Jack Bauer before Day 1

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

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.

Personal

 * Age (on Day 1): 36
 * Birthplace: Santa Monica, California
 * Wife: Teri Bauer (Deceased)
 * Daughter: Kim Bauer
 * Father: Phillip Bauer
 * Brother: Graem Bauer (Deceased)
 * Sister-in-Law: Marilyn Bauer
 * Nephew: Josh Bauer

Education

 * LASD - Basic SWAT School
 * Master of Science, Criminology and Law - University of California, Berkeley
 * Bachelor of Arts, English Literature - University of California, Los Angeles
 * Special Forces Operations Training Course

Counter Terrorist Unit

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

Other

 * 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

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)
 * Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape (SERE)
 * Psychological Operations (PSYOPS)
 * Direct Action (DA)
 * Civic Action (CA)
 * Counterproliferation/Nuclear (CP/N)

Honors
Classified information in italics


 * Purple Heart
 * Silver Star

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, an MI6 agent named 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.

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.

He has had many loves in his life, the main two being his only wife, Teri Bauer, and Audrey Raines. 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.