeness appeared in Metal Gear Solid 2. However, it turned out to be an elaborate deception.
 * Campbell reveals to Snake that Meryl is his biological daughter in two non-canonical events: the Otacon ending of MGS and the stamina kill ending of Snake Tale C in Substance.

Metal Gear series
During the "Time Paradox" continue screen in Metal Gear Solid 3, Campbell's voice can be heard chastizing Snake's carelessness.

Campbell, along with Solid Snake, makes a cameo appearance in the Snake vs. Monkey minigame that is included in MGS3. 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.

In Portable Ops, the young Roy Campbell wears camouflage clothes, which exactly resemble the Tiger Stripe camo in MGS3. If Snake attempts to contact Campbell a few times during a mission, he will sometimes give Snake hints on how to get a girl. 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. Because of his physical and medical status during the San Hieronymo Takeover, Campbell is the only main character in Portable Ops who is not playable in the main game (he is, however, playable in the expansion, Portable Ops Plus).

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Roy Campbell is among one of three Metal Gear characters (the others being Mei Ling and Hal "Otacon" Emmerich) who make a non-canonical appearance in and give 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. instalment, 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.

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 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