The Deus ex Machina: Red Impulse
Kentaro Washio
Dr. Nambu and Kentaro Washio fought together in WWIII. Later, when the first signs that the subsequent peace might be disrupted by a new terrorist syndicate calling itself Galactor, Nambu asked Washio to investigate.
Though Washio's decision to fake his own death, supposedly to protect his family, probably felt heroic to him, it left his wife without a husband and his young son--Ken--without a father.
After Ken's mother died of illness when he was about 11, Nambu took him in and began training him for the Science Ninja team.
Soon after the team begins its battle against Galactor, they find assistance in the Red Impulse squadron, who tend to appear at the last possible moment, Deus ex Machina style, and miraculously save the day. He also shows up from time to time to beat some sense into Ken, as when he's feeling sorry for himself during the Jigokiller episodes.
Ken suspects a connection to Red Impulse, but he only learns that the man is his father moments before Washio climbs onto a doomed rocket and blows himself up to stop one of Galactor's plans to destroy the Earth.
Ken is left disillusioned and angry.
Other Members of the Red Impulse Squadron
Washio flies with two other pilots: Oniishi, whose tongue was cut out by Galactors when he was young, and Masaki. Both continue to help the Gatchaman team after Washio's suicide mission, and die bloody deaths at the end of Gatchaman I.