It's probably best to actually describe the character if you are going to rely on a picture, or you can do without the picture if you like, but definitely describe.

Talents one has either naturally or through education or training of some sort.

Explain your character's background, from birth, to enlistment, to now. This will give me an understanding of who they are, which could mean everything if I drop a crisis down on their heads- or if I have to control them.

He attended basic training and AIT at Fort Benning and Fort Polk, Louisiana (the infamous "Tigerland") before being deployed to Vietnam. He's about a third way through his tour and has seen some combat so that he's considered a veteran. Favors the shotgun in a fight because he and Derricks had a close encounter once and his M16 jammed; he broke it over the cong's head, whereupon he learned that the M-16 was also not very suitable for close combat use.

Has a bit of mechanical skill by learning from his dad, who knew how to keep a car running and had a knack of machinery.

Serves as the assistant machinegunner for PFC Derricks, helping haul the ammo and keep the gun running.

From the Bronx, his father is a cabbie and he was trying to get into CUNY (but didn't have enough money) to get in before the draft got him; as he likes to put it, "The army was there with a stage hook, waitin' for my black ass to graduate from high school."

He was drafted in late 1966 and put through Benning, then Polk, and then sent to Vietnam as part of the First Cavalry Division.

Born in San Jose, California, Chris grew up with two younger sisters and a domineering father who pushed him to play sports that he never showed an interest in, especially football. His childhood was normal and when he was 12 he started working for his dad at his hardware shop. Chris saved up enough to buy his first surfboard which his father promptly confiscated and sawed in half with the excuse that surfing was too dangerous. Furious but unable to do anything about it, Chris pretended to be cool with it but secretly began to save up and when he was 14 got a scooter. That was when he began to run away for weekends at the beach, testing out the chilly Northern Californian waters. By 16 he was skipping school to travel down to LA, surfing and camping on the beach. His father gave him the ultimatium to move out or stay home but no more running off. Having made older friends in SoCal, Chris packed his bags and left, enrolling himself in school with an aunt's address who lived in Pico Rivera. He scraped by with odd jobs in construction and selling weed, somehow managing to graduate with a C average. His summer went by in a blur of sand, surf, and acid marked by two major instances. He met his girlfriend Diana and his draft number was called. He considered moving to Canada or Mexico, as he can speak decent Spanish since his grades were shitty and he was too broke for college. His father refused to help him pay for it, citing that he had served in the Army in Europe when he was called up. Before he knew it, Chris was having his long sun bleached hair shaved off and some dude that wasn't his father screaming in his face. He made it through boot camp well enough, he was physically fit though he struggled with tactics as it was something he was never interested in. Chris tried to get in with the Corps of Engineers but when that did not work out he decided to become a radio operator. He is currently in his second month of his year tour.

Standing 5'9" with brown hair and green eyes, Eli is of average but sturdy build. With outdoor life in the semi-arid desert of the Texas Panhandle being the norm until the Nam, he is well tanned, and in good shape. Basic has hardened his frame.

Eli has a couple tours under his belt at least, giving him some familiarity with the VC, the jungle, and operation of his weapon systems. He as proven to be capable under fire, and has demonstrated leadership capabilities among his peers. As such he has recently been minted as a Corporal and given charge of a few others.
With a youth spent outdoors, a gun in hand, hunting, exploring, and being in dangerous country sometimes, has attributed to his survival in the jungles of Viet Nam.
M16 Expert
M203 Qualified
Land Navigation Qualified
Army hand to hand

Elijah was born in Borger Texas in 1945. His father was Dale Dodgers, a WWII vet. His mother was Helen who was the daughter of a displaced farmer from the dust bowl. Dale spent most of his time working the oilfield and carbon black after returning home from military to provide for his wife and son. Eli attended public schooling in Borger. He gained a few friends, and even had a girlfriend, Regina Warren. For a time, Regina was all he was about, and intended to marry the girl until the Draft came along.

His dad taught him to shoot and Elijah took to hunting and fishing with his grandfather and father (When he had the time). During his school years, he was a typical kid of the day, when he wasn't parked next to the radio or TV, he would sometimes venture down to Electric City, the small township that had sprung up around the steam-based powerplant that had been erected to power the Phillips-Chevron Refinery as well as the oilfield drilling locations in the area when his dad was a boy. By the time he was old enough to go to Electric City, it had been all but abandoned. Exploring old houses and structures was a fun activity, and occasionally he found something nifty while he was there. More than once he'd found a rattlesnake there, but he'd learned how to handle them, and was always careful about such things.

Something of a loner because of this, as mentioned before he had only a few friends, maybe enough to count on one hand. But those that he had were good ones. Occasionally he would spend time with his cousins, of whom he had several, which between his friends and family allowed him to be decently well-rounded and instilled the value of family. He still maintains a sense of independence and self-reliance.

