Taylor Miles

"Corporal Taylor Miles. Dutch. Deaths' head slapped right on his helmet. Heavy weapons specialist. Time on Mars tends to give a man... perspective."

- Buck's description of Dutch.

Corporal Taylor H. "Dutch" Miles (Service Number 21175-12121-TM) is a Non-Commissioned Officer in the UNSC Marine Corps and an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. He served in a Squad led by GySgt Edward Buck during the Battle of Earth. He is married to fellow ODST Gretchen.

Summary
Behind the death’s head rictus, jolly roger, and layer upon layer of black and gray armor is a man of deep spiritual convictions and respect for those he serves alongside. Dutch's weapon of choice is the W/AV M6 Nonlinear Rifle. He is the second oldest member of The Squad and is good friends with the squad's marksman, Romeo. He has extensive experience in Close-Quarters Combat.

Early Life and Military Career
Dutch was born in 2519 in Losantiville, Seven Hills, Mars. Originally a road-train driver before becoming an ODST, his former occupation has prepared him for the arduous tasks of a heavy weapons specialist and driver in the ODSTs. He also went to university for some time, studying religion and philosophy, as he was interested in the subjects at the time. During this time, he adopted a world view he would carry for the rest of his life.

He enlisted on September 9th, 2540, and eventually became a Corporal. The last time he visited Earth prior to the Battle of Earth was at a weekend pass, the day before he applied to the ODSTs. During his time in the Marine Corps, he befriended Romeo and became romantically involved with another marine, Gretchen, who he later married. Gretchen's injury by an Insurrectionist mine changed Dutch's personality and he became very serious. He also served in operations on the Coral asteroid belt, and the Jericho VII Space Elevator.

Assassination Mission
Some time between 2542 and 2551, Dutch was stationed on Destroyer 933-DD as a part of a squad led by MSgt Cortez, along with a contingent of ODSTs from the 105th ODST Division. During his time on the vessel, he was deployed on a mission to assassinate a Prophet on the Covenant-controlled world Heian, where they had uncovered alien ruins. During the mission, he was forced to work alongside Cal-141, a SPARTAN-II supersoldier, much to the chagrin of him and his squad. However, that didn't stop Dutch from teasing O'Brian, the squad sniper about the fact that he owed Cal his life twice and should thank the Spartan.

When Cal attempted to shoot the Prophet, a Brute Chieftain that Cal fought with before to save O'Brian and had supposedly killed, came back after tracking them, and assaulted the squad and fatally wounded Cal, who rushed to their defense. Dutch responded as he, Cortez and O'Brian tackled the Chieftain just as it was about to strike Cal once more, Dutch then moved over the Chieftain and attacked by shooting the Chieftain in the face, killing him. Although they succeeded in assassinating the Prophet, the death of Cal and another fellow squadmate hit Dutch and his comrades very hard. Afterward it became evident that Cal's voluntary sacrifice had affected his impression of Spartans because afterward he vocally and physically abused a fellow Marine who made light of the fact that the Spartan had passed away on the mission.

Battle of Ariel
During the Battle of Ariel in 2552, Dutch served in the same unit with Romeo under the command of MSgt Frost. Before deployment, they were stationed aboard a UNSC Frigate. Dutch broke up a fight Romeo had started, and because of this, Sgt. Frost confined both of them to their quarters. While at his quarters, Dutch viewed a video message from Gretchen, who was still healing from her injury.

After this, the ODSTs were deployed to the UNSC colony world of Ariel, where all the colonists seemed to have mysteriously disappeared. After the ODSTs split into two-man teams, Dutch and Romeo entered a structure, where they encountered a heavy Covenant presence. However, they were attacked by an Elite, who threw Romeo off the catwalk. Dutch fought back by plunging a metal railing through the Elite's head. Another Elite attempted to fire on Dutch only for Romeo to come back up and shoot it down. Unfortunately, the colony's generators went critical, forcing them to grab the corpses and use them as personal shields against the blast. Dutch then decided to tell Romeo his "last words": he was going to get a transfer. When they were blown to the surface, Romeo punched Dutch for just telling that. They then found an injured Grunt, who they held a gun against, demanding to know what the Covenant were doing. The Grunt could only say "knowing" but couldn't tell anymore. So they let the Grunt go free, only for Romeo to shoot it, fearing that he may become a liability. They soon traced their squad's tracks, but noticed a legion of Elites headed towards them. As Romeo tried coming up with a plan, three Grunts tried dropping a boulder on them. A small pebble landing on Romeo's hand beforehand alerted them to the danger, which they barely managed to avoid. They then killed the Grunts, took their gear before setting up a few explosives to bring rocks upon the Elites. After this, they planned on stealing a Covenant Phantom. First, they killed an Elite and Grunt, using the latter's body to fool the other Grunts into thinking that Dutch was being taken captive, before killing them all. They then took control of the Phantom, though what Dutch believed to be life-off thrusters were actually weapons, which killed a number of Covenant returning to the ship. As they took off, one Elite managed to damage the Phantom with his Fuel Rod Cannon, causing the Phantom to crash to the ground. They abandon ship, as the Phantom crashed into a company of Elites. Dutch crashed through a building's skylight, before finding a Grunt holding a plasma gun to Romeo's face. Behind him were the missing colonists. Dutch killed the Grunt, which fired at Romeo who managed to dodge its shot, before taking out the other one.

