| Wiley | |
|---|---|
 Wiley in Episode 5. | |
| Aliases | William Nelson |
| Nicknames | Wiley Coyote |
| Status | Alive |
| Origin | United States |
| Affiliations | Koko's Squad Delta Force (former) 20th Engineer Brigade, XVIII Airborne Corps (former) |
| Occupation | Bodyguard Delta Force operator (former) United States Army officer (former) |
| Weapons | Various |
| Manga debut | Chapter 1 |
| Anime debut | Episode 1 |
| Japanese voice | Kenji Nomura (anime) Kazuhisa Tanaka (drama CD) |
| English voice | Akron Watson |
William Nelson (ウィリアム・ネルソン Uiriamu Neruson?), more commonly known as Wiley (ワイリ Wairi?), is a former United States Army officer and a member of Koko's Squad.
Appearance
Wiley is a dark skinned man with close-cropped hair and five earrings, with three hoops in his left ear and two studs in his right. He has two identical streaks in his hair above his ears originating from when he was grazed by a bullet during a mission in the Gulf War on the right side. As the hair stopped growing due to the scar, he balances this out by shaving an identical streak on the left side. Wiley is the only member of Koko's Squad besides Tojo who wears glasses. He has worn standard equipment and uniforms when the squad has been outfitted with them in addition to various civilian attire. During the Gulf War he wore the Desert Battle Dress Uniform and a bio-hazard suit.
Personality
Wiley genuinely enjoys his role as the squad's demolitions expert and was inspired to hone his craft by Koko Hekmatyar after joining the squad. He can get very excited when it comes to explosives and attempts to come up with more "cool" results to impress the others. He is the only member of the squad shown reading in his spare time.
Relationships
As a result of carrying out a mission during the Gulf War in 1991 with both Lehm and Echo, Wiley developed a great respect and admiration for both men, which was mutual. He got along particularly well with Echo due to the latter's open acceptance of him and open personality. Lehm and Echo's demeanor both before and during the mission played a role in convincing Wiley to join Delta Force.
Wiley and a young Koko in a flashback in Episode 19.
Lehm's earlier departure from the army to work for Koko and her charisma in turn inspired Wiley and Echo to do the same. Koko sees Wiley as a valuable member of the squad and completely trusts him in all manners regarding explosives, which she learned when she was younger and was targeted by would be assassins. He also typically acts as Lutz's spotter. Wiley has a better relationship with Jonah than the other tutors, Mao and Tojo, as Jonah seems to be more interested in languages than science or math. However although after learning about Wiley's background and seeing him enjoy taking out the surviving Excalibur members with their own suicide bomb, Jonah decided that he had to take Wiley's lessons more seriously from then on.
Abilities
Like most members of the squad, Wiley is proficient with a variety of firearms. However his specialty is explosives and he is a genius with all manner of them. His expertise includes defusion, the use of conventional ordnance, and rigging makeshift devices given what he has. This talent was evident during the Gulf War when he was handpicked to help Lehm's Delta Force team destroy a chemical weapons plant in northern Iraq, aided by his architectural major. After joining Koko's Squad he honed his skills with explosives such that he developed a sixth sense for being able to tell where any nearby bombs may be planted. This especially came in handy as Koko was a frequent assassination target when she was younger. Wiley would safely uncover any planted bombs, disconnect the detonation wires, and rerig them up so he could detonate the bombs himself to take out the bombers when they came in to check what was wrong. Wiley is considered so dangerous by the FBI that he is the only other member of to squad be on its black list besides Koko.
He passed the qualifications to become a Delta Force operator but it is not known if he was deployed operationally afterwards. Wiley also functions as Lutz's spotter and can fly an MH-6 Little Bird helicopter, making him the only other member of the squad other than Ugo who can fly aircraft.
History
Lehm and the others watch the factory as Wiley prepares to detonate the charges in a flashback in Episode 19.
Wiley comes from a family of architects and attempted to follow in his parents' and grandfather's footsteps by studying architecture at the University of Virginia. However he ended up pursuing a different career by becoming a combat engineer with the 20th Engineer Brigade. The brigade was deployed to Iraq as part of the XVIII Airborne Corps during the Gulf War in 1991 and Wiley was based in Kuwait. After a patrol with his unit during which they saw an A-10 fly overhead with burning oil wells in the distance, he was sought out by Lehm to assist with destroying an Iraqi chemical weapons plant in 40 hours. Accompanying a small Delta Force team consisting of Lehm, Echo, Arkin, and Howe, Wiley was flown by C-130 to an air base in Turkey. He was quickly given the nickname Wile E. Coyote (ワイリー・コヨーテ Wairī Koyōte?) after the team learned more about his background. En route, Lehm showed Wiley a photo of the plant, their sole piece of intelligence on it, to his consternation. Despite this, he quickly began planning how he would destroy it.
