Jonathan J. O'Neill

"He's an amazing man. After everything he's done, he's still modest, quite self effacing actually. He even likes people to think he's not as smart as he really is. Bottom line: He's an incredibly strong leader who's given more of himself for this program than anyone has given for... well... anything I can imagine."

- Samantha Carter

Jonathan J. O'Neill, also known as John or, most commonly, Jack, is a Major General in the United States Air Force, who served eight years in the Stargate Program until he was transferred to the Pentagon to become the head of Homeworld Security. He was the original leader of SG-1 and later became the commander of Stargate Command.

Personal information
"O'Neill is legendary."

- Loki

Jack O'Neill was the leader of SG-1 from its inception in 1997 until he was promoted to Brigadier General in 2004, and placed in command of Stargate Command. He commanded the SGC from 2004 to 2005 and is currently a Major General and head of Homeworld Security. He was on the original expedition to Abydos with Daniel Jackson. He's a brave, irreverent, protective, skeptical, sometimes short-tempered man; an atypical but successful military leader. Together with his team, he's a bonafide hero of Earth. His service number is 69-4-141.

His personal history is troubled: shortly before traveling through the Stargate for the first time his son was killed while playing with his pistol and, in the aftermath of this tragedy, he separated from his wife Sara O'Neill. His professional life has been adventurous. He has hinted at some of the operations in his years in the special forces: covert operations in East Germany and Iraq (during the Gulf War) have been mentioned. He was born on October 20, 1952. His father-in-law described him as being an Irishman, suggesting he may be of Irish descent.

He has feelings for Samantha Carter that seem to be reciprocal; they were once both forced to admit it to avoid being labeled as Zatarcs. Because this kind of relationship is forbidden in the Air Force, he has never pursued a relationship with her, keeping well within the rank border. He even encouraged her during her engagement to Pete. He had a relationship with Kerry Johnson, but she felt there was something deeper between him and Sam. Kerry told him to retire but he didn't take her advice. She goes on saying they were making big error if they let military rules stop their feelings. Jacob Carter has hinted at knowing their feelings, as have Teal'c and Gen. Hammond. . When wedding was proposed by Vala in her search for a scenario both of them didn't answer, thought looking at each other.

Teal'c once stated he was a brother to him, Jack recalled him he was twice his age and Teal'c corriged by saying he was a very young brother then, though it has no importance as he was trying to recomfort him when Sam was lost.

Jack has a tendency to not lock his house when leaving, which has caused some unwanted visits.

Jack O'Neill also naturally possesses the Ancient Technology Activation Gene.

Jack has a very dry sense of humor and is impatient with complicated explanations. However, in a conversation with Lt. Col. Samantha Carter, he explains that he is worried about her because she has not tried to baffle him with scientific babble for a few days. When he is asked a scientific question he doesn't know the answer to, he often jokingly answers with "magnets," or some variation of the term. As stated by Cassandra, Jack pretends he's not as smart as he really is. .

O'Neill was originally born in Chicago, but he moved to Minnesota at some point.

O'Neill likes cake, and his favorite color is peridot.

The Asgard showed great fondness toward him. Loki even stated that: "O'Neill is legendary" hinting the Asgard's view of him. To them, he lead his people through the galaxy and proved to them that the Tau'ri were well on their way to be the "Fifth Race". He also downloaded, twice, the knowledge of Ancients and created the Replicator disruptor which save their planet. When Earth was accused of stealing over Asgard, Nox and the Tollan's technology, the Asgard chose him alone to prove his people weren't culprits.

1994
On the first mission to Abydos, O'Neill, grieving for the accidental death of his son due to him shooting himself with his gun, brought a nuclear warhead, believing the mission was suicide. Ra, the Supreme System Lord of the Goa'uld Empire, discovered it and decided to send it to Earth. While there, he met Skaara, who reminded him of Charlie, but still activated the bomb. While Daniel Jackson tried to save Sha're, a local woman he had fallen in love with, O'Neill battled Ra's First Prime, finally decapitating him with ring transporters. Ra, however, had altered the bomb, making it incapable of deactivation. When Ra learned that the Abydonians had rebelled, he took his mothership into orbit. O'Neill, unable to deactivate the bomb, sent it up to the ship, killing Ra, but inadvertently beginning Earth's war with the Goa'uld.

