Jack O'Neill: Military Career

Summary

Jack O'Neill has made a lifetime career of the U.S. Air Force, beginning as an Air Force Academy cadet and progressing through the officer ranks to Colonel and leader of SG-1, and then to Brigadier General and commander of the SGC. He was promoted again to Major General and now and works at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., where he is presumably the head of Homeworld Security.

Education, Training, and Qualifications

Jack graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1974. He was recognized for 'Academic Excellence Achieved in Military Sciences and Engineering'. It is still not certain whether that was his major, or if he simply excelled in those areas. As of today, the Air Force Academy does not offer a general engineering degree, but rather several more specific engineering majors (Aeronautical Engineering, etc). It also offers a degree in Military Strategic Studies.

The Academy does not have degreess beyond the Bachelors, so it is certain that Jack received further education elsewhere during the course of his career, in order to achieve a Masters Degree or its equivalent, as is typically required to attain the rank of Major.

Jack completed the Air Commando Operations Course in 1992, and this may have been crucial to his participation in special operations activities in the Gulf. He has mentioned he was Special Operations trained, including resistance to mind control (1.14 "Hathor").

While a Major, he completed a course at the Defense Intelligence Center in Langley, Virginia, home of the CIA. While a Lt. Colonel, he was recognized for Excellence of Achievement While Conducting Special Operations under the auspices of the U.S. Air force Space Systems Command. It is not clear if this recognition was related to his work at the SGC, but it is unlikely the Space Systems Command was involved in Gulf War activities.

He received a statue with a plaque from the Air Force Special Operations Unit at Mildenhall Air Base, England, in 1990, about the time that the Cold War ended. He may have been stationed in England at that time, just before the first Gulf War.

In spite of his academic recognition, Jack prefers to play the dumb soldier and keep his personal accomplishments under wraps. However, several military advisors have mentioned Jack's writing skills, regarding mission reports as "gripping" (1.01 "Children of the Gods "/ 1.03 "The Enemy Within"). General Hammond's temporary replacement, General Bauer, did suggest that O'Neill consider "bullet-point summaries" to make his reports more readable (4.15 "Chain Reaction"). Jack is also very correct about proper English usage and grammar (4.16 "2010", 6.08 "The Other Guys").

Jack wears two silver badges on the front of his uniform. The top one is a Master Parachutist badge, indicating he completed a certain number of jumps in specified conditions. The bottom one is the Master Space and Missile Badge, indicating he completed training in space warning, satellite command and control, missile operations, space surveillance, or space lift. Military badges indicate what skills a member has, and to what level of expertise.

While he does not wear the wings on his uniform that would signify pilot status in the Air Force, Jack O'Neill is a trained pilot, and adorning his office are several pictures of him, dressed in a flight suit, in and around fighter aircraft. He has flown fighter jets (no known designation) and experimental aircraft such as the X-301 Interceptor (4.12 "Tangent") the X-302 (6.01 "Redemption Part 1"), and its production version, the F-302 (7.01 "Fallen Part 1", 9.03 "Origin Part 3"). He can also pilot a Goa'uld cargo ship (4.13 "Serpent's Venom"), a Goa'uld death glider (6.03 "Descent"), and quickly mastered the Eurondan aerofighter drones (4.02 "The Other Side"). He is a trained paratrooper (4.07 "Watergate") with hundreds of jumps to his credit.

Military Experiences

Jack was recently promoted to Major General and, while it was not stated outright, it appears that he took Hammond's position as Head of Homeworld Security and now works at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. (9.01 "Avalon Part 1", 9.03 "Origin Part 3"). Whatever his position, he is still involved with the leadership and personnel decisions of the SGC. Jack followed through on his promise to get Cameron Mitchell a place on SG-1 (9.01 "Avalon Part 1") and agreed to allow Samantha Carter to return to the SGC from her new position at Area 51, at General Landry's request (9.06 "Beachhead"). He suggested that Landry take his case for continued funding to the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee (9.04 "The Ties That Bind").

Before his current position, Jack served as leader of SG-1, and de-facto second in command (2IC) at Stargate Command under General George Hammond. While his position as 2IC was never stated outright, his rank of colonel and Hammond's request that Jack take command of the Alpha site if Earth was destroyed by the Goa'uld naquadah comet was an indicator of O'Neill's status in the chain of command (5.17 "Fail Safe"). It was also implied earlier when Hammond gave command of the SGC to O'Neill when Hammond left the base to try to make contact with the outside world when the time dilation problem was occurring (2.15 "A Matter Of Time").

Jack participated in numerous classified missions during the 10 years prior to retirement, after which he was recalled to active duty and joined the SGC. One such mission, Operation East Fly, had disastrous consequences when the East Germans who were guarding a Russian prisoner repelled the team's assault, costing the lives of several of Jack's teammates, including his best friend, Col. John Michaels (2.04 "The Gamekeeper"). He has never forgiven himself for what he perceived as his failure to keep his team from harm.

During an "unofficial" mission to Iraq, he was left behind by his unit, commanded by Col. Frank Cromwell, and retained in an Iraqi prison for four months (2.03 "Prisoners", 2.15 "A Matter of Time"). Severely injured, he escaped and made it out of the country on his own (1.17 "Solitudes"). This experience reinforced his belief that no one under his command be left behind under any circumstances, yet he has defied this personal directive on certain occasions:

• A fatally wounded Daniel was left on Klorel's ship, to guard the team's back and prevent his hampering their mission to save Earth (2.01 "The Serpent's Lair Part 2").

• Teal'c was hit by a staff weapon on Vorash, then taken aboard Apophis' ship. Jack had no choice but to leave him so that SG-1 and Jacob could escape a supernova (4.22 "Exodus Part 1"). He later learned that Teal'c had survived, and they were able to retrieve him (5.01 "Enemies Part 2").

• Lt. Elliot, also fatally wounded, was left on Revanna armed with a poison which killed enough Jaffa to allow the others to escape through the Stargate (5.16 "Last Stand Part 2").

O'Neill has participated in undercover missions, for example, the NID rogue hunt. He appeared to have stolen a Tollan device and was consequently asked to resign. Col. Maybourne of the NID approached him afterward and recruited him to steal other valuable alien technology, but instead, Jack turned the teams in for punishment for past thefts. This mission was undertaken with the cooperation of the Asgard and the Tollans, but without the knowledge of his teammates on SG-1 until it was over (3.18 "Shades of Grey").

Military Behavior

While Jack takes his commitment to the military seriously, he will lie about mission events when he believes fabrications or incomplete reports are necessary. During the first Abydos mission, he reported that Daniel Jackson had been killed in order for his friend to remain behind with his new wife (1.01 "Children of the Gods Part 1").

He may also have filed a false or partially falsified report regarding events on Euronda. After discovering that SG-1 had been helping genetic extremists exterminate another race of people, the colonel warned their leader, Alar, not to follow them through the gate as the team returned home. He consequently ordered the iris clos