Starship Troopers

We have five Sunday’s this month, which means it’s time for a break from the heavy non-fiction with a work of fiction, and this month, I am doing sci-fi’s classic favorite, Starship Troopers, by Robert A Heinlein.

First, I am going to go through the book and the story therein. Then I’m going to explain all the ways the movie fucked up the story. And how the hack writers on the interwebs most definitely did NOT Grok what Heinlein was saying.

The book opens with Rico getting ready to make a drop on a planet. Not a bug planet, a different planet populated by “skinnies.” Beyond a vague description of them as such and the information that later they become our allies against the bugs, the skinnies aren’t really mentioned. But it’s describing a basic drop and day in the life of a trooper, and how phenomenally bad ass the pilots are. The best pilots in this story are women. And I’m pretty sure there’s actual historical precedence for Heinlein to have put this as a plot point, given that he served in WWII, and women were flying with the US Air Force through the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program. And their safety rating was unparalleled. Enough of the historical tangent.

The book then pulls us back to the beginning, how Rico ended up a trooper. Juan Rico, aka Johnnie, and yes, he goes by Johnnie in the book, is a recent high school graduate, so young, at least 18 years of age, because you have to be 18 years old, but no older than that. In the book, he is Filipino, which you literally don’t learn until the chapter, when he says something, then comments that his native language is Tagalog. His family is very wealthy, and his father wants him to go to Harvard, then follow in the family business. And Rico is actually kind of waffling on this, but he had promised to meet his friend Carl at the recruiter’s office and sign up with him. Rico initially goes to the recruiter with the intent to tell Carl he’s out, dad wants him to cruise to Mars on vacation and start Harvard in the fall. But while there, Carmencita Ibanez, the prettiest girl in their class, shows up and announces she is set to join too, with an eye towards being a pilot. Note: There is nothing romantic between the two characters. A hinted at possible one night fling, but nothing definitive. Ibanez is not a love interest, and beyond being a plot point Rico follows into the recruitment building, she basically vanishes from the story until Chapter 12.

But, in trying to impress Ibanez, Rico decides on the spot to join up. So, they go in, Ibanez is sent to the women’s recruitment location, and Rico and Carl talk to the recruiter, who in the book is missing both legs and one arm. Turns out, this is entirely by design. The military wants to discourage the walk ins who just want to try it out and those who really won’t make it through the course. It is literally anyone’s right to perform service and earn their citizenship. But the responsibility is enormous. So, they make it as easy as possible to join…you literally just have to walk in and sign a paper. They also make it as easy as possible to resign. After signing up, they give you the weekend to think about it. If you don’t return, no harm no foul, you’re discharged as term not completed, and you are never eligible to try again, and you can never be a citizen. So, what does being a citizen mean? It means you get the right to vote. Like literally, that’s it. But think about that for a moment. The right to vote is taken for granted here in 21st century America. In Heinlein’s future, you have to earn the right to vote through federal service. And frankly, not everyone has what it takes to be a citizen and earn that right. The book even mentions the possibility of just requiring everyone to serve, and just as quickly shoots it down. Forcing everyone to serve results in lazy soldiers and drops the quality of service overall. You have to want it. And if you don’t care to go for it, you don’t deserve it. And at this point in Heinlein’s future, federal service is a pure meritocracy. Like literally, if you suck, you do not advance.

Terms of service are for 2 years, unless in war time, and when your service might be extended. When Rico joins, we are at peace, so his stint is supposed to be for 2 years. And boot camp is fucking brutal. When he arrived at Camp Currie, somewhere in the American’s Midwest, like flat prairieland all the way, there are 2009 men who start. Only 187 graduate and become troopers. 14 die, one was executed, and the rest resigned, dropped out, transferred to an easier branch, or received medical discharge. One received a bad conduct discharge. And it’s as easy to leave. Literally, just let your sergeant know you’re done, and you’re out. Term of service marked incomplete. You can never reenlist, but you remain a citizen.

