5th Blog for "Starship Troopers" by Robert A. Heinlein

                                                                                 Vs.

For my final blog, I will compare the book and the movie. The book was written in 1959 and the movie was made in 1997. Now that's a pretty big time differences and there must be different historical contexts that might have influenced both works. But it doesn't seem that movie really changed much because of historical context, that doesn't mean it is not different.

To start off, the book deals a lot more about the philosophy of war and combat through a soldier's perspective. Sure, in the movie Johnny is a soldier but the movie likes to satirize America's military aggressiveness and recruitment tactics. In the movie, the Federation runs many promotional videos for joining into the military and serve which in the book the Federal recruiters were hesitant in recruiting high school kids. The Federation runs many ads in the movie that glorify the role of the soldier because they are "Doing their part". The aggressiveness of the Federation against the Bugs is seen in both the book and the movie. I believe that this is an allusion to our American military. Why? Well, the Federation goes into war with the Bugs when they start to expand into Bug territory, taking away their land. The Bugs only attacked as a defense against the invasive humans much like Americans in the olden days when they took over the lands of the Native Americans and the Mexicans.

Lastly, as expected, the movie is not an exact representation of the book. The movie adds a more in length scene of what it was like for Johnny in high school. The book just glossed over his high school days for a few pages. One thing that is missing from the movies is the there are no soldiers in power armor or soldiers making combat drops in drop pods. They wear army fatigues with ballistic armor and a helmet. Also, men and women are intermixed in the army ranks in the where in the book it wasn't allowed in the Mobile Infantry. I'm taking a guess that it was like that in the book because females were much more suited as pilots but not only that because in the 60s, there were not many women in combat roles in the American military. Things were different in 1997 so they must have felt like they should mix men and women together.

Both are pretty enjoyable works. I would recommend reading the book first before watching the movie so you can see the differences much more apparently.

4th Blog for "Starship Troopers" by Robert A. Heinlein

Hello, once again. Guess what? I finished Robert A. Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" and it was a pretty decent read. The book is fun to read while offering some challenging concepts that really make you think what it's like to be a soldier. But, I'm sure you want to know how it ended.

We last left off with Johnny making a combat drop as a third Lieutenant, in command of a platoon. Johnny finds himself trying to coordinate his men as best he can while his commander relays orders to him and while he receives advice from his platoon sergeant. Johnny is responsible for monitoring any Bug sound or movement beneath the ground. His platoon is tasked with monitoring the movement and to scout any Bug holes where any Bug warriors may be pouring out from. Things seem quiet after many hours of monitoring before things start to heat up. Johnny's platoon starts detecting the digging sound that the Bugs make. The sound was steady until the ground beneath them broke away. Many holes opened up where many of Johnny's men fell inside, including him. Johnny makes it out of the hole alive to notice that only worker Bugs were pouring out, providing nothing of a fight. Johnny is told that much of his platoon was lost inside the holes including his platoon sergeant. He, along with some of his men, go down in the hole to find any and all of his missing troopers. He is able to rescue some of his troops before the roof inside the tunnel caved in.

Johnny finds himself waking up in an infirmary. He learns that his mission was a success and that his platoon was one of the few platoon to have a successful mission so far in the Bug war. He also learns that his platoon sergeant, or his old boot sergeant Zim, was able to capture a brain bug. After a month of recovering, Johnny graduates as an officer.

In the end, Johnny has grown as an officer and is now mentoring a third Lieutenant himself aboard his old ship, the Rodger Young. He took command of his old outfit, the Roughnecks. He, along with his father, make combat drop together back in Klendathu to rescue captured prisoners. The End.

The book was an enjoyable read. It has its boring moments and lackluster battle scenes but it does well to give an inside look into what it might be like to participate in the military. Throughout the book, Johnny is always gives his two cents on how it's like to be a cadet, a trooper in battle, and a platoon leader. Overall, I would give it a 7.5 out of 10. But that just my opinion

3rd Blog for "Starship Troopers" by Robert A. Heinlein

Hello once again, I am back with another hasty blog. I have continued to read "Starship Troopers" by Robert A. Heinlein up until the 300th page. So far, things are getting exciting as our main protagonist, Juan "Johnny" Rico, is trying to become a Mobile Infantry officer. But what led to Johnny wanting to become an officer? Well, let me tell you. Johnny had arrived on the secret military staging planet, Sanctuary. Here, one of Johnny's comrades asks him what he wants to do with his life. Does Johnny want to just serve his two year term and be done with it in order to receive the privilege of being a voting citizen? Or does Johnny want to go on with a full military career because he has found his calling as a soldier? Johnny then decided that being an officer and going full career was his destiny. He was already a capable Mobile Infantryman, so why not?

