it seemed like they shrugged off training deaths like it was common and nothing, particularly the part about what I presume is the survival training. Could not such a technologically advanced society monitor this and not let the failures die but retrieve them and give a medical discharge?
They do take it seriously, but accept that it's part of the package: push the men (no girls in MI in this novel!) as hard as possible. Doing that involves risks, including deaths.
Heinlein wrote this in the late 50's, so even for Sci-Fi the things we have now (GPS, heartrate & health monitors) were far fetched. They were in the battle suits of course!
I found that part odd as well. The Canadian wilderness is no place to dump a pile of recruits for what, 3-4 days without any equipment at all? It doesn't say the duration, but that they were buck-naked and had to travel 40 miles.
Johnnie killed rabbits with flaked rocks? The guy's a murder machine! (They had some training in that area, of course)
It does say earlier that they could clear 50 miles in 10 hours on the level, so they were dumped only about a day's march away for their survival training
The Rocky Mountains are far from "level". It took 3 days I think? And it gets plenty cold at night, even in summer.
It seemed 'over the top' but he didn't dwell on it, just made the points of recruits dying and MI never leaves a man behind.
They do take it seriously, but accept that it's part of the package: push the men (no girls in MI in this novel!) as hard as possible. Doing that involves risks, including deaths.
Heinlein wrote this in the late 50's, so even for Sci-Fi the things we have now (GPS, heartrate & health monitors) were far fetched. They were in the battle suits of course!
I found that part odd as well. The Canadian wilderness is no place to dump a pile of recruits for what, 3-4 days without any equipment at all? It doesn't say the duration, but that they were buck-naked and had to travel 40 miles.
Johnnie killed rabbits with flaked rocks? The guy's a murder machine! (They had some training in that area, of course)
It does say earlier that they could clear 50 miles in 10 hours on the level, so they were dumped only about a day's march away for their survival training
The Rocky Mountains are far from "level". It took 3 days I think? And it gets plenty cold at night, even in summer.
It seemed 'over the top' but he didn't dwell on it, just made the points of recruits dying and MI never leaves a man behind.