Starship Troopers: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Before the Canadian Rockies test, however, the recruits complete a lot of combat training at Camp Currie, with everything from their fists to simulated nuclear weapons. As the ranks thin out, Zim spends less time on formations and more time on personal instruction. Johnnie likes him much better as a personal teacher.

Once, Ted Hendrick asks why they spend so much time on hand-to-hand combat, insisting that an unarmed man hasn’t got any chance against one who has dangerous weapons. Zim answers that there are no dangerous weapons, only dangerous men. The whole point of training is to train soldiers who are deadly as long as they’re alive. Hendrick isn’t convinced; he wants to know the point of foot soldiers risking their lives when a “professor type can do so much more just by pushing a button.” If Hendrick doesn’t already understand the importance of being a soldier from his History and Moral Philosophy class, Zim isn’t going to be able to give him a satisfactory answer. Nevertheless, Hendrick is intent on “sweat[ing] out” his term.

Zim asks Hendrick if he’d cut a baby’s head off just to teach it a lesson. Warfare is like that: sometimes it’s necessary to use a smaller amount of force—“controlled and purposeful violence”—to support the government’s decisions. The soldier’s job is to enforce these decisions, not to make them. If this answer can’t satisfy Hendrick, Zim thinks he should resign and go home, because he won’t ever make a successful soldier. Zim commands the recruits to resume their knife throwing practice, and Hendrick misses his next target. 

The recruits train with weapons ranging from sticks and wire to simulated nuclear weapons. They also use obsolete weapons like guns and bayonets. Most of the training is simulated, but their guns have one live round in every 500. This  may be dangerous, but so is life, and it teaches recruits the instinct for finding cover and keeps them continually alert. When their attention slackens, the instructors warn that the incidence of real rounds could be increased if necessary. One recruit is shot—nonfatally. The instructors don’t take cover, but none are wounded or killed.

On a certain occasion, Johnnie loses his recruit-corporal rank because one of his squad mates does something bad. He complains to Zim that he wasn’t involved, but Zim retorts that Johnnie is responsible for what his men do at all times.

One day, after a training accident injures his shoulder, Johnnie is put on light duty in battalion commander Captain Frankel’s office. He feels sorry for himself due to his sore shoulder and demotion. Suddenly, Sergeant Zim enters the office looking grim and bruised. With him are two armed recruits and Ted Hendrick, who has a split lip and disheveled uniform. Surprised, Captain Frankel asks what’s going on. Zim reports two disciplinary actions against a recruit: disregard of tactical doctrine and disobedience of orders. Because the recruit refused immediate administrative discipline and demanded a hearing, Zim must bring the issue to the Captain’s attention.

On the first disciplinary count, Hendrick disregarded a “freeze” order, in which the recruits were expected to instantly freeze and remain completely still until released. The M.I. tells stories of men who’d died in freezes without moving or making a sound. On the second count, he had refused orders to return to the freeze. Captain Frankel deprives him of his free time, orders extra duty, and limits his meals to bread and water, noting that this punishment is as severe as he is allowed to make it without having a court-martial. He tries to dismiss Hendrick, who refuses and complains that he hasn’t been able to tell his side of the story.

Hendrick claims he’d been unable to hold the freeze because he’d been on a stinging anthill. Captain Frankel, disgusted, asks if he was willing to get himself or his teammates killed over a few ants. He tells Hendrick that even if they’d been rattlesnakes, he would have been expected and required to freeze. In his own defense, Hendrick complains that Zim laid hands on him, and rants about the corporal punishment handed out by the instructors.

Captain Frankel explains that Hendrick’s superiors have every right to strike him in the line of duty; sometimes superior officers are even required to kill the men under their command—for example, if they refuse to fight because of fear. He explains that the batons show who has authority and the instructors use them to strike recruits—because corporal punishment is much more effective than words. Moreover, the “impersonal rod of authority” preserves the dignity of the recruit, although kicking him would be just as legal. Captain Frankel explains all of this to Hendrick, who’d been a “bad boy,” so he’d understand why he was being punished. To help his effort to set Hendrick straight, Frankel asks why he thought he’d been mistreated.

Hendrick explains that he’d tried to move just a few feet off the anthill, but that Zim knocked him to the ground and yelled at him. Hendrick jumped up and “popped [Zim] one.” Captain Frankel, expressing disbelief that Hendrick would hit his company commander, orders him to be silent. Hendrick mutters that he wants to resign while Frankel quickly confirms that the “pertinent articles” have been published to Zim’s company. Johnnie notices Zim’s now obvious bruise and wonders why the commander hasn’t.

Each week on Sunday, the instructors read the Laws and Regulations of the Military Forces to the recruits. They only really paid attention to the “thirty-one ways to crash land,” or the capital offenses. Johnnie suddenly remembers that these include striking a superior officer. He is stunned to realize that Hendrick might hang for his crime, especially as the recruits regularly try to hit Zim during hand-to-hand combat exercises.

Frankel orders Johnnie to call regimental headquarters, and he requests an officer to judge a court-martial. He then gathers the witnesses and asks Hendrick if he wants witnesses for his defense. Hendrick repeats his request to resign.

Lieutenant Spieksma arrives from regimental HQ and convenes a court-martial, charging Hendrick with striking his superior officer while the Federation was in a state of emergency. Johnnie is appointed officer of the court, and within twenty minutes, the two recruits and their company commander, Corporal Mahmud, have all testified. Zim isn’t called. Hendrick waives his right to cross-examine the witnesses and asks for a lawyer. However, legal counsel isn’t permitted for field court-martials. Hendrick also waives his right to testify. Spieksma asks him if he was aware of the regulations before his offense. Hendrick acknowledges that he was. He has no answer when asked if he can add anything to mitigate or explain his actions. But when Spieksma asks if he feels anything about the trial was unfair, Hendrick complains it was all unfair, because Zim hit him first. 

Lieutenant Spieksma finds Hendrick guilty as charged and sentences him to ten lashes and a Bad Conduct Discharge. Hendrick restates his wish to resign, but Spieksma refuses to allow it. He adds that Hendrick is getting off easy because a field court-martial can assign no greater punishment than lashes. If Captain Frankel had required a general court-martial, the punishment would have been death by hanging.

At afternoon sick call Johnnie is cleared for full duty. He gets back to his company just in time to muster (in his slightly messy uniform) for parade and witness the publication of Hendrick’s punishment. Johnnie hasn’t seen a flogging before, even though corporal punishment was carried out in public back home. Hendrick is chained to a post, his shirt is removed, and a corporal-instructor from another battalion strikes him with the whip. Hendrick is quiet until the third strike, when he starts to sob. Johnnie passes out, as do a few dozen other recruits.