Ben Carville

Ben Carville is an American general from Texas,. Westwood Pacific, 2000. who aided the Allied Forces in the Second World War, the Third World War and the Psychic Dominator Disaster.
==Background==
A large, strong man, Carville has a very cowboy-like attitude and enjoys the finer things of life - alcohol, cigars and victories over communists. He has a very laid back personality, but becomes dead serious when military affairs are concerned, though he is not one to shy away from making a joke or a playful poke at one of his coworkers, like Agent .
He has two silver-plated Colt M1911s he carries as his sidearms.
==Character development==
===Second World War===
At the time of the Second World War, Carville was a Brigadier-General. During the war he disapproved of Nikos Stavros' stubbornness and penchant to embark on dangerous field missions. At some point in the conflict against the Soviets, he became aware of the enemy employing Sarin gas as a weapon against Allied forces. To combat this threat, he briefed a well-regarded field officer who was tasked with eliminating the shipment of Sarin gas in the convoy as well as evacuating any civilians in the region. After the mission was accomplished, Carville was pleased and gave a field promotion to the Allied Commander (apparently only a junior NCO at this time; an extremely unusual case) who was given the rank of Sergeant for his work.
Later, his forces became aware of the Soviets attempting to develop atomic capabilities. To find the location of the atomic processing facilities, General Stavros went to meet a Siberian informant of his but the Soviets learned of this secret meeting and sent a large force to intercept. Carville assigned the Allied Commander to save Stavros as well as end the threat posed by the Soviet atomic program.
He later assigned a new mission to the Allied Commander which involved attacking a Soviet sea base where they were developing sea-to-ground missiles. Now a Major, the Allied Commander was tasked with eliminating this threat as it meant that the Allies naval superiority over the Soviets was in danger. Thus, the Commander was assigned with destroying the sub pens, research facilities and anything else that was necessary to prevent the missiles from being deployed. For his success as well as the rescue of captured civilians in the research facility, the General gave the Allied Commander a Medal of Honor and offered to buy him a drink in the officers club.
With his promotion to a Colonel, the Allied Commander was briefed by Carville on the latest developments in the war against the USSR. This included a situation developing in Poland where the Soviets had developed their new super tanks, had nuclear weapons pointed at London and a mission to extract Doctor Demitri who was defecting to the Allies. Once the mission was completed, General Carville informed the Commander that he had been praising him to the British Prime Minister.
By the end of the campaign, a drunken Carville told the newly promoted Commander who held the rank of General now to go home now as they were all heroes after their victory. At the time, he was playing golf on his office's desk.
At some point, General Carville received the latest report from England where a field officer informed him that their southern position came under threat from giant ants. A shocked and confused Carville told them to call for their exterminators until he heard of the large size of the monsters. An angry Carville told the officer that they were not going to lose the war due to some ants; no matter their size and dispatched the Commander to settle the crisis.
===Third World War===
When the Soviets invaded the United States, President Dugan ordered Carville to launch a retaliatory missile strike. When this failed due to Yuri's psychic manipulation, the General returns to a familiar role: directing field commanders.
Throughout the campaign, he briefed the Allied Commander of all Soviet activity in the U.S. and abroad, and directed him to eliminate the threat they posed.
When Washington, D.C. was captured by the Soviets through the Psychic beacon, Carville was brainwashed along with the President, but was rescued by the Commander and relocated to Canada with the rest of the government until the city was cleared. He was later geared up to take on the Soviets head on, after Operation: Dark Night.
Carville was killed by a Crazy Ivan before departing to Berlin, where the final Allied attack on the Soviet Union was supposed to be planned. He was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors, with President Dugan attending the funeral. Carville's command was then passed on to the Commander who attacked Moscow.
===Psychic Dominator Disaster===
The end of the Third World War was followed by the Psychic Dominator Disaster. The Allies used Einstein's time machine to travel back to the beginning of the Third World War and avert Yuri's plan for world domination. In the process, Carville's death was also averted. Carville served with distinction in the fight against Yuri, but exhibited frustration at the complexity of time travel's effects on the two timelines.
In the new timeline, Carville aided the Allied Commander in stopping Yuri's harvesting operations in Los Angeles. He then sent the Commander to Seattle to prevent Yuri from using a nuclear missile silo on the Massivesoft campus, and then to Egypt to rescue Professor Einstein from Yuri's hands, where Einstein was forced to enhance the Psychic Dominator, but sabotaged it in secret.
Carville later briefed top Allied commanders about cloning facilities constructed in Sydney, Australia and sent the Commander to destroy them. Carville took temporary control of Allied communications after Lieutenant Eva Lee was manipulated and knocked out by Yuri to unveil the secret location of the London peace treaty between the Allies and Soviets. Finally, he stopped the lieutenant from resigning her post after she had recovered preceding the final attack on Antarctica.
Following Yuri's imprisonment in the Psychic Isolation Chamber, the two timelines merged. Carville remained alive and well, much to the surprise of the President during a White House briefing.
==Selected quotes==
==Notes==
* General Carville is referred to as "General Thorn" in the cast section of the Red Alert 2 manual.
* In the Retaliation manual and the official Barry Corbin website, Carville is named "George Carville". It is therefore unclear whether or not the Carville from Retaliation and the Carville from Red Alert 2 are the same person.
* In Red Alert 2, his uniform is highly inaccurate: his ribbons are ROTC ribbons and would not be worn by a commissioned officer. This was corrected in Yuri's Revenge.
* In the briefing cutscene for Liberty, Carville briefs about the Soviets occupying Washington D.C. that they have Tesla Coils, but he actually says "Prism Towers". The error was overdubbed.
==Gallery==
RA2_General_Carville_1.jpg
RA2_General_Carville_2.jpg|GET ME MY OFFICE BACK!
RA2_Ben_Carville.jpg|Carville calling President Dugan during the Soviet invasion
==References==