1997
After the mission to Abydos, O'Neill resigned from the Air Force. 3 years later, in 1997, Gen. George Hammond requested him to return to Stargate Command to discuss the events during the Abydos mission after Apophis and a group of his Jaffa arrived on Earth through its Stargate for a brief period of time, kidnapping an officer. When Hammond ordered to have a nuclear warhead sent to Abydos, O'Neill confessed that they did not kill the whole population, but only Ra and his ship in orbit. He requested to send a team to the planet, but he was denied and was thrown into the SGC Brig. There, he met his old teammates Charles Kawalsky and Louis Ferretti.

After some time, Hammond returned to the Brig and talked with O'Neill about going to the Abydos. In order to contact Daniel Jackson, who was still on the planet, O'Neill took a Kleenex box and threw it through the Stargate to Abydos. Sometime later, it was returned with the message 'Thanks. Send More.'. Hammond authorized O'Neill, Kawalsky and Ferretti to return to Abydos, along with the scientist Samantha Carter. On Abydos, O'Neill was able to reunite with Daniel Jackson, however another attack by Apophis injured Ferretti and saw Skaara and Sha're taken. The team returned to Earth with the gate address of Apophis' homeworld. Under the authorization of Hammond, O'Neill was made the leader of the team SG-1 with Carter and Jackson. They were sent off to Chulak, the homeworld of Apophis, along with SG-2 under the command of Kawalsky. SG-1 was captured by Apophis and nearly executed until O'Neill convinced Teal'c to join him. O'Neill was able to acquire a staff weapon and blast a hole in the cell, and his team, along with the prisoners was able to escape back to Earth.

1998
When Senator Robert Kinsey recommended shutting down the Stargate Program, O'Neill and SG-1 hijacked the Stargate, heading to coordinates that they had found on a previous mission. There, they learned that they were on one of two Goa'uld motherships headed to Earth, controlled by Klorel, the son of Apophis, who had taken Skaara as a host. O'Neill was forced to kill Skaara to prevent him from killing Jackson, but he was revived with a sarcophagus. SG-1 was able to sabotage the mothership, and destroy Apophis' mothership in the explosion. SG-1 was hailed as heroes, and the program was allowed to remain active.

1999
While exploring P3R-272, the Ancient's repository of knowledge was downloaded into his brain. However, Human physiology was not evolved to the point where his brain could handle that information, causing him to begin speaking Ancient and begin to die. However, his subconscious mind was able to write new addresses into the Stargate map, as well as build a generator that allowed him to gate to Othala, the Asgard homeworld. There, the Asgard erased the knowledge from his memory, told him of the Alliance of Four Great Races, and beginning the Asgard's long interest in O'Neill.

When O'Neill, Carter, and Jackson were captured by Hathor, they were told that the others were dead, and that they were 78 years into the future. O'Neill was the first to discover the ruse, and located Carter and Daniel. Hathor then implanted a Goa'uld symbiote into O'Neill, but Raully was able to cryogenically freeze him, and Carter revived him. As Hathor attempted to kill Carter, O'Neill grabbed the Goa'uld Queen from behind, and threw her into the liquid nitrogen, killing her. This caused the System Lords to prepare to launch an attack on Earth, but Thor was able to negotiate Earth's entry into the Protected Planets Treaty, with O'Neill's help, beginning a deep respect between the two.

2000
While on Edora, the Stargate was buried in a meteor shower, and O'Neill was trapped on the planet for over three months. There, O'Neill became close to a local woman, but after the SGC was able to make contact with Edora, he returned.

Shortly afterwards, the Asgard and the Tollans approached the SGC with evidence that Earth had been stealing their technology, as well as the technology of the Nox and the Tok'ra. O'Neill and Hammond convinced them that the SGC wasn't responsible, but the Asgard insisted that O'Neill discover who was responsible. O'Neill "stole" a Tollan weapon deactivator, and "resigned" from the military. He was approached by Harry Maybourne, who offered him a chance to acquire alien technology illegally. O'Neill, however, sent word of the Rogue N.I.D. Base to the Asgard, who then retook the technology. O'Neill revealed the plan to SG-1, and was reinstated.

