Juan "Johnnie" or "Johnny" Rico is a fictional character and the protagonist of Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 military science fiction novel Starship Troopers. He also appears in the 1988 Starship Troopers OVA series, the 1997, 2008 and 2012 installments of the film series, and the 1999 television series Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles.

Biography

In Heinlein's Starship Troopers, Rico is the son of a wealthy Filipino family who joins the Terran Mobile Infantry almost on impulse and over his parents' objections. He is sent to Camp Arthur Currie on the Canadian prairie for basic training and graduates as one of 187 remaining recruits, from an original class of over 2000 enlistees. He is assigned as a private in "Willie's Wildcats" (Company K, Third Regiment, First Mobile Infantry Division), aboard the transport Valley Forge. His first exposure to battle comes during the disastrous "Operation Bughouse", where 80% of the Wildcats are killed, most of them during the collision of the Valley Forge with another ship during the combat drop. He is subsequently transferred to "Rasczak's Roughnecks" (2d Platoon, Company G, Third Regiment, First Mobile Infantry Division) aboard the corvette transport Rodger Young, where he is promoted to corporal and survives several successful battles. He later enters Officer Candidate School (OCS) at the encouragement of his friend Ace, eventually being commissioned as a second lieutenant after successfully commanding a platoon as a temporary third lieutenant in "Operation Royalty". At the end of the novel Rico is commanding his own platoon ("Rico's Roughnecks") back on the Rodger Young, with his father, Emilio Rico, as his platoon sergeant.

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