Phoenix Force
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- For the fiery cosmic entity that appears in Marvel Comics' X-Men comic books, see Phoenix Force (comics).
Phoenix Force is a series of action-adventure novels first published in 1982 by American Gold Eagle publishers. It is a spin-off of the Executioner series created by Don Pendleton.
Phoenix Force is one of two neutralization teams working for Stony Man, a top-secret anti-terrorist organization. As with The Executioner, the Phoenix Force novels have been written by a succession of authors under the pseudonym Gar Wilson. In 1991, Gold Eagle combined Phoenix Force with another Executioner spin-off series, Able Team, and launched the Stony Man book series, which is still being published as of 2005.
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[edit] Characters
Originally, Phoenix Force was composed of Yakov Katzenelenbogen, a French-Israeli commando; Gary Manning, Canadian demolitions expert and security engineer; Keio Ohara, Japanese Martial Arts and electronics expert; David McCarter, former SAS operator and pilot; and Rafael Encizo, Cuban survivor of the Bay of Pigs Invasion and Castro's prisons. Ohara was killed in the course of the series and replaced with Calvin James, African-American Vietnam veteran. Katz retired from field work, resulting in McCarter becoming the new team leader, and T.J. Hawkins was recruited by Katz and Bolan to become the fifth member of Phoenix Force.
The Phoenix Force team has used the assistance of John Trent, Japanese-American ninjitsu master; and Karl Hahn, former GSG-9 operator turned BND agent.
[edit] Phoenix Force members
- David McCarter
McCarter is the current commander of Phoenix Force. A Cockney born in London's East End neighborhood, McCarter is a former SAS operator who participated in the Iranian Embassy Siege and spent a tour of duty in Vietnam as a "special observer". McCarter is a big, strong man who thrives on action. He is unmatched in combat, with significant battlefield experience and great marksmanship with a pistol. McCarter is often the first in a firefight, with a degree of desire for action that borders on recklessness. He is also highly sarcastic and always gets the last word.
McCarter's attitude often leads to friction between him and Gary Manning, and the two frequently take jabs at each other. However, their conflict is good-natured and not detrimental to the team.
One of McCarter's quirks is consuming large amounts of Coca-Cola.
McCarter's preferred weapons are the Ingram MAC-10 in 9mm and the Browning Hi-Power.
- Rafael Encizo
Originally from Cuba, Encizo assisted in Fidel Castro's revolution in Cuba. Upon realizing that he had helped install a Communist regime, Encizo turned against the Communists and was subsequently imprisoned. He escaped and fled to America, and later came back during the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Encizo was captured a second time as a result, and tortured for several months before making a second escape.
Rafael Encizo's younger brother, Raul, was taken from the family at a very young age, and joined the Cuban Army. Rafael and Raul have fought against each other on two occasions, the second of which resulted in Raul's death after he turned on a group of Communist terrorists he was working with.
Encizo's preferred weapons are the H&K MP5 and a Smith & Wesson pistol (later changed to the H&K P9).
- Gary Manning
Phoenix Force's demolitions expert. Manning grew up hunting and working for his uncle's demolitions company. During the Vietnam War, Manning was attached to a US Special Forces team as an "observer" (much like McCarter). Following the war, Manning settled down, got married and became an executive of a major import-export firm. The marriage failed, but the business prospered. Because of his wealth, Manning is the most unlikely of the Phoenix Force members.
Manning's weapons of choice are the FN FAL and the Desert Eagle .357 Magnum. In later books he uses the SA80 and the Walther P5.
- Calvin James
Hailing from the south side of Chicago, James grew up in an environment full of drugs and gang violence. His parents died when he was young his mother murdered by a drug dealer. At the age of 17, James became a hospital corpsman with the Navy SEALs and fought in Vietnam. His brother, Waldo James, who was also in Vietnam, went MIA and was never seen again. After the war, James continued studying to become a doctor, but when his sister, Susan James, died of a drug overdose, he instead joined the San Francisco Police Department as a SWAT officer.
During the time the Black Alchemist terrorist conspiracy was going on, James and his SWAT partner, Don Rambo, were infiltrating the Hilldale Pacific Bank to rescue people taken hostage by the Arma de Liberacion de Puerto Rico, or ALPR. During the infiltration, Rambo was killed by one of the terrorists. James almost shared the same fate, but was rescued by McCarter and Manning, who had infiltrated the building looking for him.
