Sam Hanna (character)

Sam Hanna (portrayed by LL Cool J) is a fictional character in the show NCIS: Los Angeles. He is a former U.S. Navy SEAL and a Senior NCIS Special Agent. He first appeared in the NCIS season six episode "Legend (Part I)".

Background and characterization

The son of a Marine colonel, Hanna attended a military school and excelled in football, playing wide receiver.^[2] Like the actor, Hanna is a native of New York City.^[3]

Outside his job, Hanna has a varied range of interests, including boxing, origami^[4] and collecting vinyl records and antique cars.^[5] He suffers from coulrophobia (fear of clowns)^[6] and has a fear of maggots.^[7]

Of all the members of the team, Hanna has known Callen the longest and is the only one who calls him "G". In the season 3 episode "Partners" it is established that the duo have been partners for five years. Whereas Callen has the tendency to be a lone wolf, Hanna is a team player who is able to work with anyone.

Family

Hanna first met his wife Michelle, a CIA agent, during a joint task force mission. The couple have two children, son Aiden and daughter Kamran. Aiden attends the fictional Keating Military Academy.^[8] He is portrayed to be a doting and very protective father, even going so far as to tail his daughter for a month when she first started riding the school bus and dressing up as Sully (from Monsters, Inc.) at her birthday party. He rarely speaks of his family and prefers to keep his work and home life separate, as shown by the fact that Kensi and Deeks only find out that he has kids in the episode "Anonymous". Michelle and Kamran are not introduced until season 3^[1] and Callen is apparently one of the few people who is close to the Hanna family as he is known to the children as "Uncle Callen".^[9]

Military

Prior to joining NCIS, Hanna served in the U.S. Navy, from which he retired with the rank of Senior Chief Petty Officer^[10] (E-8), although this contradicts his service record as shown in the episode "Betrayal" which states that he left as a Chief Petty officer (E-7). He was a member of the Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) (formerly "Team Six") based out of Dam Neck in Virginia.^[5][11] Despite his inability to swim when he first enlisted,^[12] he went on to have a distinguished career as a SEAL and various characters have referenced his "legendary" status within the SEAL community.^[13][14] Much of his career is vague due to the highly-classified nature of most of his missions, although it has been mentioned that he served in Bosnia^[13] (Yugoslav Wars), Chad (Pan Sahel Initiative)^[15] and Iraq^[13] and was stationed at the Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado at some point. His area of expertise is the Middle East and he reads and speaks Arabic fluently and has an encyclopedic knowledge of the Qur'an.^[7][16] He is also multilingual, having a working knowledge of Japanese, Farsi, Danish, Hebrew, Korean, and Spanish.^[17][18]

Hanna has a strong sense of duty and becomes particularly indignant when the criminal is from a military background. In the episode "Vengeance" he was forced to interrogate a group of SEALs about their involvement in the death of a Navy officer suspected of leaking classified information and was visibly affected, leading Hetty to observe that she felt like she was "making him interrogate his family."

In the two-part crossover episode with Hawaii Five-0 it is revealed that he is friends with head of the Five-O Task Force and former SEAL Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett, although the story of how they met has yet to be addressed.

Storylines

Season 1

It is established during the first several episodes, from vague references in their casual conversations, that he and Callen have been working together for some time and are good friends. In the episode "Fame" he was initially hostile to Detective Marty Deeks, the newly appointed LAPD liaison officer and called him "Temp" throughout the episode.

Season 2

In the season two episode "Little Angels", Sam reveals that he was once buried alive by Serbian paramilitary soldiers when his SEAL team was tasked to uncover evidence of ethnic cleansing and mass graves in the former Yugoslavia. In the season two finale, Sam resigns from NCIS along with Callen and Kensi in order to follow Hetty's trail to Prague without Director Vance's authorization.^[19]

Season 3

It is revealed in the episode "Greed" that Sam has been working undercover on a joint CIA task force in Sudan for the past year. His teammates had already been suspicious due to Sam uncharacteristically turning up late for work and taking leaves of absence. During the investigation he crosses paths with fellow undercover operative Michael Saleh (Sherman Augustus), who revealed that he suspected his cover had been blown due to a leak in the agency. In the following episode "Betrayal" Callen travels to Sudan to find Sam after a charred corpse is discovered and identified as Saleh.

