James Ackerson

Colonel James Ackerson is a member of the UNSC Army and the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI). His CSV is impressive, as he had survived three battles against the Covenant. Early on in the war, he received a promotion and volunteered for a dozen black ops.

SPARTAN-III
In 2531, he presented a plan to ONI senior brass Captain Gibson, Rear Admiral Rich, and Vice Admiral Margaret O. Parangosky, which was the SPARTAN-III project. They approved and he went from field officer to a desk job. At first he was upset by this, but apparently grew to prefer it.

Rivalries
With that project underway, he focused his efforts on political maneuvers rather than battlefield tactics. He was arrogant and condescending of most other people in ONI, even top-ranking brass such as Major General Nicolas Strauss.

Ackerson headed several high-profile projects at ONI. Because his projects were often competing with Dr. Catherine Halsey's projects for funds, he had a long-standing rivalry with Halsey and her Spartans. He was also a part of the UNSC Security Committee and Special Weapons Development at HIGHCOM. He had a private AI named Araqiel, whom he tasked with spying on Dr. Halsey on her "supposed to be confidential" SPARTAN-II project.

During the test of John-117's MJOLNIR Armor, he tried to make the SPARTAN fail by authorizing the use of Lotus Anti Tank Mines, a squad of ODSTs, and even an air strike with a SkyHawk Jump Jet against the SPARTAN, severely jeopardizing his life. Nevertheless, the SPARTAN succeeded, and Cortana sought revenge by wreaking havoc in Ackerson's private files, hacking into his personal computer and sending a note requesting reassingnment to frontline service, and sending a large amount of money from his account to a brothel and then sending the bill to his home, where his wife would find it. However, he managed to weasel his way out of this predicament.

On his computer in CASTLE Base, Dr. Halsey found extensive records of the Spartan-IIs in a folder called S-III. One file was labeled CPOMZ and contained star charts. This suggested to Halsey that Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez was involved.

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 Mechanite Mountain, where the original mineral mines were located before they were taken over by ONI. Mechanite Mountain was an extinct volcano where Dr. Halsey found the Forerunner Crystal artifact. Halsey used this to locate the Spartan-IIIs on Onyx.

The Battle of Mare Erythraeum
After this, it was unknown what happened to him until he was found at the Battle of Mare Erythraeum. His UNSC Forces fought valiantly against the Covenant Loyalist Army, but were defeated. He was captured during the battle and interrogated by Jiralhanae Commander Lepidus of the Covenant Cruiser Triumphant Declaration in the Fleet of Furious Redemption. During this interrogation, Ackerson told Lepidus under duress of the Key of Osanalan, located somewhere in Cleveland, Ohio, instigating the Covenant invasion of Cleveland.

Trivia

 * Ackerson is not a Colonel of the UNSC Marine Corps. Rather, he is attached to ONI from the UNSC Army, a little-heard of branch of the UNSCDF.