The sergeants beat the ever-loving shit out of the recruits, winnowing out the weak. There are three incidents which really stand out and are described in detail. The dishonorable discharge. Rico was acting as the captain’s orderly due to a minor injury that kept him from field training for a few days. And in marches Sergeant Zim, a couple of the other recruits, and recruit TC Hendrick. While on a freeze drill, Hendrick broke ranks. Zim immediately knocked him down and told him to freeze. Freeze drill is exactly what it sounds like. You’re told to freeze and you’d better fucking freeze. The point of the drill is that if you are in enemy territory, and you’re told to freeze, ANY movement could draw enemy attention to you. So, you better fucking freeze. Well, Hendrick froze on an ant hill, and immediately tried to move. Zim told him to freeze and knocked him down. Hendrick jumped up and punched Zim in the face. Zim and subsequently Captain Frankel tried everything they could to get this idiot to shut up and accept administrative punishment. Hendrick would not stop talking and talked himself into a court martial when he admitted to hitting a superior officer. This is one of the forbidden things. Captain Frankel convened a field court martial as an act of mercy. The mercy being had it NOT been a field court martial, Hendrick could have been hung for this action. As it is, he received ten lashes and a bad conduct discharge.

But most telling is after this, Rico finds himself in a position to inadvertently overhear Zim and Frankel talking. And Zim accepts full responsibility for this entire sorry incident. He admits he wasn’t on the bounce, and he should have been. If he had been, that blow would never have landed. And Hendrick would have at worst resigned, at best accepted the administrative discipline.

The one who was executed was a guy who deserted. Which is plain stupid. Remember how easy it is to leave. If he had just let his sergeant know, he’d have been home by supper. But deserting is one of the 31 charges that land you on the gallows, although, as Rico explains, it’s rarely enforced unless special circumstances attach. Well, circumstances attached, as the deserted kidnapped a kid, tried to hold her for ransom, and the kid died. So mobile infantry stepped in and took care of their own. In this case, with a noose, and his name was struck from their roles.

The third incident that stands out is Rico’s own lashing. Now, Rico had made it over the hill at this point, the hill being the point where if you’re going to resign, you’ll do it before this peak. While in boot, Rico received two letters. One from his mother explaining that his father was still mad, but she still loved him. And one from his History and Moral Philosophy teacher, one Lt Col DuBois. In the movie, they combined DuBois with Rico’s first troop lieutenant, Ratzchak. But in the book, DuBois is delighted to find out Rico has followed him to the MI and his letter sees Rico over the hill. Turns out, Zim knows DuBois too. But the point of that, is when Rico screws up bad enough he COULD be discharged, Captain Frankel and Sergeant Zim determine he can be salvaged, and he is instead sentenced to five lashes. So, what did he do? They were in a training simulation, and the exercise called for precise math to put down the next bombing. Instead of using the head display and actually calculating where the drop should go, Rico flips his helmet up, eyeballs it, and sends the bomb. Power to his suit is completely cut and he’s grounded for the rest of the exercise. Now, no one actually died as a result of this. But and this is important to understand, MI does not pass subpar troopers. Taking that short cut in training can and will lead to “friendly fire” deaths in the field. So, this is something he COULD have been discharged for, and rightly so. But Frankel asks, “can we save this trooper.” And Zim says, “I believe so yes.” So, Rico is given five lashes. And points out that the good thing about the administrative discipline in training is it does not stay on your permanent record. You take your lashes and move on. And Zim does give him a mouth guard to protect his teeth. I mean, clearly whoever adapted the screenplay had actually READ the source material. It would be nice if they got someone who actually LIKED the source material to adapt to screenplay.

So, after completing all training, Rico is assigned to Ratchzek’s Roughnecks aboard the Rodger Young. Fun historical note, Rodger Young was a private with the 148th infantry when, on July 31, 1943, on the island of New Georgia, Solomons, South Pacific, he singlehandedly attacked and destroyed an enemy pillbox position. He was wounded multiple times, dying in the process. He received a posthumous medal of honor for his actions.

Back to the book. Razchak does die, leaving the troop under the command of Lt Jelal, and it’s while they’re on rest and recovery that one of the other sergeants floats the idea of Rico going career. And after thinking about it a bit, Rico goes to Jelal, makes the announcement he wants to go career, which is like a 20-year term of service, and is promptly transferred to officer candidate school. In the modern US military, you have to be a college graduate to be an officer. In Heinleins future of meritocracy, you just have to be highly competent to be an officer. And Rico was that level of competent. And on his way to OCS, he meets his father.

