Starship Troopers As much as I hate books this book was pretty good. At first I didn’t like the book because it just started, jumping right in. I felt like I missed the first few chapters. But the book starts out with a soldier in the mobile infantry, which is an advanced infantry unit that uses powered suits that enhance everything you do. The suits make you faster, stronger, more agile and even smarter. But the soldier that narrates the entire book is Juan Rico who is part of a prestige unit called Rasczak’s Roughnecks. During that first drop and fight you learn how a drop works. They ride in by ships piloted by females, because they make faster reactions and can take more gee. The soldiers get dropped individually by pods, and then they make fast work of whatever they are assaulting, in this case the “skinnies” allies to the Arachnids, by leaping and bounding along shooting rockets. After the first combat scene in the beginning of the book it jumps back to when Rico was graduating high school. His father didn’t want him to join the military, he wanted him to go to school and get a better education. The way he enlisted was actually kind of funny, he just went with his friend and there was a girl there and he kind of just let his mouth talk trying to impress the girl. Enlisting is a lot different than the present military. Rico and his friend were more less ignored by the recruiter but their female friend was praised because she has the ability of becoming a pilot, perfect size and even had the mathematical skills. After the recruiter found out that Rico wanted to become a pilot it made him really want to blow these to off so he started to try to discourage them more. After realizing that he couldn’t turn them away he finally agreed to start the process. In the book they were given so many opportunities to change their mind and walk away even after signing. They were told that they didn’t have to show up after their forty-eight hours leave and that there would be no punishment. But the biggest difference between the present and the book’s enlistment process is the terms. Your term is a definite two years of service but at the end of those two years if the military wanted to keep you they could. Technically they could keep you for life. Also when you join you join the military not a particular branch. Then you get to make a list of what branch and jobs you want. Then you are off to boot camp. Boot camp for the most part seemed the same, miserable, very miserable. The boot camp Rico went to was called Camp Currie, which you find out is probably one of the hardest boot camps to go to. Less than ten percent of the recruits graduate from Camp Currie. Also you find out that there no rules that prevent the instructors from touching or even hitting the recruits. The instructors actually carry around batons and hit recruits all the time, not necessarily beat them but hit them to discipline them. The recruits also get a “recruit rank structure” which I though was pretty cool. And their boot camp was a lot more field oriented then ours was. They were always in the field, sleeping outside, going on long hikes. There was one hike they went on and all the recruits thought that it was just going to be a day hike but they ended up staying the night, but since they thought that it was just a day hike none of them brought food. The rifle range actually sounded pretty cool. Well the idea was cool being there wouldn’t actually be cool. There weren’t any paper targets. Down range half the recruits would run across the field crouching and taking cover. One in every five-hundred rounds was live the rest were blanks and the instructors also shoot at the recruits. That thought of that one round is what ensured the recruits took cover. One of the craziest things I think was the fact that the recruits died all the time. The book just seems to mention that they would die. Death didn’t seem to be an emotional problem at all. One thing that was
