Whiskey Hotel


 * Ranger: "So when are we goin' to Moscow?"
 * Cpl. Dunn: "Not soon enough man. But I know we're gonna burn it down when we get there."
 * Sgt. Foley: "When the time's right, Corporal. When the time's right."
 * — A Ranger, Dunn, and Foley

"Whiskey Hotel" is the fourteenth campaign mission of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It continues the events of "Of Their Own Accord" and "Second Sun", which ends the trilogy. It is also the last appearance of James Ramirez and Hunter Two-One. The player takes control of James Ramirez.

Main Characters

 * James Ramirez (Playable)
 * Sergeant Foley
 * Corporal Dunn
 * Colonel Marshall

Level Briefing
"Whiskey Hotel"

Day 5 - 19:28:24-31

Pvt. James Ramirez

1st Bn., 75th Ranger Regiment

Washington D.C., U.S.A.

Walkthrough
The player starts where the player was left off in "Second Sun." From the bunker, the team emerges onto the South Lawn of the White House and meets up with Colonel Marshall. Marshall explains to Foley that they're looking at the "high ground," seeing the American flag still up on top of the White House, which has been severely damaged and fortified with spotlights and machine gun nests.

With power still in it, the squad should be able to talk to Central Command if they can retake the building. The group fights and takes on severe losses. The Ultranationalists fiercely defended the White House. The team eventually starts pushing the Russians back, and they regain ground yard by yard. Foley leads his team over the left flank to reach the West Wing. The machine gun fire will make it difficult to advance, especially on the harder difficulties, but destroying the searchlights does help make the gunners less attentive to the player. Hearing from a speaker behind a painting in the Oval Office, the team has just two minutes before the Air Force initiates the "Hammerdown Protocol" and flattens the city in order to take out the Russians. The strike will be aborted only on buildings where green flares are spotted.

The player then must fight through the building and successfully reach the roof in the nick of time to pop green flares signaling the Air Force to abort the fire mission. All of the Rangers run to the top, taking advantage of this surge of adrenaline to remove the gun and allow Rangers fighting in front of the White House to return to the building. They finally get to the top, coming just in time for stop the bombing. Looking out at a burning Washington D.C., there are a number of other buildings marked with green flares as the sun sets behind the Washington Monument, meaning that the US Armed Forces succeeded in holding Washington, DC. In the last words of the level, the Rangers begin discussing a possible invasion of Russia, then ending the mission.

Starting Loadout
The following weapons are the initial starting weapons.

Found in Level
The following weapons can be found with or without attachments.

Intel Locations
1/2 Intel: Soon after exiting the oval office and engage in fire-fight, face west, it's on a leather couch.

2/2 Intel: After winding up the last stairs and soon after going through a blown out wall, immediately turn North.

Achievements/Trophies
Whiskey Hotel (15G / Bronze Trophy) - Obtained by beating "Whiskey Hotel" on any difficulty.

Homecoming (25G / Silver Trophy) - Obtained by beating "Of Their Own Accord", "Second Sun", and "Whiskey Hotel" on Veteran.

General

 * Many fans question the fact that electrical equipment appear to be functioning in this level even though the EMP had supposedly wiped out any form of power. However, as stated earlier in the level, power is still available in the White House. This is true because government buildings in D.C. are specifically constructed to withstand an EMP.
 * When the player picks up a weapon with an ACOG scope equipped, the glowing cross-hairs will not be present, presumably as a result of the EMP. However, this is technically inaccurate, as real-world ACOG scopes use a combination of Tritium isotopes and fiber optics to provide electronics-free illumination.
 * Whiskey Hotel is the military designation for "White House", according to the NATO phonetic alphabet.
 * There is no briefing at the beginning of this level. This is probably because the EMP from "Second Sun" disabled all electronic devices and that the story continues straight from the previous level.
 * The timer in this level is 19:28 (7:28pm), 31 minutes after the timer in "Second Sun," 18:57 (6:57pm). If the player was able to clear the previous level in less than 31 minutes, the time lapse of these events should be accurate.
 * As the countdown timer goes to 60 seconds before the White House is destroyed, the player will enter a room that has the stairs that will lead to the next floor. If the player turns left and looks on a wall, he can see a stenciled graffiti of a nuclear mushroom cloud with the words "Death to USA" on it. The player can also find this drawing in the multiplayer map Underpass.
 * As stated above, it might be a reference to the mission "Shock and Awe" in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The mushroom cloud is the atomic bomb and the "Death to USA" is the deaths of 30,000 Marines.
 * If the player does not go to the roof of the White House but instead goes outside and waits for the time to run out, the player will not see the jets arrive to bomb the area, but bombs will nevertheless detonate, killing the player.
 * As with the previous level, enemies and allies alike visibly equipped with electronic sights still fire with the same accuracy, not thinking to remove them (whether or not the weapon still has iron sights).

