I think it would be awesome to have every soldier have background stories, before you recruit you can read about each guy, just a paragraph or so. To incorperate it with game play wouldnt be to hard. (unless we are totally randomizing charaters) Heres an example of what I mean
Cpt. Rivera (enter name here)
Captain Rivera comes to us from the US Army Rangers. When the first alien craft was shot down by NORAD his unit was dispatched to secure the crash site. Unfortunatly they went into the overwhelming odds and 10 of the 12 members were killed. Captain Rivera Himself was badly wounded and wouldnt have survived if not for a Private who carried him out. The last 5 years he has spent in a hospital and enduring extreme physical therapy to regain motor functions. We are warned by Command that he has shown signs of "Post dramatic stress" and may have a tendincy to break under the pressure. However, the psyc department gives him the green light for activation.
This is just an example, it may be tedious to make up a paragrah for 200 or so characters (or however many are put into the pool) How I feel this can help gameplay is help commanders choose the best people for the mission. For example, Captain Rivera may break down when under fire. (Low courage) Imagine someone else whos family had been killed by the aliens going beserk and killing and stuned aliens :
