Chief Hanlon

Chief Hanlon is the grizzled leader of the NCR Rangers and war hero currently stationed in the Mojave Wasteland, operating out of Camp Golf in 2281. As the commanding officer, he is responsible for coordinating Ranger operations throughout the Mojave.

Background
Hailing from California, Hanlon is the head of the NCR Rangers and is one of its longest-serving members. Hanlon served as a Ranger for over 40 years, joining before Elise became Ranger Chief around 2241. Over nearly half a century of service, he saw the Rangers grow from a small, rag-tag group of abolitionists with a clear moral sense into a large, professional military force that had trouble telling the good guys from the bad.

Many of the things he saw as a Ranger changed him and his relationship with the Republic. One of these pivotal moments came between 2256 and 2261, when he led a team of six Rangers to investigate reports of raider attacks on a small settlement called Rattletail in Baja, California. It took the Rangers a week to get to Rattletail, losing one to night stalkers and another nearly dying of dehydration. What they found was a slaughter, including 24 bodies shot dead among the dunes, all by the five NCR settlers with .308 rifles who claimed the only well in fifty miles and opened fire on anyone who tried to reach it. None of the dead were heavily armed or raiders. To prevent further loss of life, Hanlon sold them a story about an incoming raider army, one hundred strong, and losing ten Rangers already on the way in. Then he offered to escort the settlers back to the NCR. They took the offer and eventually resettled in Anza-Borrego as bighorner ranchers. He considers this his one good deed in over 40 years of service. The Courier: "There must be something good the rangers have done that you're proud of." Hanlon: "[SUCCEEDED] It's kind of a long one, but all right. About twenty, twenty-five years ago, a group of NCR settlers pushed way south into Baja. I guess it doesn't seem so far now if you look at a map, but back then, they were out a ways. They built this little shanty town around a well in the middle of nowhere. Called it Rattletail." The Courier: "[Continue]" Hanlon: "Word got back to one of our stations that raiders had been attacking the place. I went out with six rangers. We must have been on the trail for a week before we got to Rattletail. We lost one woman to Night Stalkers and another almost died of dehydration. When we reach the place, it's six shacks set up around an old well." The Courier: "[Continue]" Hanlon: "There's over two dozen bodies lying in the dunes way outside of town and five men with .308 rifles crouched behind sand bags. And these bodies, these people out in the sand, they aren't raiders. Aren't even heavily armed. They're just people who were trying to get to the only well in fifty miles. I didn't have to talk to the men to see that they did not care one bit." The Courier: "[Continue]" Hanlon: "They had planted an NCR flag over the well and they would not budge until every last one of them was laid out, dead and cold. So I walked up and told them there was a group of raiders coming, one hundred strong. I made up some cockamamie name for them and everything. The men looked at each other, looked at us, and asked me what we were going to do about it." The Courier: "[Continue]" Hanlon: "I told him we would take them back into NCR territory because we had already lost ten rangers on the way out. Ten rangers, five men with .308 rifles. Well, that was enough for them. They packed up what they could and we took them back north. Last I heard, they settled somewhere in Anza-Borrego. Raised Bighorners. Had some tough times, but it worked out okay for them. So there you go. That's my one bit of good." (Hanlon's dialogue)

Despite his doubts, he served the Rangers and the Republic to the best of his ability. He developed a legendary reputation for his use of misdirection, traps, and ambushes, frequently executed with the use of explosives, especially mines. The Caesar's Legion learned to respect his name in the wake of the First Battle of Hoover Dam, when his strategy broke up the Legion's offensive by luring the bulk of their forces across the Hoover Dam and literally blowing them up together with Boulder City. Highly influential among the Rangers due to his success and experience, Chief Hanlon has been honored many times for his contributions to the NCR. Although he no longer engages in combat operations, he nevertheless continues to coordinate Ranger operations. As a war hero and a veteran of countless campaigns, he is a powerful influence in military circles, and even has the president's ear, though Kimball tends to favor his own coterie of war hawks. This was evident when Hanlon's request to assign veteran Rangers to the Mojave was ignored in favor of deploying them to Baja. The situation is not helped by the bitterness of General Lee Oliver at Hanlon receiving credit for winning the First Battle of Hoover Dam. Given that Oliver and Hanlon don't always see eye to eye on tactical decisions, he has faced an uphill struggle for the past several years.

As such, Chief Hanlon took a hard look at the Mojave Campaign and came to the conclusion that holding on to the Dam and New Vegas would eventually kill the Republic. The war against the Legion has left its toll on the men and women of the NCR army, and alone with his frustrations born from New Vegas bleeding dry NCR soldiers while at the same time relying on their protection, has left Hanlon fearing for the future of the NCR even should they succeed against the Legion. Hanlon believes the task of holding the Colorado River and the frontier safe is too much for the Army or even the Rangers to maintain long term, he decided to deliberately sabotage the war effort by manipulating intelligence reports sent in from Ranger stations across the Mojave, to convince the brass that the situation was more hopeless than it was in reality. In the end, he wished that the NCR would decide to cut its losses and abandon the frontier. The Courier can discover this information and decide how best to handle the situation.

Quests

 * Return to Sender: It is discovered that Hanlon is falsifying field reports. Once discovered, the Courier can either let Hanlon continue with his plan, turn him into the NCR authorities, or in the event of Caesar's death, inform him that falsifying the reports is pointless as Caesar is dead.

Other Interactions

 * With a Speech check of 50, Hanlon can be convinced to tell the story of Rattletail and his involvement in convincing its occupants to evacuate by telling a tall-tale.

Effects of the player's actions

 * Hanlon will thank the player character for helping Colonel Hsu with the Fiends leaders in Three-Card Bounty.
 * If the Courier turns Hanlon in, he will give a brief speech over the intercom before proceeding to commit suicide. A Ranger will exclaim "That shot came from the chief's office," and will run in, guarding the body. Hanlon's Ranger Sequoia will be on the ground next to him but must be stolen. The speech is as follows:

Endings

 * ¹The narrator for this scene says "exhausted from a lifetime" instead of "exhausted after a lifetime."

Appearances
Chief Hanlon appears only in Fallout: New Vegas and also mentioned in Lonesome Road (dialogue of Ulysses) and Honest Hearts (Honest Hearts intro).

Behind the scenes

 * J.E. Sawyer wrote Hanlon.
 * Hanlon, chief of the NCR Army Rangers, is voiced by Kris Kristofferson, who himself served in the United States Army as a helicopter pilot, and attended the U.S. Army's Ranger School.

Bugs

 * Hanlon sometimes glitches and stops talking during his speech. The quest should go on as normal and he will shoot himself 20–30 seconds after he stops talking. This will happen even if you have your Pip-Boy up or if you've paused the game completely, and when you resume, the rangers will react accordingly. (You can still hear his speech in full by going to Data → Misc and playing the audio.)
 * Even if the player convinces the chief to stop falsifying the reports, they will still get ending 2 (siding with the NCR) or ending 4 (siding with Mr. House or Yes Man) instead of endings 8 or 11, respectively.