Private "Colonel" T'Phai is the former military leader of the Skinnies. T'Phai's rank is Private within the Mobile Infantry, but he is still referred to as "Colonel", his Skinnie rank, by his fellow Roughnecks. T'Phai is considered a father figure since he had a wife, who was also in the military, and two children. He believes in fighting a war so that his children wouldn't share the same fate as him.