Dutch and Romeo then learned from the colonists that the Covenant were forcing them to dig down below, setting off a number of booby traps. Thus the two ODSTs went down below to free the other enslaved colonists. They first scared two Grunts with inactive bombs, causing them run right into a laser trap, before Dutch tackled the Elite into them as well. He and Romeo then made their way past the lasers, before finding what the Covenant was looking for on Ariel: an alien construct called the Knowing. If the Covenant got their hands on it, then they could wipe out humanity down to their last DNA strand. Though Dutch believed that the Knowing would be beneficial to the UNSC, per ONI standing orders, Romeo preferred that they destroy it. Romeo asked Knowing to activate its self-destruct and direct them out of the complex. As they made their way out, Romeo tripped over a Grunt's body and broke his ankle. Dutch carried him and managed to escape the blast. When they got back to the surface, they were reunited with their squad, who had seen the Covenant fleeing the planet because of Knowing's destruction.

Later, Dutch visited Romeo while he was on the the infirmary bed. Romeo stated that he filed in a transfer to be with Dutch; he told his friend that he withdrew his. They both tried Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide who would go.

After the Battle of Ariel, Dutch volunteered in time to participate Battle of Tribute, where he witnessed the destruction of the majority of UNSC naval forces present. This gave him a deep respect for Naval personnel. He also participated in the Battle of Reach.

Battle of Earth
During the Battle of Earth in October 20, 2552, Dutch was stationed aboard the as a part of the Squad led by GySgt Edward Buck and the larger ODST force that was to be dropped from orbit right onto the Prophet of Regret's Assault Carrier stationed over the city of New Mombasa. Coincidentally, the squad was chosen by the ONI operative Dare to partake on a classified mission, which was not revealed to the squad members until in mid-drop, when Dare ordered the squad to adjust their drop pods' trajectories away from the Carrier. However, Dutch could barely hear her new orders, and didn't adjust his pod soon enough.

Before the ODSTs hit the ground, the Assault Carrier initiated Slipspace transition over the city, generating a massive EMP wave, disabling the pods' electronic systems. The squad's pods were scattered around the city, with no clear idea of their mission or their squadmates' whereabouts. Dutch's pod landed on the outskirts of the Uplift Nature Reserve. 30 minutes after the drop, he moved out and made his way up to a clearing where a battle was taking place, between Covenant infantry and armor, against a platoon of Marines with three Warthogs, one of them turned over, and under fire from Covenant infantry. With his help, they secured the Warthog and defeated the Covenant forces in the area and started a Warthog charge against the enemy. After the area was cleared, Dutch and the other Marines made contact with the Colonel in charge, who ordered them to Second Platoon's location, which were taking heavy fire and needed assistance.

Dutch and his allies made his way to the second platoon's location, fighting through more Covenant armor. On the way to second platoon's location he learned that the mission objectives were to seize Regret's Carrier's LZ, and secure a Tier One asset. When he finally arrived at second platoon's location they were under heavy fire from additional Covenant armor. Once the Covenant were defeated, the moved across a bridge to find the Colonel near the Covenant LZ, only to watch as the Space Elevator collapsed. The Colonel, badly injured, ordered the rest of the Marines to move out before more debris came down. Dutch and the Marines on the bridge decided to make their way up the hill and out of the park. On their way up they faced off against much more heavy Covenant resistance. Eventually they made it to the Assault Carrier's old LZ where a group of Marines were pinned down by more Covenant armor. After making it to the top of the hill and defeating the last of the Covenant armor, and a War Chieftain, Dutch found a hole in the wall made by debris, driving his vehicle off the edge and back into the city.

Later that day, he defended an entrance to the Marine rally point, with a pair of Gauss Turrets fighting off Covenant armor. He ordered one of the Marines to hold his fire, and than focus his fire on the Wraith that just arrived, but was angered when the Marine panicked, and opened fire randomly on Covenant troops. At this point he made contact with Mickey, who was making his way to the rally point in a tank. After the armor was defeated, he and Mickey made their way to the rally point to defend it from Covenant troops. After defeating waves of Covenant troops, he asked if Mickey had made contact with the rest of the squad, which Mickey was unable to. Mickey had suggested to stay at the rally point and wait for back up, at this point an NMPD officer showed up and asked them for assistance in the defense of the ONI Alpha Site, to which Dutch overruled Mickey and ordered him to go and assist the situation.

