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Joint Task Force
Group As A Whole
The JTF is a coalition of CERA personnel, first responders and what remains of the NYPD, National Guard and the various emergency services still in New York. Their goal is to cure the virus and to restore New York to it's original pre-viral state.
- The Alliance: Is made up of personnel from CERA, NYPD, first responders and emergency services, National Guard, as well as regular civilians.
- Back from the Brink:
- The JTF in Manhattan is almost destroyed by the time the Agent comes around and eliminates their enemies as well as acquires enough resources for them to rebuild. The Last Man Battalion is actually confused when they're suddenly dealing with an organization they thought was destroyed.
- The Washington DC branch is under assault and probably going to be wiped out by Hyenas (street criminals) when the Sheriff rescues them and starts returning them to full operational order.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Or rather, better to die than be taken alive by the Rikers.
- Big Good: Shares this role with the Division.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer:
- Despite the various "eccentricities" of the personnel managing the safe houses, they're also the ones that have managed to coordinate and maintain the JFT's last holdouts in Manhattan. Say what you will, but clearly they've been doing something right.
- The same for the Washington DC's branch as they have a leader who loves playing with miniatures and have set up their base in The White House. This despite there being no President.
- Emergency Services: What some of them are.
- Face–Heel Turn: In The Division 2, some of the True Sons' lore reveals that the faction is partly comprised of ex-JTF forces.
- Fun with Acronyms: Joint Task Force. Or "Jack This Fool," depending on who you ask.
- Hero of Another Story: Odds are you could make an entire game out of the JTF in Manhattan, but due to the Division the JTF are victims of Overshadowed by Awesome.
- Hero-Worshipper: The Hell's Kitchen safehouse coordinator is awestruck every time he talks to you.
- Hollywood Tactics: One mission in the The Division 2's Episode One expansion sees the JTF launching an attack on the Black Tusk redoubt of Camp White Oak. The camp has only one access road, which runs over a bridge spanning a deep, wide ravine just outside the main gate. At the outset of the mission, one of the assault teams actually charges across said bridge on foot to approach the camp. Unfortunately for the JTF, the Black Tusk holding the camp are not utter morons, so between the entrenched minigun emplacements and the bridge being thoroughly wired for demolition, this works out about as well as you'd expect.
- The Mafia: The leader of the Flatiron safehouse is the local mafia boss, and even with society falling apart he still maintains a veneer of deniability. He also lambasts both the Rikers and Cleaners for their actions.
- Only Sane Man: Compared to the commanders of the other safe houses, the leaders of the UN and Camp Clinton safehouses are actual military professionals.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In the Warren Gate power plant mission, you see the area littered with dead JTF. Along with the dead Rikers that tried to blow the plant.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The JTF is made up of several organizations as well as civilian volunteers. Said volunteers include a Jewish mother, a hypochondriac, a new age hippie and a mob boss of all people.
- Small Name, Big Ego: One of the safe house coordinators is a network TV actor constantly bragging about his own role as a secret agent.
- Red Shirt Army: Washington D.C.'s JTF is still fighting, unlike the one in the New York but it's getting massacred to the point the Hyenas (a bunch of criminals) are about to take the White House when you rescue them.
- The Remnant: What each individual organization has become compared to the greater JTF, especially after pulling out from the Dark Zone.
- The Division's JTF is on its last legs due to being betrayed by the Last Man Battalion, withdrawing from the Dark Zone, and under constant assault from the Cleaners as well as Rikers. The Agent personally pulls them Back from the Brink before Agent Keener renders most of their efforts worthless in Warlords of New York.
- The Division 2's JTF isn't much better off. Between the disease itself, combat casualties, desertions, and Ridgeway's mutiny, the Washington JTF has dwindled to a handful of still-dedicated troopers hanging on to the White House by their fingernails. Their numbers are so small that the majority of friendly units you'll see on the streets are from civilian settlements rather that JTF troops.
- Took a Level in Badass: Compared to the first game, The Division 2, most JTF patrols can and will hold their own, generally only having trouble against extremely tough endgame enemies.
Multiple Games
Roy Benitez
Captain Roy Benitez
A former NYPD officer turned leader of the Joint Task Force.
- A Father to His Men: Roy is said to care a great deal for the men under his command, which is why he is so popular among the JTF and why he acts as its de facto leader.
- Black-and-White Morality: From his personal notes, Roy is an idealistic cop who, for him, there is only a right way to do things and a wrong way.
- Da Chief: He's a captain in the NYPD and is the leader of the JTF.
- Married to the Job: His commitment to the force led he and his wife to be separated before she was killed by the Dollar Bug.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The epilogue of Warlords of New York features possibly the only time between both games where Benitez is well and truly angry about something, even punching his desk at one point. That "something" being Faye Lau's betrayal.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: A series of phone messages shows Benitez advising his underlings about Directive 51 and the Division Agents. While he isn't entirely happy about it, he readily admits that local law enforcement and military can't handle the situation alone- specifically referencing Hurricane Sandy and the 9/11 attacks as previous times Federal help was needed in New York- and reminds his people that, despite being deep-cover "spooks", the Agents are simply men and women like them, who have homes and families and are likely eager to get the job done and go back to them.