When the Replicators took control of the Beliskner, Thor was forced to beam O'Neill to the vessel, to give him warning of the threat and help him destroy the ship. O'Neill requested a large amount of ordinance and weapons, and Carter and Teal'c beamed aboard as well. When Thor revealed that there was no way to destroy the ship easily, Carter came up with the idea to destroy it with an uncontrolled reentry. SG-1 beamed the Stargate to the ship, and was able to gate out before impact.

At the insistence of the Tok'ra Anise, O'Neill, Carter, and Jackson used the Atanik armbands to test their effectiveness. While they increased their natural abilities, they also affected their judgment. They hijacked the Stargate to destroy a new mothership Apophis was building, but the armbands came off halfway through the mission. However, Teal'c was able to rescue them. Later, there were concerns that O'Neill and Carter were compromised as Zatarcs. It was only after they admitted that they had feelings for each other that they were exonerated.

When he and Teal'c became stuck in a time loop, he began looking for ways to amuse himself. Knowing there would be no consequences to his actions, he spent his time golfing through the Stargate, creating pottery, biking in the base, and learning to juggle. In one loop, he gave his resignation to Gen. Hammond so he could take the opportunity to kiss Samantha. When they succeeded in stopping the loop, Daniel asked him if he had done anything crazy. He gave a long look to Sam before continuing to eat his breakfast. .

2001
When the NID pressured General Hammond to step down, O'Neill allied temporarily with Harry Maybourne to locate information that would allow Hammond to return. The trail took them to Senator Kinsey, revealing his very close relationship with the rogue NID members.

With the help of robotic doubles that were created by Harlan, SG-1 killed the System Lord Cronus, and acquired his ha'tak. Using to plan a trap for Apophis, they rigged a Stargate to absorb some of the hydrogen from the sun around Vorash. However, an al'kesh arrived to pick up Tanith, and Teal'c took the death glider they were flying in to destroy the vessel. They managed to shoot down the al'kesh, but their glider crashed as well. Teal'c was killed in an ambush, and O'Neill was barely saved. The jump to hyperspace caught the tail end of the supernova, which sent them and Apophis' mothership four million lightyears away, to a galaxy filled with Replicators. Apophis took control of Cronus' mothership, with Teal'c believing that he was once again First Prime of Apophis. SG-1 and Jacob Carter managed to destroy the ha'tak by causing it to crash into Delmak, killing Apophis and destroying the Replicators, but Teal'c was still insistent on his loyalty. It was only with the help of Bra'tac that Teal'c brainwashing was overcome.

2002
After Daniel died and ascended to save Kelowna, O'Neill retreated into himself, causing some resentment from Carter. He resented Jonas Quinn, and resisted his and Teal'c's attempts to allow him onto SG-1. When Anubis took Thor hostage, SG-1 agreed to help rescue him. They succeeded, but Thor was placed into a coma due to the mind probe. After Anubis tried to detonate the Stargate, and Jonas gave Carter the idea to send the gate into space with the X-302, O'Neill, who performed the mission, allowed Jonas to join the team. After the ha'tak that Anubis used to capture Thor appeared over Earth, O'Neill leads an away team to salvage it. When they learned that Thor's consciousness was inside the computer banks, they removed it, saving Thor but causing the vessel to self-destruct.

When researchers in Antarctica found an Ancient frozen in the ice, SG-1 and Janet Fraiser travelled down to study her. Ayiana, as the Ancient was named, was carrying a plague that infected everyone. While she healed the others, O'Neill was still sick, and Aiyanna soon died afterwards. O'Neill was implanted with Kanen, a Tok'ra symbiote. After the blending, Kanen had the compulsion to rescue Shallan, the lo'taur of Ba'al, but the mission went wrong and Kanen left O'Neill's body. O'Neill was tortured by Baal. While Daniel Jackson approached him and offered him a chance to ascend, he refused. It was only after Yu attacked the base that O'Neill and Shayla were able to escape, but it left O'Neill with an even deeper distrust of the Tok'ra&mdash;and a long lasting animosity toward Ba'al.

