General Shepherd

"We are the most powerful military force in the history of man. Every fight is our fight. Because what happens over here, matters over there. We don't get to sit one out. Learning to use the tools of modern warfare is the difference between the prospering of your people, and utter destruction. We can't give you freedom. But we can give you the know-how to acquire it. And that, my friends, is worth more than a whole army base of steel. Sure it matters who's got the biggest stick, but it matters a helluva lot more who's swinging it. This is a time for heroes. A time for legends. History is written by the victors. Let's get to work."

- Shepherd describes the military might of his homeland in the cutscene of "Team Player". "Five years ago, I lost 30,000 men in the blink of an eye... and the world just f**kin' watched. Tomorrow, there will be no shortage of volunteers, no shortage of patriots. I know you understand."

- Shepherd reveals the past events as he prepares to kill MacTavish in the final mission of MW2, Endgame.

Lieutenant General Hershel von Shepherd III, simply known as General Shepherd and Shepherd, is a U.S. Army officer in charge of Task Force 141 and the hidden main antagonist of the 2009 video game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

He is voiced by Lance Henriksen.

Story
Before 2016, Shepherd commanded 30,000 Marines in the Middle East during the Second Russian Civil War. Shepherd watched in shock as the nuclear bomb killed his fellow Marines. With the explosion of the bomb, the general wanted to find a way to bring U.S. back to global power. In the battle for occupying Afghanistan, Shepherd wanted an enemy to help increase the U.S. military and he eventually found one: Vladimir Makarov. Now he had Task Force 141, Shepherd had Joseph Allen go undercover in Moscow disguised as Alexei Borodin. Allen/Borodin was killed by Makarov at Zakhaev International Airport and the Russians blamed the U.S. for the attack. The Secretary of Defense gave Shepherd command of the U.S. military and now he had the manpower to try and become a hero and bring Ultranationalist Russia to the ground.

Sometime after the rescue of Captain John Price, Shepherd planned a personal war against the Ultranationalists and anyone who knew of Joseph Allen. Shepherd sent Roach and Ghost to capture intel on Makarov, then he mercilessly executed them and gave them a sadistic funeral pyre, when Shepherd soaked them in gas and lit them on fire with his cigarette. Shepherd and his army, Shadow Company, then began their plan to kill Makarov's men and the rest of Task Force 141. At the vehicle boneyard in Afghanistan, Makarov revealed Shepherd's command base, "Site Hotel Bravo", to Price before he and Soap escaping in Nikolai's C-130 Hercules. After the rescue, Price and Soap had no allies they could trust with and decided to go on a suicide mission to kill Shepherd for betraying Task Force 141. With his command falling apart, Shepherd tried to escape in a helicopter, but it was shot down by Price as he got in. Shepherd escaped the crash site and pinned MacTavish down. The renegade general then told Soap of the past events before preparing to execute him. Price saved Soap and the two fought. Just when Shepherd was about to beat Price to death, Soap threw the knife Shepherd pinned him with into his left eye, killing him. He was later buried at the Arlington National Cemetery and was called a "War Hero" by many people at that time and, unfortunately, Soap and Price were declared war criminals. However, their names were cleared when Price (Soap wasn't there because he was killed) saved the Russian President and his daughter from a diamond mine in Siberia.

Trivia

 * Makarov is the Big Bad in the Modern Warfare series due to being the cause of the events of the series; however, General Shepherd takes the role of the main antagonist in Modern Warfare 2 because he had bigger plans than anyone else.
 * Shepherd shares many similarities with General Hummel from The Rock, as both were fallen U.S. military officials who went rogue and turned against their own respective governments to avenge the deaths of millions of their comrades. Hummel was portrayed by Ed Harris, who would later voice a protagonist Jason Hudson from Call of Duty: Black Ops.