Jackson 'Jack' Barr is an agent with the CIA.
Interestingly when we are first introduced to Barr, it is not dealing with his employment at Langley but rather his family life. We meet him as he is on a rock-climbing wall "dangling 60 feet above the deck" of a cruise ship and most definitely not having a good time at it. We learn immediately that Barr, for all his experiences working for the Directorate of Operations at the Agency, he does not like heights - at all. His wife standing below him along with his two young daughters shouting somewhat dubious words of encouragement did not help though the physical nature of this climb was not an issue as he was still in pretty good shape. Heights were .. unpleasant.
Barr is 42 years old. He has been married to Kate for 15 years and has daughter Riley, age 11, and Allison, 8. We encounter them on a cruise out of Galveston which was designed to help rekindle the romance in his and Kate's relationship which had started to fray, not to mention healing a starting schism between Barr and his daughters due to his concentration on work.
Barr grew up as a typical Army brat, moving to a new country and new home every three years or so. He was instilled by his father, who would later go on to work at the CIA, with a desire to serve but the idea of so frequently moving as an adult did not sit well. He joined the Agency straight out of college and has been with them for two decades.
The events told in the first recorded adventure will have a profound effect on all members of the Barr family, especially Barr who had been very content to sit behind a desk at Langley, analyzing and planning and reporting but never out in the field himself. While he will find that he still is not really thrilled about the dangers of being an actual operations man, he was pleased to have learned that he was pretty darn good at it. Well, minus having to jump out of a plane considering that the aircraft was several thousand feet in the air - Barr definitely found heights .. unpleasant.