Born in 1935, John was more commonly known as Jack during his early years. Jack's military career dated back to the 1950s, when he participated in the Korean War as a teenager and later joined the Green Berets. In 1950, at the age of fifteen, he met The Boss and became her apprentice after which point she trained him in combat, demolition, and intel gathering techniques. At some point, he learned how to snipe in urban and marine environments, and took part in survival training exercises, where he ate snakes for the first time.
In 1954, Jack was involved in the Bikini Atoll test of the first airborne detonation of a hydrogen bomb. However, unlike most of his friends who were present during the testing who had gotten leukemia, thyroid cancer, or died from the radiation, he did not develop any symptoms at all. However, his exposure to the radiation resulted in him becoming sterile and unable to reproduce naturally. During Jack's time under the tutelage of The Boss, she also taught him everything about combat, weaponry, survival, espionage, destruction, psychology and foreign languages (such as Russian). He also excelled in urban warfare and building infiltration under her tutelage and they later developed CQC together. They went their separate ways on June 12, 1959 only to meet once again five years later in Russia. In 1961, Jack carried out covert operations alongside Python during the early stages of the Vietnam War, before America officially participated. He later stated that Python was one of the few soldiers he could completely rely on in battle. The two also played poker together, leaving Python owing Snake money. The two were later involved in a mission together where Python was shot and presumed dead.
He also heard JFK's speech about placing a man on the moon by the end of the decade. However, a lot of military personnel he knew weren't happy with this claim.
By late 1964, Jack had been awarded the Army Achievement Ribbon, the Good Conduct Ribbon, Defense Distinguished Service Ribbon, Korean Service Ribbon, a ribbon that resembles the Vietnam Service Ribbon, and the Distinguished Service Cross Ribbon, along with several others. However, based on the fact that Jack had joined the Green Berets, he most likely would have been awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge as well. At some point between 1962 and 1964, he joined Major Zero's FOX unit. Big Boss's former codename of "Naked Snake" was in reference to the on-site procurement policy of FOX, and to the stealthy nature associated with snakes. It was also partially in honor to the Cobra Unit, which was founded and led by his mentor, The Boss. During the San Hieronymo Incident, and the Peace Walker Incident, several of Big Boss's comrades often mistook or joked about the meaning behind the "Naked" part of his codename, in that Snake didn't wear any clothes during the Virtuous Mission. Although not a formal codename or alias, he was once referred to as "Son of The Boss" by Colonel Volgin just before their fight in the Groznyj Grad hangar, in reference to the fact that he was The Boss's last disciple.
The title of "Big Boss" was awarded to Snake following Operation Snake Eater, being regarded as "above even The Boss" after his defeat of the former legendary soldier. However, Snake disliked the title as he felt that he hadn't actually surpassed The Boss, and didn't identify himself as such until 1974. Nevertheless, several of his subordinates and comrades called him "Boss" prior to this, or other variations such as "Vic Boss" ("Boss of Victory"). In 1984, Big Boss was also known by the alias Ishmael. Sniper Wolf referred to Big Boss as Saladin, in reference to the prominent figure in Turkish culture, who led the Muslim opposition against the Christian Crusaders in the Levant. Big Boss had an innate desire for conflict, mostly because that was the only thing he truly knew, having been exposed to combat at a fairly young age. Big Boss often viewed subjects from a military perspective such as using environmental landmarks to set traps, and identifying with aspects of other countries, such as France, by their armed forces and national anthem. However, he was tolerant to people who believed in peace; even if his Outer Heaven vision involved giving the soldier a place where he would always be needed in the world, he had nothing against people who aspired for peace, as evidenced by his interaction with Paz's alleged beliefs towards peace. He was also compassionate and forgiving towards his enemies, to the point of even attempting to save them if they were in need, as evidenced by his saving the Outer Heaven Resistance survivors of the Outer Heaven bombings despite the latter attempting to take down his organization earlier, as well as forgiving Kazuhira Miller after he admitted that he was in on Cipher's plot and Ocelot for blinding his right eye. Consequentially, his compassion to both his allies and his enemies resulted in his soldiers being genuinely loyal to Big Boss, serving him out of respect. Big Boss was opposed to killing people who were unable to defend themselves, such as when the Perfect Soldier Null was vulnerable in his culture tank. In addition, Big Boss disagreed with mercy killings, feeling that there was always another reason to live, as evidenced by his response to Amanda's request that he put Chico out of his misery, if the latter should reveal information under torture. Though Big Boss did kill his former friend Zero, it was mainly to finish off the Patriots. During his youth, he was also willing to sacrifice himself for his country if need be, although why he defended America came into serious question after he was forced to kill The Boss in a conspiracy that showcased to him how even the best of soldiers are expendable to the government. While Big Boss did still have some respect for his country, he wasn't going to live his life the way The Boss had, as a tool for corrupt political aims, and anything he did would be done out of loyalty to himself rather than a country. The cornea and lens of Big Boss's right eye was damaged, and the eyeball itself ruptured, due to the muzzle burn from Major Ocelot's revolver in Operation Snake Eater. From then on he adopted the use of an eyepatch. Coincidentally, two of his clones would later utilize similar attire, but on their left eyes instead: Solidus Snake, to cover his own damaged eye, and Solid Snake, to aid the vision of his still functioning eye via the Solid Eye device.
Perhaps the biggest effect had on Big Boss's personality was when he was forced to kill The Boss, who was akin to a mother figure to him, during Operation Snake Eater, an action that haunted him for the rest of his life. Even six years later, he preferred to go by the codename of Naked Snake rather than Big Boss because he felt that he was still inferior to The Boss, and in his final moments, told Solid Snake that he was already dead from the moment he killed her. It wasn't until ten years after Operation Snake Eater that he was able to find some closure to the event and go by the title of Big Boss. Big Boss was fond of smoking cigars, and would do so even while undertaking a sneaking mission. He also ended up irritated whenever people either erroneously refer to his cigar as a cigarette or act as though they are the same thing, as evidenced by his reaction to Para-Medic and Sigint's statements about his cigar in 1964. Big Boss also drank alcohol, although he had enough restraint to keep himself from doing so during a mission. He also showed fluency in some foreign languages, such as Russian and French, and was shown to know at least a bit of Spanish. Big Boss did not like spy-genre films, specifically the James Bond films, feeling that they didn't portray agent life realistically at all, to the point that he couldn't help but compare himself to Bond negatively even when he knew it was fiction. Because of this, he once got into an argument with Major Zero, who was a big James Bond fan. Zero assumed that one of the primary factors for his distaste was related to Bond's interaction with femme fatales.
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