Starship Troopers

by

Robert A. Heinlein

Ace serves in Rasczak’s Roughnecks. He’s a career infantryman with the rank of corporal and he cares fiercely about his men, risking his life to pick up Dizzy Flores when he’s wounded on a mission. When the assistant first section leader dies, Ace prefers to stay with his squad rather than be promoted, which places Johnnie above him in the platoon’s chain of command. Johnnie feels he must assert his right to give Ace orders by challenging him to a fistfight, and although Ace wins, he demonstrates his willingness to follow Johnnie’s orders by letting him land the final blow. Ultimately the two men become close, with Ace using his father figure position to encourage Johnnie to go career and try for Officer Candidate School.

Ace Quotes in Starship Troopers

The Starship Troopers quotes below are all either spoken by Ace or refer to Ace. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Militarism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 8 Quotes

Dillinger belonged to us, he was still on our rolls. Even though we didn’t want him, even though we should never have had him, even though we would have been happy to disclaim him, he was a member of our regiment. We couldn’t brush him off and let a sheriff a thousand miles away handle it. If it has to be done, a man—a real man—shoots his dog himself; he doesn’t hire a proxy who may bungle it.

The regimental records said that Dillinger was ours, so taking care of him was our duty.

Related Characters: Johnnie Rico (speaker), Sergeant Zim (The Sergeant), Ace, Ted Hendrick, Captain Frankel, Breckenridge, N. L. Dillinger , Dizzy Flores
Page Number: 140
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Starship Troopers LitChart as a printable PDF.
Starship Troopers PDF

Ace Quotes in Starship Troopers

The Starship Troopers quotes below are all either spoken by Ace or refer to Ace. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Militarism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 8 Quotes

Dillinger belonged to us, he was still on our rolls. Even though we didn’t want him, even though we should never have had him, even though we would have been happy to disclaim him, he was a member of our regiment. We couldn’t brush him off and let a sheriff a thousand miles away handle it. If it has to be done, a man—a real man—shoots his dog himself; he doesn’t hire a proxy who may bungle it.

The regimental records said that Dillinger was ours, so taking care of him was our duty.

Related Characters: Johnnie Rico (speaker), Sergeant Zim (The Sergeant), Ace, Ted Hendrick, Captain Frankel, Breckenridge, N. L. Dillinger , Dizzy Flores
Page Number: 140
Explanation and Analysis: