"Trigger-happy space bums," the
spacemen called them, and much worse, besides.
The men of the Special Order Squadrons, searching for a handy nickname,
had called themselves Planeteers, because most of their work was on the
planets. As Maj. Joe Barris had told the officers of Rip's class, "You
might say the spacemen own space, but we Planeteers own everything solid
that's found in it."
The Planeteers were the specialists--in science, exploration,
colonization, and fighting. The spacemen carried them back and forth,
kept them supplied, and handled their message traffic. The Planeteers did
the hard work and the important work--or so they believed.
To become a Planeteer, a recruit had to pass rigid intelligence,
physical, aptitude, and psychological tests. Fewer than fifteen out of
each one hundred who applied were chosen. Then there were two years of
hard training on the space platform and the moon before a recruit was
finally accepted as a Planeteer private. Out of each fifteen who started
training, an average of five fell by the wayside.
For Planeteer officers, the requirements were even tougher. Only one out
of each five hundred applicants finally received a commission. Six years
of training made them proficient in the techniques of exploration,
fighting, rocketeering, and both navigation and astrogation.
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