for training by the Rangers and subsequently assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment. During this assignment, he participated in Operation Urgent Fury and Operation Just Cause as part of a recon team. Years later, he was assigned to Delta Force, leading one of its recon teams into Iraq during Operation Desert Storm to look for Scud missile launchers to be bombed by the Air Force. On one of these missions, the Black Hawk chopper transporting his unit went down outside Baghdad. Hawkins led his team to safety in the aftermath of the crash. For this action, he was awarded the Silver Star. During Operation Restore Hope, Hawkins and 12 others of his Delta Force unit were assigned to escort a United Nations team sent to secure a Somali village that was being threatened by a small-time warlord and 24 of his gunmen. The leader of the U.N. team, a Swedish major, had backed down from the warlord's threats and was ready to stand by while the villagers were massacred. However, Hawkins was unwilling to follow the major's lead and refused to stand down. The warlord threatened Hawkins with his pistol, but the Georgia native responded by shooting him dead. His men chased the warlord's troops away, saving all the villagers, an act for which Hawkins should have been rewarded. Instead, upon their return to the U.N. headquarters in Somalia's capital of Mogadishu, the Swedish major declared his intention to bring Hawkins up on murder charges. The young noncom responded by threatening to break the story of the major backing down and deciding to let innocent villagers be murdered in cold blood. Because of the political implications of the incident, Hawkins was allowed to resign his commission. He was honorably discharged, returning to his Texas home shortly thereafter. Hawkins was reluctant to join Phoenix Force at first, fearing that the organization had too many political connections, but after he saw their after-action reports and was made aware of Mack Bolan's true identity, he agreed to join the team. Since then, his expertise in electronic communications and airborne operations has made him a valuable asset to Phoenix Force. His friends call him either T. J. or Hawk. A serious individual when he needs to be, Hawkins has a deep sense of how things should be, and will sometimes conceal his true feelings with his Southernism. Stony Man crew Phoenix Force is supported