Skull Face

Skull Face was a heavily scarred man and the commander of the military group XOF during the 1970s. He had apparently suffered extensive injuries in his past, which had caused numerous scars and burns across his face and neck, a broken nose, and wounds near his mouth resembling a Glasgow grin. In addition, his natural skin color had changed to an unhealthy bluish hue.

At some point after the 1974 Peace Walker Incident, the commander visited the prisoner Chico at the Omega Base prison camp in Cuba. He informed Chico of what a female prisoner had told him, before telling him that he had kept his promise and seemingly given her a merciful death. He then told Chico that he should give his regards to his boss when he goes back where he came from, also making it clear that he would "play the traitor." The commander then headed to a heliport with several other XOF soldiers, masking the XOF logo on his chopper after he arrived, then notified his forces that the "trojan horse" was in, and that the pirate crackdown was "a go." After lifting off, the commander ordered his men to hand their XOF emblems to another soldier, who then threw them outside to the ground below.

Behind the scenes
Skull Face appears in the PAX Prime 2012 demo for Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, and briefly in the GDC 2013 trailer announcing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which comprises both Ground Zeroes, and The Phantom Pain. Although it was not made explicitly clear in the initial demo due to the lighting and environment (taking place at nighttime, during a storm), a later demo, showing the daytime version of the mission, shows that he possesses blue skin.

The XOF commander's name was apparently revealed to be Albatross in an article posted by a game tester, regarding a private demo of Ground Zeroes by Hideo Kojima in May 2013, for the video game website Gamasutra. The article was deleted shortly thereafter. However, the E3 2013 trailer later revealed that the XOF commander's name was actually Skull Face.