Colonel James Ackerson

Colonel Ackerson is a member of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI). His CSV is impressive, he had survived three battles against the Covenant. Early on in the war, he received a promotion and volunteered for a dozen black ops. For the last few years, however, he had focused his efforts on political maneuvers rather than battlefield tactics. He was arrogant and condescending of most other people in ONI, and even top ranking brass such as Major General Nicolas Strauss.

Colonel James Ackerson has headed several high-profile projects at ONI. Because his projects were often competing with Dr. Catherine Halsey's projects for funds, he has a long-standing rivalry with Halsey and her Spartans. He is also a part of the UNSC Security Committee, and Special Weapons Developement at HIGHCOM. He had a private AI named A.I. Araquiel, who he tasked with spying on Dr. Halsey.

During the test of Spartan-117's MJOLNIR shields, he tried to make the chief fail by authorizing the use of Lotus Anti Tank Mines, a squad of ODST's, and even an air strike with a SkyHawk against the Chief, severely jeopardizing his life. Nevertheless, the chief suceeded, and Cortana seeked revenge by wreaking havoc in Ackerson's private files, making him volunteer for front line service, and sending a large amount of money from his account to a brothel, sending the bill to his home, where his wife would find it. He managed to weasel his way out of this, however.

He seems to be working on a secret Spartan-III project. On his computer in CASTLE Base, Dr. Halsey found extensive records of the Spartan-IIs in a folder called S-III. One file was labelled CPOMZ and contained star charts. This suggests that Chief Petty Officer Mendez may be training the Spartan-IIIs at the location mentioned.

The S-III file contained a folder titled KING UNDER THE MOUNTAIN. It contained the records of the CASTLE base, and a complete survey of Menachite Mountain, where the original mineral mines were located before they were taken over by ONI. Menachite Mountain was an extinct volcano which is where Dr. Halsey found the Forerunner Crystal artifact.