2003
When Kinsey was believed to have been assassinated, O'Neill was charged with the crime, but was exonerated with the help of Malcolm Barrett and SG-1.

When Maybourne came to O'Neill's cabin, claiming to have the address to a planet with Ancient weapons, O'Neill and Maybourne were transported to the planets moon, with Maybourne attempting to locate a Furling utopia. While there, Maybourne came under the influence of a hallucinogenic plant that caused the inhabitants to go mad and kill each other. Maybourne eventually overcame the effects, and O'Neill allowed him to retire to another planet.

Daniel Jackson later came to Jack, asking SG-1's help when Anubis was threatening Abydos. SG-1 was able to locate the Eye of Ra, and learned of the existence of a Lost City of the Ancients, but were forced to turn it over to Anubis, who threatened to destroy Abydos. Anubis destroyed the planet anyway, and started to become the dominant System Lord. While scouting Vis Uban, they found a descended Daniel, and convinced him to return to Earth. When Jonas came up with an idea to destroy Anubis' mothership, O'Neill and Carter flew the F-302 through the shields, and destroyed the crystals by launching a missile into the power core. Anubis took his mothership to Langara, hoping to use naquadria to power the ship. O'Neill leads a team that attempted to buy time for the System Lords to destroy the vessel. The plan worked, allowing Jonas to return to Langara a hero, and allowing Daniel to rejoin SG-1.

Shortly afterwards, O'Neill was abducted by the Asgard scientist Loki, who believed that O'Neill was the key to solving their cloning problems. However, O'Neill, while advanced for the Tau'ri evolutionary chain, was not the solution for their cloning problems, and Thor placed a marker in his DNA to prevent manipulation. O'Neill was replaced by a clone who failed to mature at a normal rate, and SG-1 was able to capture Loki. After repairing the clone's DNA, a visibly angry Thor took Loki into his custody.

When Anubis created the new Kull Warriors, O'Neill leads a team to capture one for interrogation. After learning that Daniel and Bill Lee had been captured while seeking an Ancient device in Nicaragua, O'Neill went to rescue them.

2004
After locating another Ancient repository of knowledge, O'Neill had the knowledge downloaded into his brain, in the hopes of finding the Lost City. After returning to Earth, however, SG-1 learned that newly inaugurated President Henry Hayes had relieved Hammond and replaced him with Doctor Elizabeth Weir. As O'Neill's condition began to deteriorate, SG-1 persuaded Weir to let them go by tel'tak to Proclarush Taonas. Arriving at the planet's outpost, O'Neill activated an Ancient star map, showed a picture of Earth, and said two words: Terra Atlantus. The Lost City of the Ancients was the Lost City of Atlantis, and it was on Earth. He also took the ZPM powering the outpost, and travelled to Antarctica, bypassing a fleet Anubis had brought to conquer Earth. During the Battle of Antarctica, O'Neill used the control chair in the Antarctic outpost to activate thousands of drone weapons, which destroyed Anubis' fleet. However, SG-1 was forced to place O'Neill in a stasis pod to prevent the Ancient knowledge from overwhelming him. Before he erased the knowledge, Thor interfaced O'Neill's mind with the Daniel Jackson, and asked him to build a weapon to fight the Replicators. O'Neill constructed a disruptor to sever the Replicator blocks and render them inert, allowing SG-1 to rescue a captured Carter and save Orilla. Back on Earth, O'Neill was promoted to Brigadier General and made commander of the SGC. His first act was to promote Carter to Lieutenant Colonel and make her commanding officer of SG-1.

While travelling to the Antarctic outpost, O'Neill was nearly killed when Carson Beckett launched a drone weapon, only being saved by the flying of John Sheppard. At the outpost, Daniel, Weir, and Rodney McKay persuaded O'Neill to authorize an expedition to travel to Atlantis, in the Pegasus galaxy. Despite Weir's insistence that Sheppard, who possessed the ATA gene, to be included, O'Neill was hesitant, citing Sheppard record, to which Weir pointed out O'Neill's record. O'Neill tried to convince Sheppard, saying that people who don't want to go through the Stargate were "whacked".