Paul Rhodes
Paul Rhodes
A former mercenary working for the Joint Task Force trying to restore Manhattan's infrastructure. Returns in the sequel's Warlords of New York expansion, being in charge of a settlement located in lower Manhattan.
- Broken Pedestal: While Rhodes never did quite trust the Division, he was willing to work with them at the start of the outbreak. However, his opinion soured in the months after when more and more Division agents began going rogue, destroying what little trust he had in the organization and convincing him to cut ties with them almost entirely. While he's still quite bitter by the end of Warlords, he admits that seeing that there were still honest Agents in the SHD (more specifically, the D.C. Agent) almost makes him hope again.
- The Cynic: Pretty much always assumes the worst out of people, especially when the government-funded Division is the topic of discussion. His opinions on the Division have soured greatly in the eight months between The Division and the sequel's Warlords of New York expansion, showing him to be extremely reluctant to let the D.C. Agent into his home settlement, seeing as how they're technically cut from the same cloth as Aaron Keener and his fellow rogues.
- Deadpan Snarker: Probably the snarkiest of the three heads of the JTF.
- Determinator: When you first meet him, he is trying to repair a power station while being besieged by Cleaners.
- Mildly Military: To speak with him you wouldn't think he was a soldier.
- Private Military Contractors: Before he joined the JTF he used to work for the Last Man Battalion. He is also of the opinion that the private sector provides better equipment than the government.
- Properly Paranoid: He is extremely wary of abuses of power by the government, and especially does not agree with the creation of the SHD. It effectively grants ultimate authority to a select few Agents, which he believes is the complete antithesis to the system of checks and balances the United States is founded upon After Agent Keener's actions come to light, he's not shy about saying "I told you so". He goes on another "power without accountability" rant at the end of Warlords of New York when it's revealed that Faye Lau is also a rogue Agent.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Has a deep disdain for authority and yet he is helping the JTF and the Division (whom he has a deeper disdain for) save the city.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Considerably more than the other Wing leaders, especially during his recruitment mission.
- Survivor's Guilt: According to his personal file on the Division wiki, he suffers from this after some unknown incident in Iraq in 2003. He also lost his wife in 9/11.
The Division
Jessica Kandel
Dr. Jessica Kandel
A virologist who is working with the Joint Task Force in order to find a cure for the Dollar Flu.
- Damsel in Distress: Kind of. You do need to rescue her but instead of being distressed she comes across as more inconvenienced that she was taken hostage to begin with than anything else.
- Determinator: In that she is totally determined to find a cure for the virus, even to the point of working with people she would rather not even be in the same room with and being willing to do anything it takes to find one.
- Dr. Jerk: She clearly has no patience with anything not to do with curing the virus and she sees the Agent finding infected bills as being of more importance than saving people from Kosinski's Cleaners.Kandel: "My wife always said that I'm better with pathogens than with people. My...ex-wife. Funny."
- Also, she stresses the importance of keeping the refugees at the Hudson Refugee Camp alive, though the way she says it implies that she cares less about the refugees and more about their blood.
Kandel: "Keep them alive until I get what I need from them. Got that?"- When the Agents fail to save Tchernenko, she shrugs it off and almost word for word says that he outlived his usefulness anyway. This is mere moments after she pretends to be his friend to calm him down and gain his trust.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Mentions having a wife in a cutscene after one of the earlier missions. Or ex-wife. Funny.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: When she's not mouthing off to Rioters holding her hostage she's questioning the competence of JTF officers acquiring blood samples for her at the Hudson Refugee Camp. She is also perfectly fine with making sacrifices that Faye Lau isn't prepared to make. That said, she is also devoting all of her time healing the sick and finding a cure for the virus.
- Married to the Job: Like Roy Benitez, her work led to Jessica's wife leaving her.
- Pity the Kidnapper: The rioters who take her hostage during the Madison Square Garden mission are surprised with how little of their shit she's willing to put up with, including bad-mouthing another rioter while she was taking care of an injured one.
- Put on a Bus: Between 1 and 2 she left NY to continue her work at a government lab in a safer location.
- The Medic: Not only is she a doctor, but she's also working on a cure for the Dollar Bug.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Other than a brief ECHO that explains that she went to Ann Harbor to continue her vaccine research (and the Black Tusk raiding said location), she has surprisingly little presence in Warlords of New York.
- The Workaholic: For all the good it did to her marriage.
The Division 2
Manny Ortega
Manny Ortega
A National Guard signalist coordinating Division operations out of the White House Base of Operations. The first time The Agent meets him, he's been reduced to tracking the factions in Washington DC with a street-map and children's toys due to the lack of coordinated network.- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: So far he's managed to keep the White House from falling apart and/or to enemy forces. And has a good update on the Situation in DC. That being said he has an odd obsession with miniatures. To the point where he literally tells Kelso that she needs to raid a toy-store to get him more models for his map. And that's not getting into how accurate each one of his miniatures is to the person/place it represents.
