When it came time to drop onto Klendathu, I was assigned to PFC Dutch Bamburger as a supernumerary. He managed to conceal his pleasure at the news and as soon as the platoon sergeant was out of earshot, he said, "Listen, boot, you stick close behind me and stay out of my way. You go slowing me down, I break your silly neck." I just nodded. I was beginning to realize that this was not a practice drop. Then I had the shakes for a while and then we were down Operation Bughouse should have been called "Operation Madhouse." Everything went wrong. It had

Instead it darn near lost the war. I am not criticizing General Diennes. I dont know whether its true that he demanded more troops and more support and allowed himself to be overruled by the Sky Marshal-in-Chief or not. Nor was it any of my business. Furthermore I doubt if some of the smart second-guessers know all the facts. What I do know is that the General dropped with us and commanded us on the ground and, when the situation became impossible, he personally led the diversionary attack that allowed quite a few of us (including me) to be retrieved and, in so doing, bought his farm. Hes radioactive debris on Klendathu and its much too late to court-martial him, so why talk about it? I do have one comment to make to any armchair strategist who has never made a drop. Yes, I agree that the Bugs planet possibly could have been plastered with

H-bombs until it was surfaced with radioactive glass. But would that have won the war? The Bugs are not like us. The Pseudo-Arachnids arent even like spiders. They are arthropods who happen to look like a madmans conception of a giant, intelligent spider, but their organization, psychological and economic, is more like that of ants or termites; they are communal entities, the ultimate dictatorship of the hive. Blasting the surface of their planet would have killed soldiers and workers; it would not have killed the brain caste and the queens I doubt if anybody can be certain that even a direct hit with a burrowing H-rocket would kill a queen; we dont know how far down they are. Nor am I anxious to find out; none of the boys who went down those holes came up again. So suppose we did ruin the productive surface of Klendathu? They still would have ships and colonies and other planets, same as we have, and their HQ is still intact so unless they surrender, the war isnt over. We didnt have

If they absorbed the punishment and didnt surrender, the war was still on. If theycan surrender Their soldiers cant. Their workers cant fight (and you can waste a lot of time and ammo shooting up workers who wouldnt sayboo! ) and their soldier caste cant surrender. But dont make the mistake of thinking that the Bugs are just stupid insects because they look the way they do and dont know how to surrender. Their warriors are smart, skilled, and aggressive smarter than you are, by the only universal rule, if the Bug shoots first. You can burn off one leg, two legs, three legs, and he just keeps on coming; burn off four on one side and he topples over but keeps on shooting. You have to spot the nerve case and get it... whereupon he will trot right on past you, shooting at nothing, until he crashes into a wall or something. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, The drop was a shambles from t