See, the bug blast on Buenos Aires that launches Rico’s career in the movie happened in the book too. In the book, his mother had been there shopping when it happened, and Rico had assumed his father was with his mother. His father was not. And following Buenos Aires, he joins MI too, looking for Johnnie. And he admits that part of why he’d been so mad Rico joined up was anger that he had never had the willpower to do the same.

So, Rico goes through OCS and the final run before being commissioned is to serve as 3rd lieutenant on an actual assignment, with his captain determining his pass or fail. If he passes, he will be an officer and eligible to promote up through the ranks. If he fails, he will be a sergeant his entire career, as that had been his rank when he transferred to OCS and would be his permanent rank for the next 20 years. And on this final training exercise…training for Rico that is…his team is set to planet P. And on P, they get their first real break in the bug war when the bugs tunneling under the squad cause a collapse, and Rico’s sergeant is lost in the tunnels. Rico, taking the MI motto of everyone fights, no one quits to heart, takes his squad into the tunnels and immediately makes contact with the sergeant, who advises that he is surrounded and can’t leave, but is basically safe. Reason being, he had captured one of the brain bugs, so the warriors couldn’t attack him without literally attacking their own brain. But sergeant Zim…yes that Zim…couldn’t leave either or the warriors would tear him to pieces. No such problem for the squad, who came up behind the bugs, slaughtered them wholesale, and rescued Zim. Rico passes his OCS final and is commissioned, eventually becoming Lt aboard the Rodger Young and in charge of Rico’s Roughnecks.

And the war rages on.

So, this book…like hints of it are in the movie. The elements are sort of there. But really not. MI is an all-male organization because, hey…I get it’s PC to say women can keep up with men, but really, we can’t. But women are widely acknowledged to be the better pilots and all the pilots mentioned in the book are women. The one other time we see Ibanez in the book is when she shows up at OCS and asks if she can take Rico to dinner…pretty please. And he is granted an incredibly rare three-hour pass to do just that.

But the movie…. like aye yi yi…It’s fun for a popcorn flick, unless you’re like the brainless moron who said it was an allegory for American military fascism. Or maybe the movie was. Weird history points out the feldgrau of the uniforms and nazi-adjacent shoulder decorations on Sergeant Zim. Not sure if that’s an accurate assessment or not, but with Hollywood involved, it would not surprise me. But, here’s the thing. If that’s the underlying message Hollywood was going for, then Hollywood has been selling the narrative that we should just let hostile forces bomb us and not respond since at least 1997, when this movie was released.

The general in the movie hiding in a cabinet to evade detection…against MI. Everyone Fights. No One Quits. And the officer was under hypno order to suicide in case of capture to avoid spilling secrets. So…yeah. It would be nice if people adapting books for movies, actually LIKED the source material.

The lesson of self-responsibility and freedom bleed across the pages from the first sentence. “I always get the shakes before a drop.” But he still chooses to drop. He could refuse. Again, at any point, he could refuse. Once he’s completed training it would probably be a bad conduct discharge, but you could refuse to go. Rico doesn’t. He drops. He chooses to join federal service. He chooses mobile infantry. He chooses not to resign. He chooses to go career. He chooses OCS, and he chooses to follow Zim and leave no man behind, the OTHER important ethos of the fighting military. That responsibility. You don’t get to be a citizen with rights to vote until your term of service has been satisfactorily completed. Why would that be? Because they have found a system of government that WORKS. Yes yes, I get its fiction. But what works about it is everyone who CAN vote, understands the blood price that is paid to ensure the people remain safe. They understand what it MEANS, to their absolute core, to put themselves between evil and those who need protecting.

Our own society is rapidly approaching the breaking point. National divorce and US currency losing its status as a world currency are talked about. Openly. Publicly. IN CONGRESS. I don’t know that ONLY allowing those who have served the right to vote or serve politically is the answer. But I know what we’ve got now, with only the extremely rich able to serve and then making themselves richer off the graft and corruption that is endemic to Washington…this is not working. And that is where reading Starship Troopers has led my brain. Freedom is never truly free. It must be paid for with the blood of patriots and tyrants. And only those who are capable of self-responsibility can truly understand the value of freedom.

This book was originally reviewed on YouTube on April 2, 2023, but is now available on Rumble and PodBean.