2005
After sending SG-1 to warn Maybourne of the impending approach of Ares, they discovered an Ancient vessel designed to travel in time. As O'Neill was the only one who could fly the vessel, he went off-world to activate it. He was able to destroy Ares' mothership, and save the people of the planet. The entire experience was rather fond for O'Neill, who commented that he "missed going off world".

When the Replicators began an invasion of the Milky Way, O'Neill coordinated with the Rebel Jaffa, the Tok'ra, and the Asgard to mount a defense of the galaxy. He refused to help Ba'al, however, to give the Rebel Jaffa a chance to take Dakara. When the Replicators breached the Iris, O'Neill led the defense of Cheyenne Mountain, trying to stall long enough to allow General Hammond to destroy the mountain. However, Carter and Jacob were able to use the Dakara Superweapon to destroy the Replicators in the galaxy, which also had the effect of inciting the rest of the Jaffa to rebel and bringing about the fall of the Goa'uld Empire.

When Daniel Jackson discovered that Ra possessed a ZPM, they used the time ship to travel back to 3,000 BC to steal it. However, the jumper was discovered by Ra's Jaffa. SG-1 left a message to warn the future, and attempted to cause a rebellion. However, O'Neill, Carter, and Teal'c were executed, and Ra took the Stargate when he left Earth. An alternate O'Neill, Carter, and Teal'c located Daniel, insured the Stargate was buried, and preserved the timeline (with the only noticeable exception being that the pond O'Neill fished in now had fish).

Following the collapse of the Goa'uld Empire, SG-1 disbanded itself. O'Neill was promoted to Major General and made commander of Homeworld Security, being succeeded by General Hank Landry as the commander of the SGC. Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell was able to reunite SG-1, however. After alerting the Ori to the presence of Humans in the Milky Way, Daniel admitted to O'Neill that he was actually scared, but O'Neill reminded him that they had faced some serious threats before, and come out alive.

2006
General O'Neill asked SG-1 to help Martin Lloyd in making a movie of Wormhole X-Treme!, to insure plausible deniability incase word of the Program was leaked. O'Neill also accompanied SG-1 through Mitchell's 200th trip through the Stargate, having a desire to go through it at least one more time.

While testing the Gate bridge that Carter and McKay developed to accelerate travel between Earth and Pegasus, the Daedalus encountered live Ancients who reclaimed Atlantis. O'Neill and Richard Woolsey were sent as liaisons, as the Ancients had asked the Atlantis expedition to leave. Soon, however, the Asurans launched an attack on Atlantis, taking the Ancients by surprise. Though O'Neill had ordered Landry to have Daedalus destroy Atlantis should the Ancients lose control of the city, Sheppard, Weir, McKay, and Beckett hijacked a puddle jumper to try and rescue O'Neill, Woolsey, and Atlantis. O'Neill, meanwhile, had to manual drain the water from an underwater jumper bay to rescue them, resulting in Woolsey and himself being captured. However, Sheppard, Weir, McKay, Beckett, Teyla Emmagan, and Ronon Dex were able to rig the shields to release a Replicator disruptor wave, destroying the Asurans in one fell swoop. On his return to Earth, O'Neill recommended that Weir be placed back in command.

2007
Jack was called in when Daniel was found to be a Prior. After a heated debate, he was convinced to allow SG-1 to capture an Ori battlecruiser carrying the incomplete Sangraal, hoping to send it to the Alteran Home Galaxy and neutralize the Ori. Daniel, however, commandeered the Odyssey and used Jack to fly him to the Supergate, as part of his plan. O'Neill gave the order to Daedalus to destroy the Stargate linked to the Supergate, allowing Daniel to dial the Supergate and send the weapon through. Though they sent the Sangraal, another eight Ori ships entered the Milky Way.

