[mentioned in passing] Site of the first "emergency
measure" that led to the founding of the Federation.
War veterans formed a militia to control local crime, allowing only other
veterans to join; after a generation or so the measure became official.
Recruit who took up Sergeant
Zim's challenge to fight him; he had his wrist broken in the effort. He
died during a survival test in the Canadian Rockies.
The islands suffered disturbances in The
Terror, widespread disorders during the 20th century that preceded the
breakup of the North American republic and culminated in a world war.
Acting sergeant in Silva's
platoon. Juan
Rico recommended his promotion to full sergeant while filling in for Silva.
Brumby was killed during Operation
Royalty.
Historians were unsure whether to call it the Third (or Fourth) Space War,
or the First Interstellar War. (See Bugs, next item.)
Bugs
Aliens that waged war against the Terran Federation, probably because both
factions wanted to expand into the same territory. There are intimations of
border conflicts before war officially broke out, but the "beginning" of the
war, for most of Earth, was the destruction of Buenos Aires in an unexpected
attack. The aliens resembled giant spiders, but the social organization was
more like that of intelligent ants or bees. Humans occasionally called them
Arachnids.
Byrd (no first name)
Juan
Rico's fellow Officer Candidate School cadet. Given an assignment to the
Moskva the day Johnnie was assigned to the Tours. His
nickname was "Birdie". He was killed in action.
An "artificially mutated symbiote derived from dog stock." Calebs had
intelligence equivalent to low-normal human, and could talk. Their rapport
with their human partners was so intense that if the human was killed, the
caleb normally had to be euthanized, and if the caleb was killed it took
months of therapy for the human to recover. [Hebrew, "dog"]
Juan
Rico's boyhood best friend. He joined the Federal
Service after graduating from high school (inspiring Johnnie to do the
same), and was assigned to a Research and Development station on Pluto. He
died in a Bug attack.
Route on Sanctuary from the Mobile
Infantry base to the civilian city, lined with "enterprises intended to
separate painlessly a man from money". The main customers were troopers on
leave.
Collapse of the Golden Hegemony
[mentioned in passing] Classic book on military history
that Juan
Rico used for assigned research.
Mobile
Infantry recruit who deserted service. He was hanged for murdering a baby
girl after kidnapping her for ransom. The trial was handled by the Infantry
rather than the civil judiciary.
Juan
Rico's maternal aunt, who sent him a letter informing him of his mother's
death. She managed to imply that it was Johnnie's fault for having joined the
Mobile
Infantry.
Barbara Anne Enthwaite
[mentioned in passing] Baby girl kidnapped and killed by N. L.
Dillinger.
Espíritu Santo
City on Sanctuary, connected with the Mobile
Infantry base and very hospitable to troopers on leave. [Spanish, "holy
spirit"]
Faraway
Human colony planet invaded and occupied by the Bugs.
Farley (no first name)
Lieutenant, ship's weapons engineer aboard the Rodger
Young.
Only those who serve their full stint are granted voting rights. When the
Federation
is not at war, most service is equivalent to nonmilitary Civil Service jobs,
and anyone who applies must be found some sort of job.
Federation
World government, in which only Federal
Service veterans have the franchise, the justification being that only
they have learned to put group interests ahead of personal, and having served
the government they have earned the right to participate in it.
Battle waged in reaction to the destruction of Buenos Aires; Juan
Rico's first military action. The battle was disastrous for Earth, but was
called a "strategic victory". (See Klendathu.)
flogging
Standard punishment in the Federal
Service, also used for civil infractions such as drunk driving.
Dizzy Flores (no other first name)
Trooper on the Rodger
Young who was wounded during a raid. He was rescued by Ace and Juan
Rico, but died on the way back to the ship.
Mobile
Infantry recruit who questioned the need to learn knife-throwing. Because
of later offenses, he was court-martialed for disobeying orders and striking a
superior, and was sentenced to ten lashes and a Bad Conduct Discharge.
Class required of all high school students, though no grade was given. It
was always taught by Federal
Service military veterans. In Officers Candidate School, a more advanced
version is required that is a deciding factor in granting commissions.
Fleet Sergeant Ho (no first name)
Federal
Service recruiting officer who swore in Juan
Rico and Carl. He was "on display" with legs and right arm missing.
Johnnie met him after hours and learned that he wore prosthetics except when
on duty, the missing limbs being intended to impress prospective recruits with
the seriousness of their decision.
Subject covered in Officers Candidate School. It is probably an hypnotic
learning method.
hypnosis
Heinlein frequently makes mention of hypnosis either as a method of
psychotherapy, of education, or of interrogation. Hypnotherapy was apparently
common in the time of Starship Troopers; Emilio
Rico used it.
Carmen (Carmencita) Ibañez
Member of Juan
Rico's high-school graduating class. She joined the Federal
Service to become a spaceship pilot. She was assigned as junior watch
officer and pilot-under-instruction to the Corvette Transport Mannheim.
Career ship's sergeant, Juan
Rico's platoon sergeant aboard the Rodger
Young and de facto platoon leader after Lt.
Rasczak's death. He eventually made captain, but lost his legs. Nicknamed
"Jelly", and anyone who had made one combat drop could call him that to his
face.