After helping James deal with the terrorists, McCarter and Manning shanghaied him and transported him to Stony Man Farm, where his skills and knowledge of chemistry proved invaluable. After Keio Ohara was killed, Hal Brognola and the rest of Phoenix Force offered him a spot on the team. Since he felt that Phoenix Force was where he really belonged, he agreed, becoming the unit's unofficial medical corpsman.
James' weapons of choice are the M16 fitted with the M203 grenade launcher and the Colt Commander. In later books he uses a Beretta 92SB automatic pistol.
- T.J. Hawkins
Thomas Jackson Hawkins was brought in as a new member of Phoenix Force when Yakov Katzenelenbogen retired from field work and David McCarter became the new commander of the team. Named after famous Confederate general Stonewall Jackson, Hawkins was born in the U.S. Army hospital at Fort Benning, Georgia. He is the second of three sons born to a U.S. Army career infantry NCO who served as an adviser to an ARVN Ranger battalion. The father was killed during the Tet Offensive. At age 5, Hawkins and his entire family moved to Fort Hood, Texas.
Following in his father's footsteps, Hawkins joined the Army after graduating from high school in 1980. When he completed basic training, he volunteered for Airborne training, earning his parachute wings in the process. Later accepted for training by the Rangers and subsequently assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment. During this assignment, he participated in Operation Urgent Fury and Operation Just Cause as part of a recon team.
Years later, he was assigned to Delta Force, leading one of its recon teams into Iraq during Operation Desert Storm to look for Scud missile launchers to be bombed by the Air Force. On one of these missions, the Black Hawk chopper transporting his unit went down outside Baghdad. Hawkins led his team to safety in the aftermath of the crash. For this action, he was awarded the Silver Star.
During Operation Restore Hope, Hawkins and 12 others of his Delta Force unit were assigned to escort a United Nations team sent to secure a Somali village that was being threatened by a small-time warlord and 24 of his gunmen. The leader of the UN team, a Swedish major, had backed down from the warlord's threats and was ready to stand by while the villagers were massacred. However, Hawkins was unwilling to follow the major's lead and refused to stand down. The warlord threatened Hawkins with his pistol, but the Georgia native responded by shooting him dead. His men chased the warlord's troops away, saving all the villagers, an act for which Hawkins should have been rewarded.
However, it was not to be.
Upon their return to the UN headquarters in Somalia's capital of Mogadishu, the Swedish major declared his intention to bring Hawkins up on murder charges. The young noncom responded by threatening to break the story of the major backing down and deciding to let innocent villagers be murdered in cold blood. Because of the political implications of the incident, Hawkins was allowed to resign his commission. He was honorably discharged, returning to his Texas home shortly thereafter.
Hawkins was reluctant to join Phoenix Force at first, fearing that the organization had too many political connections, but after he saw their after-action reports and was made aware of Mack Bolan's true identity, he agreed to join the team. Since then, his expertise in electronic communications and airborne operations has made him a valuable asset to Phoenix Force.
His friends call him either T.J. or Hawk.
A serious individual when he needs to be, Hawkins has a deep sense of how things should be, and will sometimes conceal his true feelings with his Southernism.
[edit] Stony Man crew
In their fight against evil, Phoenix Force is supported by the Stony Man crew. This crew provides a wide variety of expertise, ranging from piloting aircraft or hacking into a computer database.
[edit] Associates
- John Trent
John Inoshiro Trent is the owner and operator of a dojo, or martial arts school, in San Francisco, California, and a master of ninjutsu. His father, Sgt. Victor J. Trent, was an American serviceman stationed in Japan during reconstruction efforts after World War II. His mother, Reko Nakezuri, lost most of her family in Tokyo firebombing that was carried out by the U.S. Army Air Corps. Her brother, Inoshiro Nakezuri, was an officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy and a covert operative who specialized in ninjutsu.
When John was born, his uncle Inoshiro, from which John gets his middle name, took a personal interest in him, training him in the ways of the ninja. John proved to be an outstanding student, much to his uncle's delight.
Being a ninja, he is most adept with such weapons as the katana and shuriken, but he also uses shotguns and pistols. In addition to being fluent in both English and Japanese, Trent also speaks Mandarin. His skills proved invaluable to Phoenix Force during a mission in San Francisco involving two crime syndicates, MERGE and TRIO. Phoenix Force would later draw on these skills during their Far East assignments, and Trent would later work on a mission with Mack Bolan himself. Calvin James has an association with Trent from his days as a policeman in San Francisco.