2008
SG-1 was invited to Ba'al's execution on the Tok'ra homeworld. Ba'al escaped and killed O'Neill with the substance to be injected into him. When Daniel Jackson, Samantha Carter, and Cameron Mitchell escaped to an alternate timeline, where Jack was a Colonel. Later, when Cam restored the timeline, Jack was never killed.

2009
General O'Neill ordered John Sheppard to return to Earth to use the Control chair against the ZPM powered Hive Ship.

Alternate realities

 * In an alternate reality Jack O'Neill was a General and the commanding officer of the SGA. When the Goa'uld invaded Earth and he discovered the location of Chulak from the Daniel Jackson of our reality, he sent a nuclear weapon through to attempt to halt the attack. He did not believe the Jaffa were worth salvaging a relationship with. This led to his death when tried to turn Teal'c from his service to Apophis. The Jack O'Neill from this reality is very similar to the one from ours, if a bit more hard-nosed. He was engaged to Samantha Carter at the time of his death.


 * In an alternate reality Jack O'Neill had been married to Samantha Carter for a year. He also died in the Goa'uld invasion of Earth. His death had a huge emotional impact on his wife. It seems he is very similar to his counterpart on our reality. It appears that he also frequently used the phrase "for crying out loud" and wouldn't "have a clue" what to tell a woman in the middle of an emotional crisis.


 * In an alternate reality Jack O'Neill was retired and living in his cabin. He was visited by Samantha Carter when she and Janet Fraiser discovered the Aschen had sterilized most of the Earth's population. They, Teal'c, and Daniel Jackson developed a plan to prevent this from happening, but they wanted O'Neill's help. At first he was reluctant, but joined them later. When the plan was put in action, he was the first one to attempt getting a note through the Stargate. He was killed by the automated defense system before reaching it.


 * In an alternate reality created through interference with the timeline, Jack O'Neill was retired and owned his own boat called Homer. He went to Chulak with Samantha Carter and Daniel Jackson to recruit Teal'c. They traveled back to ancient Egypt to fix the timeline. He showed affections for Samantha Carter. 


 * In the alternate timeline created by Ba'al's destruction of the ship that was transporting the Stargate in 1939, Jack was a colonel in the United States Air Force and Charlie was apparently still alive. Prior to history being 'reset", Jack was killed by the original Ba'al as he attempted to escape back to Earth.

Service Awards and Decorations
Over the course of his military career, Jack O'Neill has received a number of awards and decorations for his service in the United States Air Force.


 * Master Parachutist Badge
 * Master Space and Missile Operations Badge
 * Defense Distinguished Service Medal
 * Air Force Distinguished Service Medal
 * Meritorious Service Medal
 * Defense Superior Service Medal
 * Defense Meritorious Service Medal
 * Organizational Excellence Award
 * Vietnam Service Medal
 * Air Force Longevity Service Award

Jack's rack in Children of the Gods is shown to have the following ribbons:


 * Defense Distinguished Service Medal
 * Air Force Distinguished Service Medal
 * Defense Superior Service Medal
 * Airman's Medal
 * Defense Meritorious Service Medal
 * Meritorious Service Medal
 * Air Medal
 * Aerial Achievement Medal
 * Joint Service Commendation Medal
 * Air Force Commendation Medal
 * Air Force Achievement Medal
 * Outstanding Unit Award
 * Organizational Excellence Award
 * Combat Readiness Medal
 * National Defense Service Medal
 * Vietnam Service Medal
 * Southwest Asia Service Medal
 * Air Force Overseas Long Tour
 * Longevity Service Award
 * Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
 * Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi Arabia)

Other versions

 * Jack O'Neill (clone)
 * Jack O'Neill (Unity)
 * Jack O'Neill (robot)

Trivia

 * His iris code(old one) is 903-224-637, which is discovered by First.

Behind the scenes
In the original movie, this character's last name is spelled "O'Neil", with one L. Since O'Neil in the movie and O'Neill in the series are obviously supposed to be the same person, his name is spelled in this article the same way as in SG-1/Atlantis canon, even when speaking about the events of the movie. See Stargate canon for more details about this discrepancy.