Originally, Phoenix Force was composed of Yakov Katzenelenbogen, a French-Israeli commando; Gary Manning, Canadian demolitions expert and security engineer; Keio Ohara, Japanese Martial Arts and electronics expert; David McCarter, former SAS operator and pilot; and Rafael Encizo, Cuban survivor of the Bay of Pigs Invasion and Castro's prisons.

The Phoenix Force team has used the assistance of John Trent, Japanese-American ninjitsu master; and Karl Hahn, former GSG 9 operator turned BND agent.

A Cockney born in London's East End neighborhood, McCarter is a former SAS operator who participated in the Iranian Embassy Siege and spent a tour of duty in Vietnam as a "special observer".

After Keio Ohara was killed, Hal Brognola and the rest of Phoenix Force offered him a spot on the team.

He is streetwise and not as knowledgeable about world affairs as the other team members, but is also a natural con artist to help with undercover work.

Thomas Jackson Hawkins was brought in as a new member of Phoenix Force when Yakov Katzenelenbogen retired from field work and David McCarter became the new commander of the team.

Named after famous Confederate general Stonewall Jackson, Hawkins was born in the U.S. Army hospital at Fort Benning, Georgia.

He is the second of three sons born to a U.S. Army career infantry NCO who served as an adviser to an ARVN Ranger battalion.

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.

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.

This crew provides a wide variety of expertise, ranging from piloting aircraft or hacking into a computer database.

After the dismantling of the BND, Kissinger went freelance, offering his talents to companies like Colt, Beretta, Heckler & Koch, and IMI.

John Inoshiro Trent is the owner and operator of a dojo, or martial arts school, in San Francisco, California, and a master of ninjutsu.

His mother, Reko Nakezuri, lost most of her family in the Tokyo firebombing that was carried out by the U.S. Army Air Corps.

His skills proved invaluable to Phoenix Force during a mission in San Francisco involving two crime syndicates, MERGE and TRIO.

Phoenix Force would later draw on these skills during their Far East assignments, and Trent would later work on a mission with Mack Bolan himself.

Born in Russia, his father was a noted linguist and translator, and Yakov grew up speaking four languages: English, French, German and Russian.

After a mission in the Far East, Katz retired from field work and went on to serve as Stony Man's tactical adviser.

Katz's weapons of choice were the IMI Uzi, Heckler & Koch P7, SIG Sauer P226, and a Spetznaz ballistic knife.

Teko challenged the decision and demanded a duel of honor with his successor, who happened to be Keio's father, Toshiro Ohara.

He later joined up with Professor Edward Oshimi, the founder of the terrorist group called the Japanese Red Cell, in his plot against the U.S. government.

Keio Ohara would later be killed in action during the mission against the Black Alchemist terror group led by Maurice Cercueil, the former head of Haiti's Tonton Macoute secret police organization.

There is a small monument to Keio at Arlington National Cemetery, simply inscribed with the following word: Samurai.

In this capacity, Hahn operated against the Baader-Meinhof Gang, aka Red Army Faction, Second June Movement, and various Palestinian terrorist groups.

He was one of the GSG 9 commandos who carried out Operation Feuerzauber (Fire Magic), the famous rescue mission in Mogadishu, Somalia, against the PFLP terrorist team holding 86 hostages aboard Lufthansa Flight 181, hijacked on October 13, 1977.

He handled assignments in East Germany and Czechoslovakia, and was stationed in Turkey when he first met Phoenix Force during a mission against the KGB.

He later worked with Phoenix Force on several occasions, most notably filling in for Rafael Encizo, who was injured during a mission in France against ODESSA.

Hahn studied computer electronics as an exchange student at UCLA, spoke three languages fluently, and had a working knowledge of Czech and Russian.

Possessing a dry sense of humor, he was also capable of making weapons out of common objects like a newspaper for close-quarter combat.