Franklin Mendez

"Nothing can kill the Chief."

- John-117

Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez was involved in the training for every Spartan soldier from the Spartan-II and Spartan-III programs. His career is extensive and he has gained numerous awards fighting the Covenant. Before teaching the Spartan-IIs, Mendez was a hand-to-hand combat and physical training DI as a Chief Petty Officer.

He was the Spartan-II'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 had not been heard of for some time. Most assumed he had been 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.

After the Spartan-IIs graduated, Mendez was slated to train the next class of Spartan-IIs, but the program was delayed indefinitely by Dr. Halsey due to issues with viable candidates. Mendez requested reassignment to active duty. Over the next six years, he fought the Covenant on five worlds, won two more Purple Hearts, and was promoted to Senior Chief Petty Officer. Mendez was then recruited by Colonel James Ackerson to assist Spartan-051 in running the Spartan-III program. He trained Spartan-IIIs at Camp Currahee on planet Onyx from 2531 until 2552.

Mendez was on the planet when Onyx was activated. He, along with Spartan-III Team Saber, Tom-B292, Lucy-B091, and Kurt-051 were virtually alone on the planet, and were forced to hide from the Sentinels until eventually Kelly-087 and Dr. Halsey arrived, followed shortly by Fred-104, Will-043, and Linda-058. Mendez assisted them in fighting all the way to the core of Onyx. Mendez then evacuated to Shield World along with the other survivors.

Trivia

 * Halo: First Strike has a reference, in which Dr. Halsey finds a string: CPOMZ, followed by a 512-character alphanumeric string. It is later confirmed in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx to be a reference to Mendez: Chief Petty Officer Mendez (CPOMZ).
 * Mendez always kept a book with him called A Soldier's Tale: Rainforest Wars. He read it at the funeral for some of his killed Spartan-IIs and Spartan-IIIs.
 * He also read the book Lord of The Flies sometime in his life.
 * It is possible that Mendez is a Spartan-I. It makes logical sense that Spartans train Spartans, and on page 129 of Halo: Ghosts of Onyx it says 'For a man pushing 60, the Chief moved like a man 30 years younger. It wasn't the first time Kurt had wondered what kind of Spartan he would have made.'
 * Mendez may or may not have been Morales, the Spartan I, as Morales disappeared when the Spartan II program began, and they are men of matching descriptions.