The frogs kicked over a hornet's nest!

[JuliaL]

I'm not crazy about the way armies are assembled at all, given that the first thing done in basic training is to remove the individual's personality and replace it with one more to the liking of the state.

This is overstating the case insofar as my experience goes. Of course, Air Force BMT was only 7½ weeks when I went in. To be sure, our TI did tell us he was going to "tear us down and rebuild us the way the AF wanted us", but the silent "bullshit!" reply in my head was shared by many others in my flight, to hear them tell it. We came through it with personalities intact, more or less.

Basic training changes you, no doubt. AF BMT didn't have to overcome the ingrained taboo against killing, so perhaps the training didn't have to be as emotionally destructive as Army or Marine training?

Perhaps the killing force projection done by the AF is intrinsically more remote than that done in other, more hands on branches. Or maybe the all volunteer army has eliminated the screaming DI who is YOUR MOTHER, YOUR FATHER and YOUR &^%%$* PRIEST AND GOD YOU MAGGOTS. But my memory goes back to the pre-Viet Nam period where basic was famous for sleep deprivation, threats of and actual violence to persons, physical exhaustion and extended extreme discomforts. All of these are classic North Korean circa 1950 brain washing elements. The survivors were intended to become converts to the cause of the corps where it is only by the grace of the founding fathers that they ultimately stayed under (it may be slipping today) elected civilian control. Depersonalization of the other to the point of sanctioning homicide is merely part of the system.

I do not write in opposition to these methods. They are stable, time tested and probably necessary to the survival and functioning of our democratic(sic) system.

For Heinlen, the "drone pilots" would be the crews of the ships that ferried the infantry, with an intermediary step between the two opposed groups being the actual dropship pilots who took the infantry from orbit to the ground themselves. Don't you think?

I'm out of state at the moment and can't check my book. But didn't the bald pretty lady pilot (Carmen...I remembered!) get vaporized in orbit? So I don't see them as being not at risk in the same way that our remote control killers are in Nevada or wherever they're based.

I really liked how it handled time of transit for interstellar travel and the end

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, "I thought you started it."

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But now you've ruined it for those that haven't read it!

Mybad, but it was such a small part in such a great book I thought it wouldn't matter. And probably won't be remembered by the affected individuals. Still, sorry.

I'd say re-purposed, not removed.

Could be, or could be even that they built a new one side by side with the old. That might explain some of the PTSD issues the more unfortunate, perhaps more human to start with, individuals experience post service. The person who is best equipped to survive combat is not the person best suited to a 9 to 5 as a bank officer. The jobs take more than just different skills, they take different people. The veteran, particularly when not supported by comrades or family, can have real trouble when he has to pick which person to sit at the desk and stare at a monitor. I remember Viet Nam friends who either shut down: Why should I do this stupid job? I was toe to toe with Death six months ago. Or one who was a bit more psychotic and kept fighting when he got back. Characteristic quote after a bad weekend, "Sure I shot him, but he wasn't going to die. I didn't shoot him bad enough."
That second person can be a real bastard.