It was during the last year or so of high school he took an interest in Regina Warren, a dark-haired girl with blue eyes who'd grown up in the same town. At first she turned him down, but with charm and persistence she finally decided he was serious, or at least seriously interested in her. The two started seeing each other outside of school, a little at first, but then more so, even going out on dates.

By this time, Eli's mother had become a working woman at the local J.C. Penny's. Better that than the alternative, as inflation soared. Being well old enough to take care of himself, Eli was left to his own devices much of the time, especially with his father becoming increasingly absent from his life, spending more time at the local watering holes after work, and often stumbling home drunk. This meant it was much harder for his parental unit to wrangle in his 'extracurricular' activities. This gave him something of a badboy vibe, which Gina was drown to, and Eli probably didn't do much to dispel it.

Just before graduation, his father wound up running his car off the bridge of the Canadian River on Highway 136, after traveling down it the opposite way in a drunken stupor. The car dropped a couple stories below and crashed into the river. Unable to free himself, his father drowned, leaving his mother a widow. A month later the Draft came through, and pulled him away from his mom and Gina.

At first Eli resented the military and the draft pulling him away from his little life in Borger, sometimes it was the thought of home that kept him going, as well as the letters back and forth. Basic training kept him pretty busy, and was a distraction needed. After that he attended training at Fort Benning for training regarding the new 11th Air Assault Division. Serving with the 11th, he gained several tours, but wasn't entirely happy about the 11th being rolled over into 1st Cavalry Divsion (Air Mobile) but since then not a whole lot has changed

Hal is a wiry guy with sharp, bright almond-shaped brown eyes, smooth, lightly olive toned skin, prominent cheekbones, and a small nose. He stands at 5'8", which while around average for his ethnicity, is likely shorter than most of the white and black soldiers in his unit. His wavy black hair is kept loosely combed within regs and sticks up in places, though his facial hair appears to be growing rather stubbly. Faded acne scars dot his cheeks. Hal speaks with a nondescript middle-class accent, his voice itself is surprisingly deep and has good enunciation. When he laughs, his whole face scrunches up with mirth. He looks much younger than his 19 years and smells faintly of cheap deodorant when he's not stinking of jungle rot.

Hal shot Marksman with the M14 in basic training, much to his own surprise. Thanks to his parents' insistence on speaking Korean at home, he has a working fluency in the language, should it ever become useful. He has no other relevant outstanding talents aside from the infantry combat skills pounded into his head at Fort Benning. He fills a rifleman role in his squad. By and large, he's a scared kid caught up in an ugly war. This is his first tour to Vietnam.

Christened Harold but having taken a liking to "Hal," Harold Cho grew up in Koreatown Los Angeles, the youngest of two children. His parents, refugees of the Japanese annexation of Korea, came to America before the Great War, as children. They lost everything, but eventually scrabbled together a livelihood serving Korean-Mexican fusion food out of a roving trailer.

Hal's childhood wasn't all roses and merry-go-rounds, but it wasn't half bad, either. His clothes rarely fit, and his parents were on the road every day, but that only meant more freedom to explore the city with his friends. There was so much to see, so much to do. It was the 50s, and it was a great time to be a kid. Living near downtown Los Angeles, Hal mingled with people from all walks of life, from the up-and-coming to the homeless. Shades of every color could be found in his circle of friends, but not by design. That's just how it was. They found common ground in their love of comic books, cars, good food, and girls.

Hal's parents pushed him to excel in both school and life. "You can be more than us," his dad often snapped at him while drunk. As Hal grew older, he shouldered more responsibility. He only went out on Friday nights, he stopped smoking pot, did his homewok on time. He did his parents' taxes, he got his driver's license, he went steady with Ellie from history class. Milestones came and went. A gig delivering papers for the LA Times provided him with a steady income, most of which he gave to his parents for rent and bills. Hal was a busy guy, juggling to various degrees of success his studies, friends, job, and a budding relationship. He focused on living his here-and-now. Rumblings of an ongoing conflict in Southeast Asia were heard, but not registered.

The first letter in the mail, an order to report for armed forces physical examination, was concerning. And little by little, rumors got around. Vern from last year's class got drafted, did you hear? Will says he's gonna run away to Canada. Do you remember Ted? He got killed in Vietnam.

It was a Sunday morning, but already warm and bright. Three days ago, Hal had graduated from high school with honors. He was UCLA-bound to study... well, he wasn't sure what he wanted to study, but whatever he committed to, he was determined to do his parents proud. He woke up, not for church or anything; he wasn't very religious. Wondered what Ellie was up to. Walked out the front door yawning, barefoot, to the mailbox. And his heart dropped.

Once at the kitchen table, he opened the envelope.

The President of the United States,
To HAROLD CHO:
Greeting: You are hereby ordered for induction into the Armed Forces of the United States...

Hal turned 19 in US Army basic training.