Jackson Wyatt Steele was born and raised in the wilds of Texas near the beginning of the year of 1978. He's the middle son of John Washington Steele's three boys. John Steele was a construction engineer and "cattle-baron" when Jack was born, but retired to be a full-time rancher when his youngest son was born. The Steele Ranch is one of the largest in the country, spanning across much of Central Texas.
The three Steele boys were raised to love their land, but no one loved it so much as Jack. Jack was born to the land, and raised more by it than anyone else. The three Steele sons were close growing up, until things started to change. Ben was older than Jack by two years, and Nathaniel was the youngest, ten years younger than Jack. He was the treasure of the family, cherished and pampered by all of them. Ben was the logical and responsible one as the oldest, and Jack growing up was carefree and independent, hard to pin down, but even so, he was the most protective of the three, especially of his little brother.
Jack's mother had a need to make her three sons cultured and refined so they could go on to prestigious schools and have great careers within high society. That was something Jack couldn't handle. His life was at the ranch, where he thought the whole family belonged, but Ben left the family when he was twelve to attend a prominent boarding school. Jack was to be sent next, but refused. He managed to convince his parents to allow him to attend a regular public school instead of a boarding school. The hours away from the ranch that he loved killed him, but he managed.
The only subjects he ever fully applied himself in were his mathematics courses, which he excelled and took an interest in. He also loved football and was on the Varsity football team for the large school as a young sophomore, and was starting as a junior, serving as a relentless linebacker. He loved the camaraderie of the team and thought highly of his coach. Coach King had been in the Marine Corps for twenty years. Jack took a keen interest in the Marine Corps, and it was King that inspired him to join.
Jackson had never looked beyond his own family and the ranch until he met Coach King, and realized the securities of his family were insured by men like him. Jack was one of the greatest athletes King had coached, but saw a different kind of potential in him. He was a leader. Though he would have loved to see Jack accept one of the many football scholarships that came his way, he convinced him to apply for an NROTC scholarship. He did, and got it.
He did so without the consent of his parents. His father had lost faith in the government long ago, and his mother didn't want any of her sons in a career such as that-she especially didn't want the influence on Nathan. Jack had never imagined the effect it had on the family, but couldn't let it dissuade him. It devastated him to leave the ranch, but he felt he had a duty to fulfill, so at the age of seventeen, after graduating, he went to Texas A&M University to carry out his NROTC scholarship.
He served in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M and majored in construction science. He’d been recruited to play for the Aggie football team, but it was that or the Corps of Cadets and he chose the latter. He had time for little else, but adapted to the life quickly. He graduated with his commission in the Marine Corps four years later. Jack moved from infantry to special operations, serving with Marine Expeditionary Units. Not long before the conflict in Afghanistan began, he'd earned his place with the elite Marine Corps Force Recon.
Jack's elite team was together for two years, serving in Central America and the Middle East. His team was one of the first to head into Iraq when the conflict began. They served there successfully for two months before something went wrong on one of their missions. Due to bad intelligence, the team was compromised, resulting in the deaths of most of the team. Two survived. Jack was seriously injured, and his remaining teammate was left crippled.
After three months in a military hospital in Washington, D.C., Jack was finally released, with a medical discharge from the United States Marine Corps. The Marine Corps did not think his injuries were fully correctable. For awhile, Jack thought so as well, but soon decided to push himself to recovery. Despite the metal plate in his neck, Jack made it through the Sierra Falls Police Academy with excellent marks, ahead of the game due to his time in the Marine Corps.
He served as a patrol officer in the Central District of Sierra Falls until 2005 when he found out that, although he had been medically discharged from the Marine Corps, he could return to Iraq by joining the United States Army Rangers. He’d already completed Ranger School for Force Recon. After a short retraining period, he was sent to Italy and then returned to Iraq.
Steele served one more distinguished tour there before finally deciding it was time to move on. He returned to Sierra Falls to marry the woman he’d met and fell in love with before he’d left, Nicola Murphy. After a couple of more months, he has decided to return to SFPD, but this time to SWAT.
His marriage with Nicola lasted a little over a year and they are now
in divorce proceedings. Jack gained a promotion and transferred to a
desk so that he could better fight for custody of the couple's son,
Jameson. The battle is ongoing. |