[edit] Deceased Characters
During its work against the forces of evil, Phoenix Force experienced its share of losses. Some losses involved people they worked with on their missions, some involved its own members.
[edit] Members
- Yakov "Katz" Katzenelenbogen
Known as 'Katz' to his friends, Col. Yakov Katzenelenbogen was the original Phoenix Force leader when Bolan first assembled the team. Born in France, his father was a noted linguist and translator, and Yakov grew up speaking four languages: English, French, German and Russian. Katz assisted the French Resistance during the Nazi occupation. Later, he moved to Israel.
During the Six-Day War, Katz lost his right arm and his only son. Before joining Phoenix Force, he worked for the Mossad, Israel's intelligence unit. Katz was held in high regard by the other Phoenix Force members. After a mission in the far east, Katz retired from field work and went on to serve as Stony Man's tactical advisor. Katz was killed on a personal mission to stop a terrorist conspiracy in the Middle East, leading Mack Bolan to take up where he left off with support from Stony Man's top operatives and a top Mossad agent.
Katz's prosthetic arm featured hooks which could be effective in a fistfight, and could often be replaced with a realistic-looking arm or a version that fired a single .22 Magnum bullet. His age, slightly paunchy appearance and prosthetic arm often caused opponents to underestimate him.
Katz's weapons of choice were the IMI Uzi and SIG-Sauer P226.
- Keio Ohara
Keio Ohara was the youngest member of Phoenix Force when Mack Bolan first assembled the team. He served as an officer of the JGSDF, holding the rank of Captain. He was trained as a paracommando, but had no real experience in the field. Held black belts in both karate and judo. Loved to drive fast without regard to the rules of the road at times. Also loved cigars and racing motorcycles. Even though he kept an apartment in the Japantown section of San Francisco, he saw Tokyo as his home.
His uncle, Teko Ohara, had been exiled from the Ohara clan after associating with Yakuza gangsters after World War II, which was a disgrace to the clan. Teko challenged the decision and demanded a duel of honor with his successor, who happened to be Keio's father, Toshiro Ohara. Toshiro won the duel, but he and his wife were later murdered by Teko. He later joined up with Professor Edward Oshimi, the founder of the terrorist group called the Japanese Red Cell, in his plot against the U.S. government. However, he and some of his JRC associates were on the Hawaiian island of Lanai when Phoenix Force attacked the mad professor's stronghold, so Keio had no idea of his uncle's involvement until he broke into Keio's apartment and left a note challenging him to a duel to the death on Alcatraz Island. Keio eliminated his uncle's associates before facing him in the duel, whereupon Teko gleefully admitted his guilt in the deaths of Keio's parents. Keio won the duel by killing him, avenging his parents in the process.
Keio Ohara would later be killed in action during the mission against the Black Alchemist terror group led by Maurice Cercueil, the former head of Haiti's Tonton Macoute secret police organization. There is a small monument to Keio at Arlington National Cemetery, simply inscribed with the following word:
Samurai.
[edit] Associates
- Karl Hahn
Karl Hahn first served West Germany as an operator for the GSG-9 counter-terrorist unit. In this capacity, Hahn operated against the Baader-Meinhof Gang, aka Red Army Faction, Second June Movement, and various Palestinian terrorist groups. He was one of the GSG-9 commandos who carried out Operation Magic Fire, the famous rescue mission in Mogadishu, Somalia, against the PFLP terrorist team holding 86 hostages aboard Lufthansa Flight 181, hijacked on October 13, 1977.
During his career, members of the RAF captured Hahn's best friend, GSG-9 operator Klaus Hausberg. They tortured and mutilated Hausberg to the point where Hahn had to put him out of his misery with a bullet to his brain. Eager to avenge Hausberg, Hahn hunted down and executed no less than 8 RAF members. When his superiors learned of this, they dismissed him from the GSG-9.
He was later recruited by the BND, West Germany's federal intelligence agency, and trained as a covert operative. He handled assignments in East Germany and Czechoslovakia, and was stationed in Turkey when he first met Phoenix Force during a mission against the KGB. He later worked with Phoenix Force on several occasions, most notably filling in for Rafael Encizo, who was injured during a mission in France against ODESSA. Hahn was eventually killed in action during a Phoenix Force mission in Europe to rescue the President of the United States and the Premier of the Soviet Union (Super Phoenix Force #1: Fire Storm).
