Danforth Whitcomb
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
"WE'VE GOT A NEW CONTACT, UNKNOWN CLASSIFICATION!" This article may contain information based upon upcoming, unreleased, or recently-released content from Halo: Hungry Buzzards, and may not be fully complete. Additionally, the information may be subject to change if it is based on pre-release material. Please update it as soon as any relevant and accurate material is available.
|
| Danforth Whitcomb | |
|---|---|
| |
| Biographical information | |
|
Homeworld: |
|
|
Born: |
|
|
Died: |
September 13, 2552 (revised slipspace date) (aged 63) |
| Personal details | |
|
Species: |
|
|
Gender: |
Male[1] |
|
Height: |
186 centimeters (6 ft 1 in)[1] |
|
Weight: |
117 kilograms (258 lb)[1] |
|
Hair color: |
|
|
Eye color: |
Brown[1] |
| Political and military information | |
|
Affiliation: |
|
|
Rank: |
|
|
11113-32871-DW[1] | |
- "I know all that, and you're three hundred percent correct, Lieutenant. But, I won't leave a single man or woman behind on this planet for the Covenant to tear apart for sport. No way. And that goes double for a Spartan. We're going in."
- — Whitcomb to LT Elias Haverson on Reach[2]
Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb was the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for the United Nations Space Command Navy.[3] In August 2552, he was one of the many UNSC leadership involved in the Fall of Reach, though was extracted in the days following the battle by John-117 and the SPARTAN-II survivors of the cataclysm. This led to Whitcomb's death during the subsequent Operation: FIRST STRIKE, which saw his self-sacrifice in order to secure the destruction of the Covenant battlestation Unyielding Hierophant.
Despite his death, Whitcomb's legacy lives on in the form of the NOVA bomb, the most destructive nuclear weapon in the UNSC arsenal and one that would later be used to destroy two Covenant worlds - Saepon'kal and Glyke, the former personally done by Whitcomb, who armed the bomb himself. These posthumous destructive attacks in combination with the destruction of Unyielding Hierophant and its fleet have secured Whitcomb as the single human with the highest number of Covenant kills that can be personally accredited to one person.[1]
As Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Whitcomb was subordinate to Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood, the Chief of Naval Operations. In this role, he held a seat on the UNSC Security Council.[4]
Biography[edit]
Early life and military career[edit]
Danforth Whitcomb was born on Earth on July 3, 2489.[1] He would claim to have descended from Russian Cossacks, though his accent suggested that he originated from the Texas area.[2] During the Human-Covenant War, Whitcomb fought in the Battle of New Constantinople and the Siege of the Atlas Moons, and as such, every SPARTAN-II had studied his record.[2] Throughout his career, Whitcomb was repeatedly criticised for his unorthodox tactics and strategies, though his insight had proven correct each time,[5] eventually allowing him to rise to the rank of Vice Admiral and hold the seat of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations.
During the war, Whitcomb headed up the YGGDRASIL program, a research endeavour intended to run parallel to Dr. Catherine Halsey's Project MJOLNIR in the creation of powered exoskeletons and other related technologies. The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) created YGGDRASIL in order to take the offshoot technologies developed by Halsey for MJOLNIR and investigate how they may be further applied in other areas of military R&D, in conjunction with corporate partners. In 2535, YGGDRASIL was merged with the much older Project HRUNTING due to that project reaching its dead end, pairing scientists and technicians from both programs with funding by the Office of Naval Intelligence and the Materials Group, among other corporations. The results of the combined HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL project included the development of the Mark I Armor Defense System, Mark I (H) exoskeleton, Mark II Geyrion, Mark II Colossus. and Mark IX Mantis.[6][7]
In 2551, Whitcomb become involved in a dispute between UNSC Army Colonel James Ackerson and SPARTAN-II John-117 over personnel assignments for the then-upcoming Operation: METEORITE. This escalated into an exercise that pitted the Spartan against several Mark I (H) exoskeletons in order to prove that the Spartans were right for the task at hand. The purpose of the mission was to capture data from the kelguid on the Covenant logistics vessel Triumph of Tolerance in the hopes of finding the location of the Covenant homeworld. After John-117 demonstrated how flawed the exoskeletons were, Whitcomb agreed against using Ackerson's operators and placed the Spartan in charge of figuring out who his team should be as the other Spartan-IIs were currently unavailable. John-117 requested Sergeant Major Avery Johnson and the Spirit dropship that Ackerson's people had recently captured.