Starship Troopers

Johnnie recalls that he didn’t intend to join the Federal Service when he turned 18—most people finish high school and either go on to college or get a job—but his best friend, Carl, plans on joining. Johnnie brings up the idea with his wealthy father, who scoffs, saying everyone in the family has stayed out of politics and the military for a hundred years, and that Johnnie’s destination is Harvard, the Sorbonne, and work as an executive in the family company. The world is at peace, and the Federal Service is an anachronism. Johnnie agrees, but he doesn’t tell Carl.

During the final day of class on History and Moral Philosophy, Mr. Dubois—a cranky instructor missing part of one arm—listens impatiently as a girl declares that violence doesn’t solve problems. He cites Carthage, Napoleon, and Hitler as proof that violence does change things. After they turn 18, Johnnie accompanies Carl to the recruiting office. They meet fellow graduate Carmencita Ibañez, who intends to join up. Carmen “was small and neat, perfect health and perfect reflexes—she could make competitive diving routine look easy and she was quick at mathematics” (29). She wants to pilot a spaceship.

Inside, the recruiting sergeant immediately suggests that Carmen go upstairs to sign up as a candidate pilot, but he tries to discourage Johnnie and Carl, saying that, for standard recruits, there are not enough peacetime positions “that aren’t just glorified K.P.” (31). Recruits are unlikely to get their choice of assignment. They persist, so the sergeant sends them over to get their physicals. The doctor is a civilian, and he tells them soldiering is for “ants,” and that the prize—the right to vote—is basically worthless. Carl and Johnnie complete their paperwork, swear to the oath of service, which commits them to two years and possibly more, and they’re in. The sergeant gives them two days’ leave, a period of “cooling off” so they can change their minds.

Johnnie’s parents receive the news badly: “Father stormed at me, then quit speaking to me; Mother took to her bed” (37). Two days later, he’s back at the recruiting office, taking aptitude tests and filling out his assignment preferences. His bottom choice is K-9, but the examiner quickly determines he’s not the right sort to form the deep bonds required between human and talking neodog. At school, Johnnie got good grades and was an athlete and student officer, but the examiner asks, “why didn’t you study something useful?” (40). Carl receives the R&D posting he requested, and Carmen is sent to pilot school; Johnnie gets assigned to Mobile Infantry. 

Johnnie does basic training at Camp Currie, a chilly tent camp in the northern prairie. Before dawn on the first morning, reveille is called, and Johnnie keeps sleeping, only to have his cot tipped over. Ten minutes later, the recruits, dressed in trousers and tees, stand in ranks as Sergeant Zim lectures them on protocol, insults their ancestry, and sends Jenkins, a young man who sneezed, out for a long run.

Zim challenges anyone who thinks they can beat him in a fight to step forward. One recruit, a huge young man with a Southern accent named Breckinridge, accepts the challenge. They grapple, and Zim has him on the ground in a quick second, the recruit’s wrist wrenched, the sergeant saying, “Okay, we’ve got one man in this company, at least” (47). Again, Zim offers himself in combat; this time, two young German recruits volunteer together. They attack, and in moments Zim has them out cold. They’re revived with buckets of cold water and placed back in line.

Zim offers again, not expecting any more volunteers, but a short man named Shujumi steps forward. He’s the son of Colonel Shujumi, a name known to the sergeant. They bow to each other, then begin circling. Their hands touch, Shujumi tosses Zim through the air, and Zim rolls and stands, both of them grinning. They grapple again: Zim gets Shujumi into a lock, and the lad taps out. Zim helps him up; they bow once more. Zim confesses that Colonel Shujumi was his trainer; young Shujumi nods, already knowing it. Zim leads the recruits in calisthenics for 20 minutes, then trots them over to the mess hall. Johnnie is impressed: “I disliked Zim from the first moment I laid eyes on him. But he had style” (51).

At the mess hall, Breckinridge sits with a cast on his wrist but says he’s played football with worse. Johnnie is ravenous; the food isn’t fancy but it’s decent, and he shovels it in and drowns it with lots of coffee. Jenkins, the exhausted jogger, stumbles over, slumps into a seat, and curses the trainers. At first, he won’t eat, but Johnnie fills up his plate and Jenkins finally digs in. Still cursing, he wonders aloud if Zim even had a mother. A nearby corporal answers that no sergeant has a mom: “They reproduce by fission…like all bacteria” (52). 

