Phil Coulson

Agent Phil Coulson is one of SHIELD's most legendary and best-of-the-best operaties. He serves as Director Fury's man on the ground for his most important missions. Dependable, loyal and one of SHIELD's most decorated field agents. Agent Coulson was in charge as the primary operative in Director Fury's Avengers Initiative. His clearance level is 7.

The Stark Problem
Agent Coulson was assigned by his superiors to debrief Tony Stark from his abduction from the terrorists organization the Ten Rings. Believing that Stark was only a civilian and not a trained solider, would spill out all his creations and technologies to the terrorists. Although Coulson would not have a chance to talk to Stark as the man was always busy. He then grows suspicious of Obadiah Stane and asks his superiors if he can investigate the man but is declined. His next orders were to talk to Stark's assistant Pepper Potts and try to have her schedule a meeting with Stark.

A few days later, SHIELD detected something that looked liked an unmanned vehicle. But when Coulson saw the footage, he and his superiors realized that the vechile is Stark in a flying armored suit. To prove this, they hacked into Stark's computer systems and confirmed that Stark is indeed the man on the suit.

Later Coulson would travel to Afghanistan, particularly where Stark was held, after being traced by SHIELD. They would find an abandoned camera and saw a footage of Stark's armor and how he escaped. After which, Coulson was contacted to return to the US and has him check Stane, he also saw the reports of a flying man engaging two F-22 Raptors.