The LT and this dude, whom looks like Sgt Forge, appear to be the cut cheese of John. The LT bringing the Lone Wolf and strong silent type to the mix, while the Forge dude brings the (squad) leader aspects John had with his other Spartans (only seen outside the games really).

In this way they not only have very specific characters (even up to a leader type) but also the swiss army knife Spartan which gives the player the freedom to define how they think this LT battles.

In really is just ODST all over again, with some refinements, when analyzed