In the episode "Lohkay", Sam revealed that he was once separated from his SEAL team and was hunted by the Taliban. An Afghani villager named Yousef saved his life. The Taliban searched the village looking for Sam only to discover that he was already gone. They killed Yousef's entire family except one nephew, Amir. Yousef reached out to Sam for help, and Sam said that he "pulled some strings" to get them into the USA. In this episode, Sam is once again hunted by the Taliban. Later, it was revealed that Amir was working for a terrorist named Habib. His mission is to kill Sam, "the one that got away". Sam was trapped inside their boat shed and beaten up by Habib's men with Callen, Kensi and Deeks launching a rescue operation which was successful, resulting in the deaths of the terrorists. Throughout the episode, Callen and Hetty are worried because Sam is personally involved in the case. Hetty "punishes" Sam for using federal resources, once again, by buying expensive Scotch at his expense.

Season 4

In "Rude Awakenings", it is revealed that Sam's wife is a former undercover CIA operative. They fell in love when they worked together on a failed Joint Task Force mission to capture Isaak Sidorov, a Russian arms dealer. She had managed to successfully infiltrate Sidorov's organization as an assassin-for-hire under the alias of "Quinn" before Sidorov escaped and the mission was aborted. Quinn is reactivated after NCIS, FBI and CIA discover that Sidorov has stolen three Cold War-era nuclear devices from former KGB sleeper agents in the United States. Quinn confides to Sam that she misses her undercover work when he expresses his disapproval about her desire to return to active duty.^[20] In the season four finale, Sam is partnered with Deeks who confronts him over his indifference towards him. Sam admits to Deeks that he has some personal flaws.

Season 5

Later, Deeks saves Sam's life and ends up captured and tortured by Sidorov. In the season five premiere 'Ascension', after being found by Kensi and Granger, Deeks tells Sam he didn't give up Michelle even under torture. Sam visits him, stating he now owes him for the rest of his life for what Deeks did for him and Michelle. When Deeks admits he was thinking about quitting, Sam said it would be a mistake, saying that Deeks is a great cop. In the next episode, after a deep talk with Sam, Nate believes that although Sam is still very strong, he cannot withstand much more punishment like that at the risk of his mental health.

Season 6

In season six, it is revealed that Sam's father, USMC Colonel Hanna, sent him to military school, and was disappointed when his son joined the Navy rather than the Marine Corps. Sam's own son, Aiden, also attends a military school and around Christmas 2014, was promoted to Cadet Sergeant.

Awards and decorations

The following are the medals and service awards fictionally worn by Senior Chief Hanna.^[21]

Personal decorations Bronze Star Medal Purple Heart Joint Service Commendation Medal Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with gold award star Combat Action Ribbon with gold award star Unit awards Navy Presidential Unit Citation Navy Unit Commendation Service Awards Navy Good Conduct Medal with four bronze service stars Campaign and service medals National Defense Service Medal with bronze service star Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal Southwest Asia Service Medal Kosovo Campaign Medal Afghanistan Campaign Medal Iraq Campaign Medal Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal Global War on Terrorism Service Medal Service and training awards Navy Sea Service Deployment Ribbon with one silver service star Navy and Marine Corps Overseas Service Ribbon with three bronze service stars Foreign awards United Nations Medal NATO Medal Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi Arabia) Kuwait Liberation Medal (Kuwait) Marksmanship awards Navy Expert Rifleman Medal Navy Expert Pistol Shot Medal

Other accoutrements Special Warfare insignia Naval Parachutist insignia 5 Service Stripes (reflecting 20 years of service)

References