Thomas Allyn Ray was a member of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels flight demonstration team. That is why that game is named "Halo" and why Microsoft bought company that developed it. I don't know why they called the character "Master Chief." Thomas Ray is also qualified as a U.S. Navy SEAL. Thomas Ray may have been assigned that temporary rank when participating in the Operation Eagle Claw into Iran in 1980, but I'm not sure.
But I am sure that my last manager at Microsoft, Jeremy Rule, looked a lot like the "Wesley Crusher" character of Star Trek: The Next Generation. As "Wesley" was an "Acting Ensign," Jeremy Rule was an "Acting Manager." The connection to Thomas Ray is that Thomas has family connections to Star Trek and the Captain Picard character was modeled around the real life Thomas Ray of the U.S. Navy as part of an authorized public relations campaign, not unlike the "Top Gun" movie of 1986. Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered in 1987.