As Johnny was getting his papers ready in order to go into officer training, his dad stumbles upon him. Johnny learns that his dad never died in Buenos Aires and that he has enlisted into the Mobile Infantry. Johnny is quite surprised that his dad would do this seeing as he was a business man and objected heavily against him joining the military. But, his dad explains that Johnny's enlistment into the military awoke something inside him. He felt as if he could not really feel like a man if he did not enlist, being a civilian made him feel empty inside. They caught up and set off to their separate destinations. Johnny would head off to train to become an officer and his dad to step aboard Johnny's old corvette, the Rodger Young.

Johnny learns that becoming an officer involves a lot of studying into the art of war, psychology of war, et cetera. Then, Johnny is visited by an old friend, Carmen. He is taken out to dinner by her and they discuss what's been going on recently such as the death of Carl, Johnny's old best friend. At the end of the date, Johnny receives a kiss from her which earns him quite the reputation with the other officers in training.

During his studying, Johnny has a mini existential crisis of why he has to fight. He explains to himself that it must be for the survival of the human race or for his comrades in the ground with him. He finishes his studying on the ground and is being sent to his ship where he will act as a third Lieutenant, a rank given to officers in training. He is put aboard the ship Tours, a large ship with many platoons of men. Aboard the ship, he receives a lot of insight into what it means to be an officer in the Mobile Infantry. First off, there are not many officers to begin with. Three percent of the Mobile Infantry's composition is purely officers, meaning that were valuable assets. Secondly, Johnny learns how to act if he is to become an officer. He can not be looking like cadet who stands up straight and salutes all the time, he must act relaxed and address other officers as if they were friends. Lastly, Johnny learns how to behave when he is out on the field giving out orders. An officer must always appear to be calm and speak clearly. An officer must also be able to make quick decision, with the help of his sergeant if needed. All of this learning was to prepare him for a combat drop where he would be placed in command of a platoon of men. Will Johnny crack under the pressure of being an officer? Or will Johnny be able to successfully become a capable leader? Tune in tomorrow when I squeeze out another blog.

2nd Blog for "Starship Troopers" by Robert A. Heinlein

Welcome back to my blog! I have continued to read Robert A. Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" and things have gotten quite interesting(I've gotten to page 200). We last left off on Johnny mulling over if he wants to resign from the Mobile Infantry. He waits a few more days before deciding when he receives a letter from a former teacher. This teacher was a former member of the M.I. and was quite proud of Johnny for being able to make as long as he has in boot. With this letter, Johnny now becomes resolved to finish what he started. He has now chosen his path in becoming a Mobile Infantryman. Eventually, Johnny gets to train with powered armor in simulated battles. In one of these simulated battles, Johnny gets a bit cocky and performs a reckless action which results in him receiving five lashes. But it's nothing compared to what one recruit got for deserting and then murdering a child. He received the death penalty and was hanged in front of all those in Camp Currie. Seeing this made Johnny extremely distressed like many others but he still went through with his training. Johnny soon started to notice that he has adapted to the life of the recruit in boot camp, he was no longer a regular civilian. He was eventually transferred to a new camp in Canada, near Vancouver and Seattle where he could visit. Then his graduation day finally came, it was his "Big Day" because he was now a "trained soldier" instead of a recruit. This now brings to mind of what Johnny really thinks of himself because soon enough he is tossed around different companies of troops. In the end he was put into Company K or the "Wildcats" before he was dropped into battle. War had been declared soon after he joined Company K because Buenos Aires had been destroyed by a menacing enemy.

Operation Bughouse would be Johnny's first drop. Johnny soon found out that the whole operation would be a complete mess where many of his comrades would die. His armor would become useless against the enemy bug warriors he would fight for they shot armor piercing beams and had large numbers on their sides. A mass retreat was called and with that Johnny made it out alive, not many could say the same for there was an 80 percent casualty rate. 

