Роберт Хайнлайн: Starship Troopers

“I know it, Father.” I stopped shaking at once. “It’s the waiting, that’s all.”

“I know. Four minutes. Shall we get buttoned up, sir?”

“Right away, Father.” I gave him a quick hug, let the Navy drop crew seal us in. The shakes didn’t start up again. Shortly I was able to report: “Bridge! Rico’s Roughnecks… ready for drop!”

“Thirty-one seconds, Lieutenant.” She added, “Good luck, boys! This time we take ’em!”

“Right, Captain.”

“Check. Now some music while you wait?” She switched it on:

“To the everlasting glory of the Infantry —”

YOUNG, RODGER W., Private, 148th Infantry, 37th Infantry Division (the Ohio Buckeyes); born Tiffin, Ohio, 28 April 1918; died 31 July 1943, on the island New Georgia, Solomons, South Pacific, while single-handedly attacking and destroying an enemy machine-gun pillbox. His platoon had been pinned down by intense fire from this pillbox; Private Young was wounded in the first burst. He crawled toward the pillbox, was wounded a second time but continued to advance, firing his rifle as he did so. He closed on the pillbox, attacked and destroyed it with hand grenades, but in so doing he was wounded a third time and killed.

His bold and gallant action in the face of overwhelming odds enabled his teammates to escape without loss; he was awarded posthumously the Medal of Honor.

An Ace Book / published by arrangement with The Robert A. & Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust

PRINTING HISTORY

G. P. Putnam’s Sons edition / 1959

Berkley edition / May 1968

Ace mass-market edition / May 1987

Ace trade paperback edition / July 2006

Ace premium edition / May 2010

Copyright © 1959, 1987 by Robert A. Heinlein, 2003 by The Robert A. & Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust.

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