Backyard

 * Near the beginning, Col. Marshall is heard ordering to 'keep hittin' em' with the Two-Forty Bravos'. He is referring to the M240's some of the Rangers are seen using, as the M240 that is used in the US Army, the M240B, is almost always pronounced "M240 Bravo" or just "240 Bravo".
 * Foley has an astounded expression when he first sees the White House.
 * In the previous level, "Second Sun", Ramirez's uniform and wrist-GPS have been heavily damaged, but now they are back in perfect condition. Speculation from fans concludes that he may have somehow acquired new ones off-screen, though even if he had actually done that, his GPS would not work due to the EMP.
 * Although the GPS unit looks fine in first-person view, the minimap is filled with static if the player pauses the game. However from first-person view it is very hard to tell if it is functional.
 * The player can find a stationary M249 SAW in the beginning of the level mounted on a downed tree.
 * If the player hijacks the M249 SAW, they can fire at the MGs for a certain amount of time, then the MG will be destroyed.
 * The SAW mentioned above is exactly the same as the one in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, as the bullets on the belt do not move when the player fires it.
 * Even if the player picked up an M4A1 with M203 Grenade Launcher in the previous level, the player will load this gun at the beginning of the level as if he has obtained a new one.
 * Once the player gets past the downed Russian helicopter close to the West Wing, the machine gunners and snipers on the White House itself stop firing.

West Wing and Oval Office

 * After the player enters the Oval Office the Russians on the White House and Colonel Marshall will disappear.
 * There is a copy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein on the President's desk.
 * There is also a book on the President's desk about the Dutch painter Gerard van Honthorst who, somewhat ironically, is famous for his nighttime candlelit paintings. The majority of light in this, and the previous level, are provided by fire and smoke.
 * The speakers inside the White House repeat this message: "This is Cujo 5-1 to friendly units in D.C. - Hammerdown is in effect. I repeat: Hammerdown is in effect. If you are receiving this transmission, you are in a hardened high-value structure. Deploy green flares on the roof of this structure to indicate you are still combat effective. We will abort our mission on direct visual contact with this countersign."
 * While in the Oval Office, the Player can look out the windows and see the WWII Memorial burning in the distance.
 * The windows in the Oval Office can be broken easily by one bullet, even though they are supposedly bulletproof.

Executive Residence and Rooftop

 * Even when there's no timer appearing on the screen towards the end of the level, the player must get to the roof within two minutes (at lower difficulties). If one takes too long on Veteran difficulty, the player will be killed by the Air Force fighter jets.
 * It isn't completely necessary to ignite the emergency flares once the player gets to the roof, since there is always another friendly AI soldier who is also popping the signal.
 * The AI mentioned above somehow was already near the roof despite the Russian forces just a flight of stairs away from him.
 * The flare is scripted to force one's view upwards around the time the fighter flies overhead, as long as the player pops it soon after the prompt shows up. If one pops the flare after the fighter passes, the player will see an empty sky.
 * For a very brief moment it is possible to see "Tactical Insertion" onscreen as the flare pops. The same model is used, though with different animations.
 * When dropping the flares, they disappear as soon as they hit the ground. However, the AI soldier's flares stay on the ground.
 * A rare glitch is the fact that Cpl. Dunn may not follow the player up to the roof if one sprints there fast enough, but he'll nevertheless say his lines.
 * Another glitch is when the player obtains a flare, grab a weapon from an enemies corpse and a message will pop up saying that an error occurred.
 * A third glitch is that the fighter jets that fly over the White House are MiG-29s which are Russian airplanes even though the planes are from the US Air Force.
 * The player can roughly hear the fighter pilots saying "Counter-sign detected at Whiskey Hotel! ABORT! ABORT!"
 * It has been observed with an M16A4 with M203 that if the flare can be popped quickly enough the flare will glow at the end of the weapon, but the player will not be holding it, and it is still possible to fire it.
 * Considering the EMP knocked out all electronics, the fighter jets at the end of the level would not be able to operate, unless they flew in from the west coast which, according to the game, was not affected by the EMP.

