Jack fought in the Liberian Civil War as a child. He was adopted by Solidus Snake, who had killed Jack's parents without him knowing. As a soldier in the small boy's unit, Jack earned the nickneames "White Devil" and "Jack the Ripper."

Jack left Liberian and moved the the United States as an adult. Jack forgot about his past as a child soldier, either due to his memore being altered or because he chose to forget it. He joined the Army's Force XXI trials and also trained in various VR missions. In 2007, Jack met Rose at Federal Hall in New York City, the two would soon beocme romantically involved. 

On April 29th, 2009, Jack infiltrated the Big Shell under the codename "Raiden". Raiden's mission was to rescue President James Johnson, who had been taken hostage by a terrorist group called "Sons of Liberty". Raiden is helped during the mission by his "Colonel" as well as Rose, who is acting as the mission analyst. During the mission, Raiden meets Solid Snake, who was under the alias of Iriquois Plisken, and discovers that the Big Shell is actually just a place to house Arsenal Gear. Raiden succeeds in meeting up with President Johnson, but Revolver Ocelot assassinates Johnson before Raiden is able to save him. Raiden is then sent into Arsenal Gear by Olga and Snake, who had him captured. While captured, Raiden meets up with Solidus Snake once again, who reminds Raiden of his childhood and all of the awful things that he saw and did. Olga then tells Raiden that the Patriots have her child, and if Raiden is killed, then Olga's child will also be killed. Rose then contacts Raiden and makes a confession to him, that she was a Patriot spy and had been ordered to keep an eye on him. Rose then tells him that she is pregnant with his child before she is removed by the Patriots and replaced with an AI. After that, Raiden teams up with Solid Snake, and the two are able to fight off waves of Arsenal Tengus, before Raiden learns that the Colonel he had been talking too the whole mission was actually an AI. Raiden succeeds in destorying GW, the AI that controlled the Metal Gear Rays that were protecting Arsenal Gear. Raiden then learns that the entire mission was actually orchastrated by the Patriots, and that he himself had been used. Liquid Snake then activates Arsenal Gear, and it crashes through Manhattan before stopping at Federal Hall. There, Raiden and Solidus duel using swords, and Raiden is able to defeat his "father". He is then reunited with Rose.

5 years after the Manhattan incident. Raiden joins alongside Solid Snake once again to defeat the PMC army lead by Liquid Ocelot. Now, just a head and spine, he is more artificial than man. Strong enough to take on the Gekkou army, but only one can match him, Vamp...