Franklin Mendez

Chief Petty Officer Mendez was the Spartan's training leader during their first years on Reach in 2517 until 2525. He trained them in the aspects of combat as hard as any Marine when they were only at the age of 6. His military training was punctuated with in class strategy sessions with Deja. He enjoyed Sweet William Cigars.

He is a very military man, having won numerous decorations, including multiple Silver Stars, Bronze Stars, three Purple Hearts, and The Red Legion of Honor. In the beginning of their training, Mendez and his training instructors had to use Electric Batons. Eventually, the Spartans grew to look up to Mendez as a solid, unmovable force in their life. They had great respect for him, perhaps even to the extent of seeing him as a father figure.

After their training was completed, he was reassigned to go train the next generation of Spartans, though he has not been heard of for some time. It may be assumed he was killed, along with any young Spartans he may have been training, when Reach fell. It has been stated that John-117 never saw him again.

There is speculation that he may be in the next novel, Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. It is suspected that there, more SPARTANS are being trained. Further speculation is that Spartan-087 and Dr. Halsey are headed for that destination in Halo: First Strike.

Trivia

 * Halo: First Strike has a reference, in which Dr. Halsey finds a string: CPOMZ, followed by a 512-character alphanumeric string. It is possible that this is a reference to Mendez: Chief Petty Officer Mendez (CPOMZ).