Jack Bauer before Day 1

Jack Bauer was active in law enforcement well before the events of Day 1.

Personal

 * Age (on Day 6): 45
 * Birthdate: 18 February 1966
 * Birthplace: Santa Monica, California

Family

 * Wife: Teri Bauer (deceased)
 * Daughter: Kim Bauer
 * Father: Phillip Bauer (deceased)
 * Brother: Graem Bauer (deceased)
 * Sister-in-Law: Marilyn Bauer
 * Nephew: Josh Bauer
 * Sister-in-Law: Carol

Education

 * Los Angeles Sheriff's Department - Basic SWAT School
 * Master of Science, Criminology and Law - University of California, Berkeley
 * Bachelor of Arts, English Literature - University of California, Los Angeles
 * US Army Officer's Candidate School
 * Special Forces Operations Training Course
 * Fluent in Spanish, Russian

United States Department of Defense

 * Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense

Counter Terrorist Unit

 * Section Captain, Hotel Los Angeles attack (1998)
 * Team Leader, Operation Proteus (2000)
 * Director of Field Operations, CTU Los Angeles
 * Special Agent in Charge, CTU Los Angeles

Other

 * Case Officer - Clandestine Services, Central Intelligence Agency
 * Special Weapons and Tactics Team, Los Angeles Police Department

Military Experience
Classified information in italics


 * Captain, US Army First Special Forces Operational Detachment, Delta
 * Instructor, US Army "Q" Course Phase III Training
 * Instructor, US Army Special Forces Robin Sage Exercises
 * First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Combat Applications Group
 * Graduate, John F. Kennedy School of Special Warfare
 * Graduate, US Army Officer's Candidate School
 * ''Graduate, US Army Ranger School

Delta Missions
All Delta missions are classified


 * Operation Nightfall, Kosovo (date and details classified)
 * Operation Collegiate, Belgrade
 * Operation Downtown, Pristina (Special Commendation)
 * Operation Lost Paradise, Chechnya
 * Operation Closed Coffin, Hac

Expertise
From Jack Bauer's classified Delta file


 * High Altitude, Low Opening (HALO)
 * High Altitude, High Opening (HAHO)
 * Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape (SERE)
 * Psychological Operations (PSYOPS)
 * Direct Action (DA)
 * Civic Action (CA)
 * Counterproliferation/Nuclear (CP/N)

Honors/Decorations
Classified information in italics


 * Expert Infantryman's Badge
 * Special Forces Tab
 * Ranger Tab
 * Basic Parachutist's Badge
 * Air Assault Badge
 * Silver Star
 * Legion of Merit
 * Purple Heart
 * Army Commendation Medal
 * Army Achievement Medal
 * Armed Services Ribbon
 * National Defense Ribbon

Operation Nightfall
Two years before the events of Day 1, while in the Delta Force, Jack led a mission to assassinate Serbian war criminal Victor Drazen. Operation Nightfall was authorized by a Senate committee headed by David Palmer; however, Jack and David did not meet or even know of each other's involvement until Day 1. Because of their involvement in the mission, Jack and David were targeted for revenge by Drazen's sons.

Jack's team destroyed the house where Drazen was believed to be hiding. Unfortunately, Drazen was not in the building at the time, but his wife and daughter were killed. Jack's entire team was slaughtered by Drazen's men, who used the Delta Team's supposedly scrambled radio frequency to track them. In his testimony to the House Special Subcommittee, Jack accused the Army of setting up the mission for failure; however an Army representative denied the charge.

Unknown at the time, one member of the Delta Force team, MI6 agent Stephen Saunders, was not actually killed in the blast, but was captured and tortured by Serbian Forces for two years. Saunders returned for revenge in Day 3.

Operation Albatross
On Jack's first day at CTU Los Angeles, his first mission was to protect the recently-defected IRA member Moira O'Neal from attack by her former associates. Four agents died when Tim McGinnis' crew of hitmen attacked the safe house in Arizona where O'Neal was being held. Jack managed to escape to safety with O'Neal, and later killed McGinnis' group before they could get to her.

Operation Hell Gate
Jack had recently become Special Agent in Charge of CTU and the consequences of his blowing the whistle on the three agents were still being felt. Jack flew to New York City and teamed up with civilian Caitlin O'Connor to take down the imminent threat of an act of coordinated terrorism and an attempted influenza pandemic. Over 100,000,000 Americans would have died, but Jack Bauer and CTU were able to thwart both plans as part of Operation Hell Gate.

Day Zero
At some point before Day 1, during Day Zero, Jack was watching a man named Laszlo who had been putting classified files on the market. After their surveillance of him went dark, Jack and Devin went to his apartment to see what happened. Laszlo had been killed and the apartment had been rigged. Jack managed to get the data from Laszlo's computer before the apartment was blown up.

Back at CTU, Nina covertly deleted the files from Laszlo's computer and told Jack that the files must have had a self deletion program. Taking Mason's advice, Jack decided to go home. As he was in the CTU parking lot, he was attacked by Devin, who, after Jack knocked him down, admitted to working for Laszlo for the money. Just as he was about to tell Jack his co-conspirators, he was shot dead, supposedly by his partner.

George Mason advised Jack not to launch investigations into all of his co-workers, or noone will want to work with him. Nina said she would, and Mason sarcastically wished them good luck. He left, and, after Jack admitted that he had moved out from living with Teri, she offered to buy him a drink and they left together.

Personal history
Jack's personal life isn't very detailed, but from what is known it appears that Jack lived a very different life to that of his family. While Jack's brother Graem worked closely with his father in Defense contracting, Jack was once known as an English Major as well as a surfer and a racer of motorcycles.

While he has had many loves in his life, his major relationships have been his only wife, Teri Bauer, tragically taken from him because of his job, and Audrey Raines, who was captured by the Chinese in an exchange attempt for his own life. Graem's wife, Marilyn, seems to have had a major influence in his life as well.

Other women, such as Nina Myers, Kate Warner, Claudia Salazar, and Diane Huxley, have played significant roles in Jack's life as well.

According to Marilyn Bauer, alongside their own personal past, Jack apparently first entered the military as an act of defiance from his father and brother, who had recently offered him a job at BXJ Technologies. This was later emphasized and clarified by Jack himself when talking to his father, saying how he never intended on turning his back on the family and that he merely wanted to do things for himself.

At some point prior to the events of Day 1, Jack built a case against three federal agents (including Seth Campbell and Christopher Henderson) who were accepting bribes, and had them arrested and charged. After turning in the guilty agents, only his closest associates would trust him.

Background information and notes

 * The Bauer home phone number during Day 1 was 310-555-3067 and they lived on 10th.
 * Jack's password for the video archives as of Day 1 was C22717. This was given to Paul Wilson in the finale episode of the season.
 * During Day 1 and Day 2, Jack's primary weapon was the SIG P228. His weapon of choice during Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, and Day 6 was a Heckler & Koch USP Compact.
 * On Day 2, the license plate of the car he drove at the car garage was 4HCO810.
 * Jack is able to speak and understand Russian, having used it to gain access to the Russian consulate and identifying that Gredenko was planning to kill Brady Hauser during Day 6.