Esteban "Steve" Hernandez

Esteban "Steve" Hernandez acts as the father of a captured U.S. Marine among three abducted during a Bitanga airport patrol. Debbie introduces him with the Hernandez family in the Outer Oval Office, where he shakes hands with President Bartlet. He demands answers on brutalities aired on foreign TV—has his son been beaten?—and presses for rescue efforts to retrieve the Marines. His forthright questions amid shared family grief force Bartlet to balance compassion with security constraints, embodying civilian anguish in a military crisis that demands White House action.