Hahn studied computer electronics as an exchange student at UCLA, spoke three languages fluently, and had a working knowledge of Czech and Russian.
[edit] Enemies
Phoenix Force has locked horns with the most dangerous enemies to freedom and justice. They range from organized crime syndicates and terrorist groups to private companies involved in criminal activity.
[edit] Criminal Organizations
- MERGE
After the losses they suffered at the hands of Mack Bolan during his war on organized crime, remnants of the Mafia formed alliances with the Unione de Corse, the Colombian cartels and the Mexican Mafia to form MERGE. Phoenix Force uncovered the existence of the organization while investigating the assassinations of two American officials in the Bahamas.
They would later come across MERGE again in San Francisco while tracking the perpetrators of an attack on officers of the U.S. Coast Guard off the California coast. This time, however, they discovered that MERGE had locked horns with its Oriental counterpart, a syndicate called TRIO. They would also discover that TRIO was responsible for the attack on the Coast Guard officers.
MERGE would later resurface in the Los Angeles area, where they kidnapped a scientist who was involved in the Strategic Defense Initiative and held him for ransom to either the United States of the Soviet Union. In this encounter with MERGE, Karl Hahn stood in as a replacement for Rafael Encizo, who was recovering from the injury he received on the ODESSA mission in France.
Their last known confrontation with MERGE was down in Colombia, involving one of its kingpins, a Bolivian drug lord named El Tiburon. His organization, known as El Dorado, had an association with the Colombian cartels and had been selected by MERGE to handle their latest enterprise: coordinated attacks against law enforcement dedicated to stopping the drug trade. To this end, El Tiburon formed an alliance with a Cuban military officer named Major Pescador. Phoenix Force invaded El Tiburon's lair and ended the scheme. It should be noted that it was during this mission that Rafael Encizo found his long-lost younger brother, Raul Encizo, who had become a committed Communist and was helping Maj. Pescador in his work with MERGE.
- TRIO
An Oriental counterpart to MERGE, TRIO was made up of the three most powerful organized crime groups in the Far East.
The Yi-chyun Hai Shee, or Black Serpent Society, was the Chinese part of TRIO. It was one of many tongs formed in the 17th Century to combat the tyranny of China's Manchu overlords. Under the command of its leader, Wang Tse-Tu, the Black Serpent Society was one of the few tongs to go international, establishing branches in the United States and Western Europe.
The Hebi Uji, or Snake Clan, was the Japanese part of TRIO. It was one of the countless Yakuza organizations that had roots in feudal Japan, where they were described as being "thieves with honor." Led by Shimo Goro, the Snake Clan already had established a foothold in America by the time Japan became a player in international trade. Like most Yakuza organizations, the Snake Clan became involved in gambling, prostitution and gunrunning.
The New Horde was the Mongolian part of TRIO. Under the command of Tosha Khan, the New Horde was involved in counterfeiting, white slavery, drugs, assassination and professional thievery. Born Altajin Illyvich Dzadgad, Tosha Khan claimed to be a descendant of Genghis Khan, the famed Mongol conqueror. Even though its activities were widespread and had a lot of manpower, the New Horde didn't have the connections and influence he needed to be a player in organized crime. Therefore, it joined forces with the Black Serpent Society and the Snake Clan.
Thus, TRIO was born.
Phoenix Force first learned of TRIO when it was investigating the aforementioned attack on the Coast Guard officers off California. It was during this mission that Calvin James got Phoenix Force in touch with John Trent, his old friend from his days in the SFPD. To help Phoenix Force, Trent turned to his uncle, Inoshiro Nakezuri, who had by this time become part of another Yakuza clan, the Kaiju Clan. The information Nakezuri gave to his nephew was of great value to Phoenix Force.
Phoenix Force would later confront TRIO again in the Philippines, where they were investigating the disappearance of a Colombian ship carrying priceless treasure from Colombia. They would discover that TRIO attacked the ship and joined forces with the New People's Army, the Filipino communist terror organization. They also learned that Lt. Robert Ferris and Lt. Daniel Mitchell, two American Naval Intelligence officers in charge of a contingent of U.S. Navy personnel assigned to protect the ship, had assisted TRIO in taking the ship in exchange for money to pay off severe gambling debts. With the assistance of Mahmud, a Filipino native and friend of David McCarter, Phoenix Force recovered the treasure.