Because the "Wildcats" lost many in the drop, Johnny had to be transferred to a new company. This new company would become his family and Johnny would take the name "Roughneck" to heart. He would come to admire his Lieutenant Rasczak. Rasczak would care for all of those in his command and always looked after their well-being. Soon enough though, he would be killed while saving some wounded men. This hurt Johnny and his company but they soon learned to take orders from Sergeant Jelal or "Jelly". That's as far as I've come in reading the book. Stay tuned if want to read more of my below average blog.  

1st Blog for "Starship Troopers" By Robert A. Heinlein

There comes a time when a person must ask themselves if they want to remain complacent and follow a path chosen by their family or the social norm, or if they want to follow a path many choose but fail as a result of a lack of willpower. Reading the first one hundred pages of "Starship Troopers" by Robert A. Heinlein made me think of such questions of destiny and the sheer will of the human mind and body. The book begins with our main protagonist, Juan "Johnny" Rico, making a combat drop into an enemy city as part of the Mobile Infantry. The main purpose of his mission that day is to show the military might of Terran Federation. Johnny drops from the atmosphere in a "capsule" which brings him ever so roughly to the ground. Johnny wastes no time in demolition on anything that looked important with his wide array of arsenal which includes a flamethrower, H.E. bombs, and even atomic warheads that make a smaller explosion than the larger ones. This show of military might had me thinking that it was far too excessive, especially considering that the natives of the planet were not putting much of a fight(if they were to put up a fight, their attacks would've been stopped by the powered armor the mobile infantrymen wore). Could this be a call back to the military actions undertaken by the strong nations on small defenseless nations? Well, the Mobile Infantry were described as being a quick and an efficient fighting force, with commands being muttered and followed every minute. This sounds very much like the way Nazi Germany was able to utilize Blitzkrieg tactics to overrun a whole country in a matter of hours. The Mobile Infantry were no different in their mission, they went in fast and hard, completing their mission on schedule while showing just how much power was held by the Third Reich, I mean, the Terran Federation. But I digress, Johnny finds that once he expended most of his munitions it was time to go. He, however, refused to leave a wounded comrade behind even though it would cost him time to get on the retrieval ship. He saves the man and gets aboard. The man would die, unfortunately, on their way back to the ship.
Now, you must be asking me, what is up with your intro about destiny and whatnot. I'll get to it, don't worry. You just need some context first.On his way up back to the ship, Johnny thinks back to the days before signing up to the military. We're transported to his high school senior days, were Johnny and his friend Carl are almost turning 18, the legal age were any person can sign up for military service without anyone stopping them. A person who completes a term of service(2 years) is able to become a complete citizen and able to enjoy the privilege of holding office. Both are thinking about joining but Johnny's dad is very set on Johnny going to Harvard and going into his business. Johnny thinks it over and assures himself he won't sign up,but he finds himself near the recruiting center with Carl. Now the question of destiny pops back in for a visit. Should Johnny go along with his father's wishes even though it might not be what he wants to do or should he pledge himself to the military even though he has to go through the grueling task of going through boot camp and dangerous military projects.This is the first theme that I was able to register out of this book, destiny. We all  have to make difficult decisions right at the spot and any second you could change your life's path permanently. And poor ol' Johnny here makes the decision to sign up.

When signing up, a person can tell the recruiters what part of the military they would like to be a part of and they will consider their choices after reviewing their school performance and health examinations. When facing the recruiters however, Johnny is discouraged in signing up especially when he told a recruiter that he wanted to be a pilot in which he received a scoff(sort of ). In the end, Johnny was assigned to a preference that he listed as least preferable, infantryman. And the wheel of destiny did not spin in his favor that day. He would go on to endure the harshness of military training, which pushed his ability to the limit. He was woken up at the crack of dawn, in the middle of the night, etc. He was pushed to undertake 50 mile marches over the course of a few days and camp without any equipment. Some died, many got injured, but Johnny endured which speaks volumes to me as I would not have been able to go through what he has done. But his resolve to stay faded away, after he had witnessed a a fellow recruit receive ten lashes to the back with a whip and a dishonorable discharge. And by the last pages that I read, Johnny was set on resigning even though it meant he could never join any military service ever again. He believes that a life of business wouldn't be that bad. So, where will Johnny go next? Will he really resign? Or will something make him stay? Find out in my next blog if it's not too much trouble and if it is, I'm terribly sorry.