Later, Dutch and Mickey, defended the ONI Alpha Site. Dutch personally armed three of the charges to destroy the only bridge to the Alpha Site. After the Superintendent finally gave them access, Dutch detonated the charges and temporarily halted the Covenant advance. Mickey than noticed the Covenant were landing beyond the wall, and they moved to defend the building from more Covenant troops, after defending the courtyard for a while, they were overwhelmed and forced to retreat inside. Here they found a group of police officers planting charges to destroy the building, which Dutch questioned as of why they were doing so. The officer in charge said he had orders to prevent the Covenant from accessing ONI's and the Superintendent's data, which meant blowing up the building if necessary. Eventually they were overwhelmed again and forced to retreat up an elevator, where they were attacked by Drones, and had to fight them off as well. Finally they made it up to the roof, after fighting off another group of Covenant they evacuated on NMPD Police Pelican, and finally made contact with Buck who was with Romeo at the NMPD Headquarters, Dutch and Mickey decided to go and pick them up. Once at a safe distance Mickey detonated the charges destroying the building.

Later, the Pelican dropship, prepared to pick up Romeo and Buck from a landing pad in the NMPD Headquarters building. However, two Banshees appeared and shot the Pelican down, leaving Dutch and Mickey to crashland onto an adjacent building. Dutch, Mickey and another NMPD officer survived the crash and defended the area, waiting for Buck and Romeo to arrive. After the other two arrived at the crash site, they defended the crash site from multiple waves of Covenant infantry and Banshees. Eventually a Chieftain was dropped into the middle of the squad. Dutch helped Mickey and Buck take down the Chieftain before it could finish off Romeo, who was badly injured.

They made their way to Kikowani Station intending to take the train out of the city, only to find the tunnels flooded. Buck decided to steal a Phantom, he had Dutch wait there with Romeo as they attempted to secure it. Once Mickey took control, he picked up Dutch and Romeo, Dutch manned one of the Phantom's plasma turrets. During their fight through the station they encountered a Scarab. The squad finally makes it out of the station, but Buck realizes where Capt. Dare might be, he had the squad go back into the city, where Dutch, along with Mickey and Romeo waited with the Phantom at a safe location, to pick up Buck at a later time.

When Dutch and the squad arrived at Buck's location later that day, it was under fire from two Wraiths on the highway, which Dutch, Mickey and Romeo took out with the Phantom. Dutch along with the rest of the squad finally evacuated the city as the Covenant fleet began to glass it. Dutch was last seen a month later on an ONI Orbital Facility, with the rest of the squad guarding the Huragok holding the Superintendent's data, he then watched as Sgt. Johnson interrogated the Engineer, about what the Covenant had uncovered in New Mombasa.

Trivia

 * It is likely that the character was inspired by the character of the same name in the 1987 movie, Predator, which influenced Halo in many ways.
 * Dutch is played by Adam Baldwin, who also voiced a UNSC marine in Halo 3. He will occasionally mention Vera, Adam Baldwin's character Jayne's favorite weapon from Firefly. The Marine in Halo 3 with the same voice actor will also mention Vera. Both Baldwin and Nathan Fillion had worked together previously on the TV show Firefly, along with Alan Tudyk. All three appear in Halo 3 as well, albeit as different characters.
 * He has the upper half of a jaw bone painted onto his helmet right below his visor, and a Jolly Roger on his chest plate.
 * Although Miles is said to have fought in the Battle of Jericho VII in 2535, he did not enlist until 2540. Therefore, his involvement in the battle as a Marine is an obvious discrepancy. Some have speculated that he may have served in another branch of the UNSCDF, or that he joined the fight as a civilian or mercenary. However, this is unlikely, as in a pre-mission evaluation with Buck, he stated that he partook in the battle as an ODST.
 * His helmet seems to have some form of metallic reinforcement, possibly due to his specialization in C.Q.B. to protect from head trauma, similar to the MJOLNIR CQB helmet.
 * If the player plays as Dutch in campaign or firefight with IWHBYD Skull activated, he will sometimes utter a phrase with the word "gorramn" in it, a reference to Firefly.
 * Dutch is the only member of the Squad with an emblem painted on his chest plate.
 * The name of one of the trucks Dutch drove while on Mars was called the Flying Dutchman, possibly giving birth to his nickname, "Dutch".
 * When the player switches to a Spartan Laser as Dutch, he will sometimes say "Don't nobody cross my stream!" This is a reference to Ghostbusters, in which it is highly dangerous to cross the Proton streams.
 * Dutch is a supporting character in the Halo Legends anime short titled "The Babysitter" in which he appears younger and has blond hair.