CO Commander Tom Chandler is the captain and lead officer on the USS Nathan James. He is married with a wife and two children (a daughter and a son). He once told Tex that he joined the Navy because his father was in the Army, and he knew it would piss his father off.In flashbacks it is revealed that he was supposed to have been on leave when he was called to man the USS Nathan James on a mission to extract some abandoned weapons in the ocean. He is also supposed to transport Dr. Rachel Scott and her assistant, Dr. Quincy Tophet, to do research on birds. He later finds out that Dr. Scott and Dr. Tophet are on a top-secret mission to find a cure for a rapidly-spreading virus that has killed most of the world's population.Chandler seems to be well-liked and respected by his officers and crew, and thought of as fair. However, he does make decisions that leave his crew doubting his way of thinking. Eventually, his crew comes around when things work out but he seems to always have to justify his actions, despite being the lead officer on the ship. In light of Dr. Scott's secrecy at the beginning of the mission, Cmdr. Chandler makes it a point to exercise transparency with the ship's crew, which isn't always advised by his officers. However, his crew and officers admit to themselves and each other that Chandler always seems to have a plan.Chandler has to fight a Russian ship that tries to attack the Nathan James; he finds out that the reason is that Dr. Tophet is a spy for the Russians, who have kidnapped his wife and daughter as leverage. The Russians want Dr. Scot and her research so that they could control the cure. Chandler sends Lt. Danny Green adn Lt. Kara Foster as decoys to the Russian ship, while the rest of the crew boards the ship on another side. The crew manages to free Tophet's wife and child before blowing up the Russian ship.Chandler is asked by Dr. Scott to catch some monkeys so that she could test the cure on the, since their DNA is similar to that of humans. Chandler, XO Slattery, Green, and CMC Jeter go to an island and are taken prisoner by the ruler of the island, who keeps a select group of people on one side of the island away from the infected population on the rest of the island. The man likes to rape the eldest daughter of the former mayor of the island, but the mayor can do anything without bringing harm to his children. When Slattery and Chandler try to intervene, the leader sends the girl to the infected side o the island and has the younger daughter brought to him for rape. The group manage to kill the leader and get the monkeys, but are faced with a crisis of conscience as they see the hordes of infected people on the shores, crying for help.Chandler finds his father, son and daughter at the Olympia compound in Baltimore and gives them the cure. He discovers that his wife died days ago, and he is distraught. He manages to get his father and children to safety after he and Burk notice that the medicine given to other Olympia residents ends up killing them. Chandler ends up helping to fight Amy Granderson, who ordered the Maryland State troopers to take over the Nathan James and kidnap Dr. Scott in an effort to get her to teach Granderson's scientists how to make the cure; the cure would only be for Granderson's select group, not the general populations. Chandler finally corners Granderson as she is about to escape but she kills herself with the same poison given to theOlympia people rather than be arrested and tried. Chandler later promotes Lt. Alisha Granderson to full lieutenant based on her bravery and loyalty shown during her mother's questionable social experiment and treatment of the Nathan James crew.The Baltimore incident made Chandler seriously consider resigning his commission to stay with his family, but his daughter told him that her mother would never want him to abandon the mission before it was complete. His father told him not to run away, and to fulfill his duty to the Navy. Chandler ended up returning to lead the Nathan James. Show less «