Setting

 * The White House apparently sustained heavy damage as a result of the conflict and the EMP, as parts of its facade are bombed out, the South Lawn is a mass of craters, and an Mi-28 and MiG-29 almost crashed into the West Wing.
 * The supposed bunker underneath the Eisenhower building makes no sense. A nuclear bunker would be made of concrete not brick, nor would it essentially be a tunnel from the White House to the Eisenhower Building instead just a room resembling the panic room in "Exodus". If indeed the "bunker" was the bunker for the President to use it would have needed to be a great deal stronger than is demonstrated, it was destroyed by a nuke that went off a fair distance from the city, it would be designed to withstand a nuclear explosion in D.C. itself. Additionally, there appears to be no communications facilities in the "bunker", a necessity for a nation's leader during all out nuclear war. It is possible this is just a tunnel for the president to escape through and thus the characters are mistaken.
 * The fate of the President is unknown, and it is implied he evacuated the city, as Foley and the squad come upon the Presidential Bunker, which is completely destroyed and empty. Since the EMP was observed to take out all air transportation and probably ground transport, if the President was not evacuated earlier, little hope for his life remains in fast transportation, although it is known that the two 747s that become Air Force One with the President on board are EMP shielded. It is also possible the Secret Service diverted him to the National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC)--a modified Boeing E-4B jet specifically designed to carry the President during wartime or other national emergency. It is also possible that Air Force One survived the blast and the EMP considering it was designed to take an almost immediate blast from a nuclear weapon. Its possible that the President and the First Family have moved to the Cheyenne Mountains, the base that mentioned in briefing in Second Sun, along with other Presidential Cabinets.
 * The heavy amount of fortification and presence of equipment and jeeps suggest the Russians were attempting to turn the White House into a makeshift forward base when the EMP struck.
 * The Washington Monument is shown to be in line with the White House's South Lawn. It is actually to the southeast of the White House, so if one were to look at its location in game from the White House's South Lawn, it would be actually be slightly to the left.
 * An explosive of some sort apparently barreled through the White House's roof, as the staircases and ceilings have collapsed and there is a gaping hole in the roof.
 * The "Hammerdown" radio broadcast mentions that if the listener is able to receive the transmission that means he is currently inside a "hardened high-valued structure." If HQ already knows about the earlier EMP this means that the "hardened high-valued structures" are immune to EMP detonation. Other structures designated as such appear to be the U.S. Capitol Building, the Smithsonian Museum, and the Washington Monument.
 * The fighter jets that break off the airstrike, though glimpsed only briefly, are not USAF jets, as their overall profiles match that of the MiG-29, however, since the MiG-29s profile is very similar to the F-15E it could be easily confused.
 * In "Second Sun", the player goes through the Eisenhower Building to the President's bunker on the east wing. In a real map, the Eisenhower Building is actually west of the White House, whereas when the player starts he somehow comes out east of the White House when the previous level he ended to the west.
 * The snipers on the roof of the White House have OpFor skins. It is unknown why.
 * The White House has no floor.

Miscellaneous

 * The ending to this mission is a significant reference to the climax of the movie The Rock in that the protagonist must launch a flare to abort an incoming air strike. In the trailers for the game, a Ranger is even seen getting down on both knees with a flare in each hand exactly like the end of The Rock.
 * In the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 mission "Dust to Dust", the White House is seen being repaired. This possibly was foreshadowed by Shepherd, who said "We've rebuilt it before, we'll rebuild it again." There appears to be substantial efforts to repair the White House, as the grass appears to have been cleaned up, and is growing again, and the area has been repainted.
 * Moreover, what The Rock and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 share are the songs composed by Hans Zimmer.
 * In the conference room, the phones will say "COD4," a direct reference to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
 * There is a glitch on this level. When the player goes through the broadcast station and looks at the first door on the right, and then smashes the first two windows on the bottom and crawls through it, the player will be outside and can run through the ground. Because the collision is remarkably complete for an inaccessible area, it is assumed that the player was originally going to be allowed to go here, but it was closed off.
 * In the glitch mentioned above when the player goes outside and moves straight forward they will be able to see two Rangers that are badly burnt.
 * Also when using this glitch and going to where the destroyed tank is, one can see two spades in the ground used to dig a hole for the tank. These spades are Spetsnaz's trademark close quarters combat weapon.
 * The music that plays while attempting to retake the White House is also the Army Rangers defeat theme, and the music that plays while the two minute countdown to Hammerdown protocol is the Rangers' victory theme.
 * This and "Second Sun" are the only two levels that the user plays as a Ranger consecutively, besides "S.S.D.D" and "Team Player". "Second Sun" and "Whiskey Hotel", however, are the only two consecutive Ranger missions in which the player encounters live enemies, as "S.S.D.D." is a tutorial level.
 * The transition between "Second Sun" and "Whiskey Hotel" is the only one to occur without a briefing or cutscene in between the two missions.
 * When the player use the flares and back up and pick up a gun then an error message will pop up. It is likely that the player was not intended to use a gun at that moment.
 * This level is very similar to Call of Duty: World at War's Downfall because they both begin with fighting enemies on the higher ground and they both involve the player needing to push to the rooftop with the player doing something heroic on it at the end of the level.
 * The "Hammerdown Protocol" seems to be a reference to the same operation to flatten New York City in the 2008 monster movie Cloverfield.
 * In the room, where Foley kicks in the door in order to get on the roof, there is a Throwing Knife stuck into a table, but the player cannot use it.
 * This mission is the final mission where the Rangers play a major role, as their role is taken up by Delta Force in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, although scenes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, particularly the Washington Monument, are visible in "Iron Lady".
 * Looking closely in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the player can see that all damage has been removed from the White House, heavily implying that major efforts were directed to the White House to ensure the government could move back into the city.