- Communications Officer: His actual job. Presumably he wound up Mission Control because he was the one already juggling the radios. Conveniently though everyone happened to luck out as reactivating the SHD network is technically within his wheelhouse.
- Demoted to Extra: While he plays a large role in the base game as the Agent's Mission Control, Manny is hardly seen in any of the postgame DLC episodes.
- Serious Business: Do NOT mess with his map! At best, you'll get a Death Glare.
- You Are in Command Now: He rose to the post of Division Coordinator through attrition. How well he's bearing up under that pressure is open to question.
President Andrew Ellis
President Andrew Ellis
Former Speaker of the House, he was sworn into office inside of a bunker once the Former Vice-President then President supposedly killed himself. Was on Air Force One when it was shot down and crashed into Washington DC- Action Politician: Grabs a Submachine Gun off one of his captors while they're distracted and helps the Agent shoot their way to extraction during the mission when you rescue him.
- Alcohol-Induced Stupidity: The "Your Killer" text for minigun Warhounds reveals Ellis was prone to this."I've got a funny story for you about the creation of Warhound Minigun. It was the night of WHCA. The SecDef and I got shitfaced. And somehow we ended up back at the Pentagon. I always love seeing what the "lab rats" are up to. That was the first time I saw the Warhound in action. I don't know why I did it, I was drunk. But I wanted to ride the thing like a bull. Sure enough, it threw me off, I slammed my head and the rest was a blur. But apparently I gave the scientists the bright idea of strapping a minigun to this bad boy." - Andrew Ellis, Speaker of the House
- Back for the Dead: Finally returns at the end of the season 4 manhunt after being absent since Camp White Oak...and is promptly shot in the head by Faye.
- Berserk Button: Apparently isn't too fond of nicknames and callsigns directed at him, affectionate or otherwise. He gets offended at his bodyguards calling him "Chief" and "Chickenhawk" during the Camp White Oak mission.
- Creepy Good: He really comes across as more of a "we have to sort of work the dark side" President than a "hope and change" President, but (so far at least) seems to genuinely have the country's best interests at heart. And given the country is actually facing an existential threat and engaged in what is essentially a civil war, his rhetoric and attitude aren't exactly out of place considering the situation. Subverted once The Division discovers that the President, along with Black Tusk themselves, are stealing the antiviral with plans to lifting off the city through Tidal Basin.
- Corrupt Politician: Seems to have defected to the Black Tusk side, that, or he was working with them all along.
- Deal with the Devil: Works with Natalya Sokalova in order to establish himself as the new President of the United States. Unfortunately, he discovers that she intends to use him as a Puppet King in establishing a new world order as opposed to an equal partnership.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Ellis' memoirs reveal that he was unwilling to work with Natalya Sokalova to the point of handing her "the button." This is explictly an unwillingness to give her access to America's nuclear arsenal. He planned to play along with her, though, due to being effectively her prisoner after his defection.
- Good Is Not Nice: Talks about hard choices having to be made and a willingness to do whatever it takes to rebuild America. Subverted when he defects to the Black Tusk that he was allied with all along.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: His personal diary reveals he would gladly have nuked New York if he had been president, and refers to the previous president as a 'libtard'.
- Made of Iron: Literally survived Air Force One being shot down and crashing into Washington DC. And manages to survive being under the care of the Hyenas for an unknown amount of time, plus the firefight the ensues extracting him.
- Man Behind the Man: This poster in Grand Washington Hotel
lists Ellis as the presiding chairman of a conference relating to the military private sector, with the manufacturer Douglas & Harding in attendance and - more importantly - Charles Bliss of the Last Man Battalion, which might explain a few things about why Ellis is so buddy-buddy with the Black Tusk. - President Evil: What he's revealed after he, along with Black Tusk, stole the antiviral beneath The White House, and it seems to be responsible for the death of the previous acting presidents.
- Turncoat: An Echo reveals him helping the Black Tusk steal the Experimental Broad-Spectrum Antivirals from their secure facility, seemingly willingly.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: It's revealed that Ellis was the person who ordered the JTF to retreat from the New York quarantine zones, abandoning the first wave Division agents and creating the Dark Zones. It's Ellis' order that is the direct cause of Aaron Keener's Start of Darkness, as well as the catalyst to convince many Agents to go rogue.
- You Are in Command Now: Second in the presidential line of succession. The President died of a heart attack due to stress, and the Vice President supposedly killed himself also due to the stress but was actually assassinated by the Secret Service. Nearly became an example of this when Air Force One was shot down.
Calvin McManus (Season 9 spoilers)
The Secretary of Homeland Security. First introduced in Season 9: Hidden Alliance.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: His reasons for backing up the BTSU are unknown.
- The Man Behind the Man: Hidden Alliance audio logs reveal that he's Natalya Sokolova's mysterious business partner (and, by extension, the BTSU's) and he was the one responsible for sending in a lone Hunter to back up Bardon Schaeffer on Coney Island during the events of Season 3: Concealed Agenda. Said audio log also reveals that this particular Hunter is actually a Rogue Agent.