In an unusual situation (Phoenix Force #27: Weep, Moscow, Weep), Phoenix Force would join forces with the KGB to recover a biological weapon stolen from a Russian laboratory by the New Horde as part of a campaign of blackmail against the nations of the world.
The last Phoenix Force mission against TRIO involved their old friend John Trent, who Stony Man believed had been responsible for the assassination of an executive for a Japanese automotive company. For this mission, they went to Col. Ken Ikeda, a Kompei officer they worked with when Keio Ohara was part of the team. They would learn that Trent was innocent of the crime. Trent and Phoenix Force would work with the Green Tiger Clan, a Yakuza clan that rivaled the Snake Clan, to bring down TRIO once and for all.
[edit] Terrorist Organizations
- The New Order
First appearing in Phoenix Force #41, Amazon Strike, this terrorist group is a neo-Nazi organization that was based in the Amazon Jungle of Brazil. Its leader was Kurt Mohn, German industrialist. He was the son of Maj. Joachim Mohn, an SS officer, and Anna Kaufmann, a retired German showgirl. All his life, the young Kurt Mohn was indoctrinated into the beliefs of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. When his father passed away, Mohn inherited his company, Mohn Industries, which the former SS major founded with a substantial amount of cash he had accumulated during World War 2.
To finance the New Order's activities, Mohn established a cocaine smuggling ring in the Amazon, buying highly placed officials in the Brazilian government. This prompted a Brazilian police officer, Lt. Louis Farrango, to go to his DEA contact first, followed up by a secret visit to the Brazilian president, who told Farrango that he suspected that a secret cabal in his administration was consorting with an outside enemy group, later revealed to be the New Order.
For this mission, Phoenix Force and Stony Man chief pilot Jack Grimaldi joined forces with Farrango and his informant, a drug user named Jorgio Cavantes. However, during the mission, Cavantes betrayed Phoenix Force, leading them into an ambush, resulting in Katz, James and Manning getting captured by Mohn's men. Cavantes would later expose Louis Farrango to his New Order masters, resulting in the Brazilian policeman getting captured and tortured. Encizo and McCarter, the only members of Phoenix Force not captured, came to his rescue, but were too late to save his life.
During their captivity, Katz, James and Manning discovered that Farrango's partner, Emilio Santoro, who had infiltrated Mohn's organization, had been uncovered by the New Order and exposed to a lethal bacteriological weapon developed by the New Order. Called the Armageddon Virus, Mohn intended it to be used in a campaign of terror against the world's major nations, believing it would pave the way for a New Order takeover. However, Phoenix Force and Grimaldi, with the help of captured members of a Brazilian Indian tribe, ended Mohn's twisted scheme, destroying the data regarding the virus and obliterating the complex. Mohn escaped in the confusion, and hasn't been seen since.
This mission is a pivotal incident in Stony Man history, because it is when Jack Grimaldi first used the Dragon Slayer, Stony Man's first operational combat helicopter.
[edit] Foreign Intelligence Agencies
- KGB
The Russian KGB has been a recurring antagonist in the Phoenix Force series, as well as other Bolaniverse series. As the most famous and one of the (if not the) most important intelligence agency of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the KGB attempted to spread Soviet influence, and communism in general, wherever and whenever the opportunity arose. This was often accomplished using less savory methods.
In the Phoenix Force series, the KGB's credits include sponsoring terrorist activities, assassination of Western diplomats, theft of prototype nuclear missiles, kidnapping American researchers, and various other dastardly acts. Many of their plots have been foiled or brought to a halt by swift action from Phoenix Force; however, on one occasion (as noted previously), Phoenix Force has actually cooperated with the KGB to prevent a stolen Soviet biological agent from falling into undesireable hands.
Despite their frequent failures due to the intervention of Phoenix Force, the Kremlin is not easily deterred by failure, and the KGB has continued to conduct further covert warfare against the West.
[edit] Authors
Most of the books in the series were written by William Fieldhouse, who is widely considered to be the best of the Phoenix Force authors. Other writers include Robert Hoskins (who wrote the first book), Dan Marlowe, Thomas Ramirez, Paul Glen Neuman, Dan Streib, and Mike Linaker.
All books are written under the pen name Gar Wilson.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- MackBolan.com
- GraphicAudio Books Dramatized audio book adaptations of Mack Bolan, Stony Man and The Executioner.
- Official Don Pendleton Website
