However, the loss of his wife Michelle Dessler and unborn son at the hands of a government conspiracy drives him into despair and then rage.
He served in the United States Marine Corps and attended Scout Sniper and Surveillance and Target Acquisition training.
Tony Almeida is a systems analyst and third-in-command at the Counter Terrorist Unit's Los Angeles headquarters, and is romantically involved with fellow agent Nina Myers.
Just after midnight, word arrives of an imminent assassination attempt on Democratic presidential candidate David Palmer.
[3] Shortly thereafter, Tony and Nina interrogate Jamey Farrell, leading her to confess to her involvement with Ira Gaines, the terrorist behind the kidnapping of Jack's wife and daughter.
[5] Kim and Teri flee from a CTU safe house when it is attacked by hitmen working for Gaines' employers, Andre and Alexis Drazen.
After a confrontation by Nina, Tony visits Jack's home and saves both Teri and Phil Parslow from being killed by Jovan Myovic.
Tony becomes the new chief of staff and Mason's second-in-command at CTU, and is present when Jack returns to the agency to assist in hunting down Second Wave, a Middle Eastern terrorist organization that plots to detonate a nuclear weapon in Los Angeles.
Under Tony's command, CTU receives recordings of a meeting between Ali and representatives from three Middle Eastern countries at Cyprus.
After learning the truth himself, Tony, along with Michelle Dessler, begin covertly assisting Jack, and are eventually forced to physically incapacitate Chappelle.
With Tony and Michelle's assistance, Jack and Sherry Palmer, the president's ex-wife, are able to get a recording implicating Peter Kingsley, the true manipulator of the day's events, and prevent a war with the Middle East.
Shortly after Kim's return to CTU, Tony leads one of the tactical teams disarming one of the bombs at a construction site situated along a fault line.
Hours after the threat, Tony had to rush to the scene of a crime, which involved a hostage situation with Governor James Radford.
Tony's suspicions came true when an assistant of Governor Radford calls telling him to meet her at Fisher Pier, which was happening approximately at the same time as Chase Edmunds's return to C.T.U.
After berating Chappelle out of disgust, Tony heads back out to the field one more time to assist Jack and Chase at the L.A. Docks in a CTU helicopter.
As the day ends, Tony stays on the yacht with Kate to clean up the mess while Chase pilots the helicopter with a wounded Jack to a nearby hospital.
Despite this, he, Jack Bauer and Gael Ortega organize a covert sting operation designed to keep the deadly Cordilla virus out of the hands of the Salazars, a Mexican crime family.
Michelle had left Tony due to his alcoholism and depression, leading him to move in with a woman named Jen Slater.
Tony considers the rescue a repayment of the debt he owes Jack for getting him out of prison and initially does not wish to be involved in the case any further.
Tensions rise when the Associate Special Agent in Charge of Division Bill Buchanan and Tony's former wife, Michelle Dessler, take active command of CTU Los Angeles when incumbent Special Agent in Charge Erin Driscoll leaves for personal reasons.
An assassin named Mandy who had made an attempt on President David Palmer's life in Season Two, becomes the next lead and Bill Buchanan calls Tony into the field to help apprehend her.
While being walked out of the building at gunpoint by her, Tony attempts to overcome Mandy, but eventually is rescued by Jack and Curtis, who have, by this point, seen through the ploy.
At the end of Day 4, when Walt Cummings, an overzealous member of the new Logan Administration, decides that Jack Bauer needs to die due to his part in an illegal raid on the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles, Tony plays an integral part in faking Jack's death.
Tony rushes from the house to see what has happened to his wife, but as he finds her body, the car's fuel tank explodes, critically injuring him.
Tony ends up sealed inside CTU Medical along with Henderson when terrorists release Sentox nerve gas into the building, killing many members of the staff.
Enraged and feeling he has nothing left to live for, Tony decides to kill Henderson by injecting him a lethal dose of hyoscine-pentothal while he is seemingly in a coma.
He murders FBI Agent Larry Moss and recovers the one remaining canister of the chemical weapon, which he gives to Cara Bowden, a representative of the conspirators, all of whom had planned the day's events and of whom Hodges was previously a member.
Tony reveals that his true goal was always to get close enough to Alan Wilson, the head conspirator behind the day's attacks and the man responsible for the murders of David Palmer and Michelle Dessler.
Tony puts the glasses on and presses a hidden button on the side of the frame, which reveals a schematic to the prison with a carefully planned escape route on the lenses.
[8] When Henry Donovan withholds information about his dealings with terrorists and CTU is unable to break him, Rebecca Ingram hires Almeida to provide enhanced interrogation.