After three weeks, the cots are removed and the men must sleep on the ground. Johnnie learns to sleep anywhere, “sitting up, standing up, even marching in ranks” (53). Most free time is spent doing chores, but now and then there’s a moment to write a letter home, compare notes on the moral failings of the sergeants, or speculate that there might be women somewhere at camp.

Basic training is made deliberately difficult, not for the amusement of sergeants but to develop toughness. Overnight treks with inadequate gear become the norm. Most recruits wash out. Johnnie hates the experience and nearly quits, too, but later he realizes that he wouldn’t want to go into combat with anyone with lesser training.

Johnnie and his group are dropped naked into the Canadian Rockies and must find their way back. Johnnie and most of the others make it, clothed in fur from rabbits they’ve caught, but two recruits fail to return, including Breckinridge. No one can be left behind, and everyone fans out in a careful search. They find the two bodies and bury them with full honors. 

Recruits train extensively in combat techniques with all types of weapons, from bare-handed to simulated nukes. Johnnie is impressed: “I hadn’t known there were so many different ways to fight” (62). Shujumi is dragooned into service as a martial arts instructor. Zim gives more personal attention to the few recruits who have made it this far. One trainee, Hendrick, asks why a soldier would try to use a knife against a heavily armed enemy. Zim answers that the whole point of the training is to become dangerous in any situation, regardless of apparent advantages on the other side.

Later, Hendrick violates an order to “freeze”—hit the dirt and lie perfectly still, no matter what—when he lands on an anthill, receives ant bites, and shifts his position. Sergeant Zim raps him with his baton, and Hendrick gets up and slugs him. Hendrick is court-martialed at the office of the battalion commander, Captain Frankel, on the charge of violating Article 9080 that forbids striking anyone higher in rank. Hendrick offers no defense, believing that Zim striking him with the baton is reason enough to explain why he struck back. The court finds him guilty.

Usually the punishment is death by hanging, but the field court has limited authority and can only sentence Hendrick to 10 lashes and a bad-conduct discharge. The sentence is carried out at noon before the assembled recruits. The lashing is grisly; Johnnie faints. He’s revived and learns that two dozen other recruits also fainted. 

Johnnie is distraught about the lashings and wants to quit. While working at Captain Frankel’s office, he overhears Sergeant Zim request a transfer to combat duty. Zim believes Hendrick’s punishment was too harsh. Frankel asserts that the fault for the incident was Zim’s, whose job is to prevent recruits from breaking the code of conduct: “you must never give them a chance to violate it” (83). Zim agrees, saying he let his guard down because he liked Hendricks for his earnestness.

Zim wishes he could take the lashings; Frankel says Zim would have to get in line behind him. He reminds Zim that he was a recruit and Zim his training corporal 12 years earlier, that he hated Zim with a passion, and that it was only Zim’s skill as a trainer that prevented Frankel from violating Article 9080 himself. Frankel denies Zim’s request for transfer and orders him to make sure his staff are alert for any further attempts against them. They agree to meet that evening for one-on-one martial arts practice, mainly to work off the tensions of the day.

Johnnie is shaken by this conversation and concludes that his view of the military is seriously flawed. Fault lies elsewhere from where it appears; smug sergeants take dressing downs worse than any Johnnie has suffered; remote and indifferent captains work as hard as any soldier. A letter from his mother tells Johnnie that his father is deeply hurt by the decision to join the military, that he will not speak of Johnnie, but that his mother loves him always. Johnnie weeps. Late that night, the men are mustered for a sudden training exercise that involves “freezing” for an hour.

In the morning, Johnnie searches for Zim so he can resign, but he can’t get the sergeant alone. At mail call, Johnnie receives a letter from his high school Moral Philosophy instructor, Mr. Dubois. The teacher congratulates him on getting over “the hump,” the worst part of Mobile Infantry training. Dubois adds that risking his life to protect humanity is the most honorable way to perform the service that will make Johnnie a citizen. He signs the letter “Jean V. Dubois Lt.-Col., MI, rtd.” (95), and Johnnie realizes that his cranky old teacher was in fact a high-ranking officer in Mobile Infantry.

Johnnie remembers Dubois demolishing the Marxist theory that labor must have value even if it’s useless. Dubois insisted that nothing in life is free, and that the highest values are purchased with one’s life. While out on a long hike, Johnnie suddenly feels happy. He realizes that Dubois is right: “I had passed my hump!” (100). Back at camp, Zim takes him aside and asks if the letter he received earlier was from a man missing a hand. Surprised, Johnnie says yes, and Zim explains that he served under Colonel Dubois. Johnnie reads him the part with Dubois’ greetings to any at camp who may remember him. Zim thanks Johnnie.