Jelly's Jaguars
Name proposed for Rasczak's
Roughnecks after Lt.
Rasczak was killed. It was vetoed by Sgt. Jelal, who insisted on keeping
the original.
Al Jenkins
Member of Juan
Rico's first platoon, barred from a drop because he had a cold. After most
of the platoon was wiped out, he joined Willie's Wildcats with Johnnie. He
survived the First
Battle of Klendathu and was assigned to the Rodger
Young; he was later killed during a drop.
Johnson (no first name)
Sergeant from Georgia, section leader in Juan
Rico's platoon. He served as first cook on the Rodger
Young and played trumpet in the platoon band.
[mentioned in passing] Scottish laird who donated four
bagpipes and kilts to Camp
Arthur Currie after his son was killed in training. [The traditional home
of clan Cameron is Lochaber in the southwest Highlands. Their lands were
joined with the barony of Lochiel in 1528.]
MacArthur Theater
[mentioned in passing] Site where a neodog was exhibited in
Juan
Rico's hometown.
[mentioned in passing] Filipino hero described by Juan
Rico as "great man, great soldier-probably be chief of psychological
warfare if he were alive today." Johnnie believed there should be a troopship
named after him.
Deceased Interplanetary
Patrol hero, whose Third Lieutenant's pips were preserved and passed on to
new cadets. (The reason for his legendary status is not given.)
Juan
Rico's platoon leader In the Rodger
Young. His platoon always called him "the Lieutenant", in tones of awe. He
died in a drop after rescuing two of his soldiers; he was the only one in that
raid who didn't make the retrieval boat. His platoon, kept the name Rasczak's
Roughnecks after his death.
Rasczak's Roughnecks
The platoon to which Juan
Rico was assigned in the Rodger
Young, it retained the name even after the death of its leader, Lt.
Rasczak.
Juan
Rico's History & Moral Philosophy teacher at Officer Candidate School.
Revolt of the Scientists
[mentioned in passing] Attempted coup d'état just
before the signing of the Treaty
of New Delhi.
Emilio Rico
Juan
Rico's father, a wealthy Filipino businessman. He opposed Johnnie's plans
to join the Mobile
Infantry, but after the Bug War
began and his wife died, he himself joined and eventually became a platoon
sergeant.
Juan [Johnnie] Rico
Son of a wealthy family who joined the Mobile
Infantry almost on impulse and over his parents' objections. After
achieving a rank of corporal and surviving several battles, he entered Officer
Candidate School at his commander's urging. He eventually became a captain,
commanding a battalion on his original ship, with his father a sergeant under
him.
Troop ship to which Juan
Rico was assigned as a Mobile
Infantry trooper. He returned to it years later as a Captain to take
command of the platoon formerly commanded by Lt.
Rasczak (deceased) and Lt. Jelal
(disabled).
[mentioned in passing] Political alliance in the late 20th
century that went to war against the Chinese
Hegemony.
Salomon (no first name)
A member of Juan
Rico's History and Moral Philosophy class in Officer Candidate School;
during a session he was called upon to describe the evolution of the Federation.
a. Infantry colonel who gave Sergeant
Zim his training in martial arts. b. His
son, who went through basic training with Juan
Rico under Sergeant Zim.
"Quick" Silva (no other first name)
First lieutenant, commander of the first platoon of D Company aboard the
Tours.
He was hospitalized with an illness and Juan
Rico was put in charge of his platoon while assigned to the ship for
officer training.
Skinnies
Natives of a planet hit by Rasczak's
Roughnecks. Originally allies of the Bugs, after
the attack they traded sides to fight for the Federation.
"Kitten" Smith (no other first name)
Juan
Rico's fellow recruit at Camp
Sergeant Spooky Smith. He joined Willie's Wildcats with Juan; he died in
the collision between the Valley Forge and the Ypres.
[mentioned in passing] Widespread disorders that preceded
the breakup of the North American republic in the 20th century. Disturbances
also occurred in Russia and the British Isles though the effects were not as
severe. The Terror culminated in a world war.
The treaty that ended the war between the Chinese Hegemony and the
Russo-Anglo-American Alliance at the end of the 20th century. Its failure to
deal with the exchange of POWs contributed to the worldwide collapse of
organized governments.
Ejection capsule in which troopers are dropped from their ship to a
planet's surface. It was designed with several layers, each of which protects
the trooper against re-entry but also peels off in chunks to create radar
"noise" to mask the drop. The inmost "egg" holds the trooper immobile through
the drop and is discarded at the trooper's command.
Tsing (no other name)
[mentioned in passing] Author of Collapse of the Golden
Hegemony.
Troop carrier at the First
Battle of Klendathu, destroyed in a collision with the Valley Forge. A new
ship was named after her.
Sgt. Charles Zim
Career ship's sergeant, Juan
Rico's boot camp instructor and platoon leader at Camp
Arthur Currie. He became the company commander at Camp
Sergeant Spooky Smith. He was Johnnie's platoon sergeant during Operation
Royalty, and was given a field commission of brevet captain with the
permanent rank of first lieutenant.
The Heinlein
Society was founded by Virginia Heinlein on behalf of her husband, science
fiction author Robert Anson Heinlein, to "pay forward" the legacy of Robert A. Heinlein to future generations of "Heinlein's Children."