Character Study: Duke Bridges

Duke Bridges is a smart, funny, good-looking man. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. His father was a West Point graduate and career army officer who went missing in action somewhere in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Duke entered West Point as a legacy where he met Horatio Danglar. Bridges had mixed emotions about attending West Point and embarking on a military career because of the mysterious circumstances surrounding his father’s disappearance and the unsatisfactory explanations provided by the Army.

Perhaps because his father went missing when he was young he is unusually devoted to his twins, Zach and Carmen. While his military career is important, his main goal is to professionally accomplish his mission and get his men and himself safely back to their families. He is obviously military but not in a rigid one-dimensional way. He is quick witted and likes to keep the mood in the family upbeat with jokes and fun banter. He is not above poking fun at himself.

Danglar and Bridges remained close after West Point. Danglar was with Bridges during the birth of Zach and Carmen and he developed a close relationship with them. Because Horatio was hard to pronounce, the twins called him “Uncle Tio.”

While Danglar was attending graduate school at Stanford, Duke was steadily rising through the military ranks and by the time Danglar and Duke were reunited prior to the Gulf War, Duke was a Captain while Danglar was still a Lieutenant. Duke and Danglar were on the same Delta team to perform a deep penetration mission into Iraq in the first days of the Gulf War in 1991. During the mission Danglar was severely wounded and cut off from the rest of the Delta team by the advancing Iraqi Republican Guard. Duke was also severely wounded and passed out. He was carried to safety while Danglar was left behind and presumed dead.

Duke is haunted by the night he lost Danglar to the Iraqis and has survivor’s guilt about having gotten out while not being sure whether or not Danglar had been killed. In the years following the Gulf War Duke occasionally heard rumors that Danglar had survived and was being held captive by the Iraqis. Duke tried to convince his superiors to allow a covert operation back to Iraq to search for Danglar but he was rebuffed.

After the fall of Baghdad in March of 2003, Duke obtained intelligence that Danglar may have escaped Iraq with millions of dollars in stolen money. Duke was concerned about what the years in Iraqi captivity may have done to Danglar if he had survived and escaped. Though he did not want to worry his family, Duke began keeping a closer eye on them and made sure there were Global Positioning Systems in their cell phones.

When Danglar captured Zach, Carmen, Kingston and Courtney, Zach was able to call Duke and although he quickly passed out, Duke overheard the conversation and tracked them to Danglar’s hideout where he was able to rescue them.

Duke is devastated by Danglar’s betrayal. He feels it is a race against time to get the teens the anti-toxin and he worries that the brainwashing will manifest itself in the teens. Although he tries to reassure the teens that everything will work out he is very concerned and this has taken some of the spark out of his wit and humor.

Although Duke’s primary goal is capturing Danglar so that he can obtain the anti-toxin for the teens to return them to normal, his secondary goal is to redeem Danglar. He hopes to have his best friend back.