Following their arrival the air base, the team was flown to a mountain on the border overlooking the plant. With the operators providing cover and swiftly and efficiently taking out the plants' guards, Wiley set to work. While he was preparing the demolitions an injured Iraqi managed to shoot and graze the right side of his head before he was finished off by Echo. Despite the wound Wiley kept working and although the team had not brought enough explosives with them to destroy the plant, Wiley improvised by rigging them to detonate the 250 pound chemical bombs which were in the plant. After retreating to a safe distance, he successfully detonated the bombs, causing the plant to implode. This greatly impressed the Delta operators and following his experience, Wiley applied for and passed the qualifications to become a Delta Force operator.
He later met up with Echo at Fort Bragg and the two caught up. Wiley's revealation that he compensated for the distinctive horizontal scar caused by his injury by cutting the hair on the other side of his head to match it greatly amused Echo. When Wiley asked about Lehm, he learned that the latter had left the army. After meeting Koko he too decided to leave the army and began working for her. Wiley was one of the original members of the squad along with Lehm and Chiquita. As Koko was a target for assassination by bombers, his skill with bombs and explosives got to the point that he has become even better than them. This enabled him to turn the tables by tampering with the bombs in such a way that the bombers were the ones who ended up getting killed, eliminating any tangible evidence that Wiley was behind their deaths. These results delighted Koko and inspired Wiley to continue improving.
Plot
Fire Hare Arc
Wiley and Mao in Episode 1.
In the anime Wiley was shown during the opening sequence with the rest of the squad and Minami Amada watching a Hek-GG rocket launch from a naval launch platform.[1] He and Mao were the first squad members to be named when Koko brought Jonah to their hotel room. After he asked who Jonah was, Koko threw the door open and introduced him as the newest member of the squad. Like everyone else, he was surprised to see that her newest recruit was a former child soldier.
Gunmetal, Calico Road Arc
After Koko broke the news that C. K. Kloshkin was trying to take advantage of the successful recovery of the MiG-29 upgrades by selling 15 Hind-Ds to the air force and briefly rolled on the table in frustration, Wiley pointed out to Jonah that this meant that she was serious. He and R were assigned to remain at the hotel and coordinate communications as three separate teams would be operating in the field. In the anime he and everyone else was sickened by Jonah's fried eggs.[2]
Pulsar Arc
When the squad made a delivery to a certain Eastern European country bordering Russia Wiley was riding on top of the first semi-trailer in the convoy. After their border guards' APC was suddenly destroyed by an anti-tank missile, he threw himself flat and wondered if they had driven into a trap.
Musica Ex Machina Arc
Wiley spotting for Lutz in Episode 4.
In the anime Wiley is shown in the hotel room in Dubai where Tojo was trying to tutor Jonah in math.[3] After Koko and Valmet were attacked by Orchestra, Lehm directed Wiley and Lutz to get to a high point. They positioned themselves on a high rise 900 meters away from the waterfront with Wiley acting as a spotter for Lutz. When Shisho exposed himself, Lutz shot him first through the heart. Wiley confirmed this and had Lutz follow up with a head shot to make sure. Lehm then directed them to pull back unless they could get a clear shot at Chinatsu. She surprised them by actually wandering into the open as she was so distraught at Shisho's death, but Lutz hesitated when he saw that she was a young woman. Wiley instead had him disable Shisho's IMI Negev. Three days later when the squad was resting in their hotel room at night, Wiley was reading a book.
Vein Arc
Wiley takes Jonah after Chiquita releases him in Episode 5.
When Kasper's cargo ship approached the Atlas to deliver a cargo of VL MICA missiles, Koko had Wiley take Jonah belowdecks and tutor him to prevent her brother from running into Jonah. He did not tell Jonah that Kasper would be on the ship and told him a fable titled "The Pike and the Shield" to illustrate the contradiction that Koko had pointed out only an arms dealer would notice. He observed that Jonah seemed to be more interested in languages and allowed him to use the restroom when asked. While waiting outside, he was greeted by Kasper and realised too late that he and Jonah were not supposed to meet, alerting Chiquita. After she stopped Jonah from attacking Kasper, Wiley entered and took charge of him after she let him go. He likely told Koko what had happened afterwards, resulting in her angry eviction of Kasper from the Atlas.
Sea Route Arc
Wiley and Tojo were in a lounge together when Mao asked them if they had seen Jonah, who was avoiding him to get out of his science lesson. They pointed out to Mao that Jonah would ditch if he was not interested.
African Golden Butterflies Arc
When Somali pirates attacked the Atlas, Wiley crippled one of the speedboats, Contact 1, by throwing a demolition charge of C-4 into it while the pirates were distracted and detonating it. Lutz and R then helped him finish it off.
Anime and manga differences
Additions
- Wiley's reaction to seeing the photo of the chemical weapons plant is exaggerated, briefly causing the C-130 to lose altitude.[4]
Trivia
- Wiley's nickname, "Wiley Coyote" is based off of the Looney Toons character, Wile E. Coyote, who also has a penchant for explosives.
- Wiley placed 18th in a character poll conducted by Sunday GX which ran from June through September 2012, holding the lowest ranking for a current member of Koko's Squad.[5]