Chief Hanlon

Chief Hanlon is a grizzled old NCR Ranger and war hero living in the Mojave Wasteland in 2281. He is currently stationed at Camp Golf.

Background
Hanlon can often be found sitting on the second floor balcony of the House Resort at Camp Golf. He is one of the oldest living human rangers in the Mojave, and was instrumental in the defeat of Caesar's Legion at the First Battle of Hoover Dam. Leading much of Joshua Graham's forces to ruin, Hanlon set the NCR's victory in stone by turning Joshua's minimalistic battle tactics against him, in which Joshua was unable to compensate. With most of his veteran forces already annihilated at the hands of both 1st Recon and the NCR Rangers, Joshua Graham and his Legion were quickly defeated at strategic locations on the Hoover Dam, and most of his foot soldiers were routed and killed. Afterwards, the NCR refused to listen to Hanlon's advice to destroy the rest of the Legion within the Mojave while they were weak, but was nevertheless honored as a war hero, and remains one of the most influential men in the NCR.

Highly influential among the Rangers with over four decades of experience, Chief Hanlon has been honored many times for his contributions to the NCR. Although he no longer engages in combat operations due to his age, he nevertheless continues to assist the Rangers in their operations. Such is his influence that he even has the ear of the president of the NCR, as seen when asking for more rangers to be sent from Baja. His contributions and influence are seen spread across the Mojave, and those that are wise know not to attract his attention in the wrong way.

However, the course of the Mojave campaign has made its mark on him. 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; the sheer scale of the Mojave desert and the Colorado River being too much for an already overstretched NCR conscripted army to bear. This disillusion drives Hanlon to act with ill intentions towards the NCR forces by falsifying intelligence reports and deliberately miscommunicating information sent in from various NCR outposts, ultimately seeking to stir unrest in the NCR forces stationed in the Mojave and hoping to start a resistance against the higher echelons of the NCR military. The Courier can discover Hanlon's plans and subsequently choose how to deal with his actions during the quest Return to Sender.

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 in to the NCR authorities, or convince him that falsifying the reports is pointless and Caesar is dead (in the event of Caesar's death) or dying (by discovering his illness during the completion of Render Unto Caesar or receiving some information about it from Silus during Silus Treatment).

Hanlon is typically found on the balcony of the House Resort within Camp Golf, and will not discuss quest matters except for when he is outside on the House Resort balcony. He mans the radio on the balcony from 8AM to 7PM.
 * 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
¹ The 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.

Gallery
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