Who are the Stormtroopers

July 22, 2008

You were first introduced to the Stormtrooper back in the 70s when the original Star Wars movie was released so you may be familiar with the character but what is the history behind this underappreciated military man in white?

The Stormtrooper

Stormtroopers were the soldiers of the Empire who possessed an unwavering loyalty to the Emperor. Stormtroopers represented the most visible extension of Imperial might and they appeared quite formidable in their armor and helmeted heads hiding the person inside. Stormtroopers were trained in many aspects of warfare and were capable of striking with both speed and accuracy to put down any insurrections or uprisings. You could find Stormtroopers serving both on the ground in the army of Palpatine as well as up in space on the Imperial starfleet.

Stormtrooper training was extensive and brutal and stressed total indoctrination into the tenets of the New Order. Upon completion of their training, stormtroopers would would obey their officers without question, without regard to the rights of others or even to their own safety.

Stormtroopers are armored from head to toe with a very formidable looking set of white armor and they were typically armed with blaster pistols or blaster rifles and often both. The Stormtrooper helmet contained electronics that allowed them to communicate over a long range which allowed them to call in reinforcements or stay in touch with commanders during a heated battle. Stormtroopers were often specialized as well to be able to perform at their peak in difficult conditions. For instance snowtroopers on the icy world of Hoth were armored,trained and specially equipped to handle the ultra cold weather.

Stormtrooper Units

Stormtrooper units were seperate from the Imperial Army and Navy, although these elite men in white armor supported both factions of the Imperial Military. The general organization of Stormtrooper units followed the patterns of the Imperial military and they were fashioned into squads, platoons, companies, battalions, regiments, and battlegroups (called legions). To give you some idea of the scale involved, a stormtrooper battalion would consist of 820 stormtroopers.

Some of the specialized stormtrooper units included aquatic assault stormtroopers who were highly trained to operate in marine environments that were knowns as seatroopers. They of course, featured modified scout armor, with breathing tanks, flippers, and a helmet-mounted spotlight. They were assigned to aquatic garrisons, and were trained to operate patrol vehicles such as waveskimmers and wavespeeders.

Another highly specialized group of troopers were the Blackhole stormtroopers. These troopers were an elite branch of Imperial stormtrooper who answered directly to the Imperial Intelligence agent Blackhole. Blackhole troopers were equipped very similarly to a regular Stormtrooper but their armor was painted a very sinister black color and was coated in a substance designed to confuse sensor readings.

We already mentioned the cold assault stormtroopers known as Blizzard Force snowtroopers. These stormtroopers wore specially modified armor for cold weather environments. It included a more powerful heating unit, and an airtight fabric oversuit. To facilitate breathing, a breather hood covered the faceplate and fed into the suit liner.

Yet another specialized group of stormtroopers were the Desert stormtroopers aka Sandtroopers. These soldiers were identical to normal stormtroopers except for their specialized hot weather environment training and slightly modified armor.

Stormtrooper scout units were usually assigned to outlying garrison posts and you would typically find them to be equipped with speeder bikes so it's normal that they developed the name of biker scouts. A scout's armor is more flexible and lighter than a standard trooper's as they need to twist and turn and negotiate the speederbike.

Standard Stormtrooper armor provides only moderate protection against the rigors of hard space so the zero-G stormtroopers were born. Often referred to as spacetroopers, these stormtrooper divisions trained exclusively for actual space combat. They were adorned in massive space armor that required servomotors to help them move. Each suit even contained propulsion devices, sensory systems and an onboard weapons system. Standing over two meters tall and equipped with blasters, concussion grendades, torpedo launchers and laser cutters, a spacetrooper was a formidable sight.

Following the collapse of the Empire at Endor, stormtroopers were an increasingly rare sight in the galaxy. It was not until Grand Admiral Thrawn procured a working set of Spaarti cloning cylinders that the Imperial ranks of stormtroopers began to be replenished. We'll cover that in a separate article.

Conclusion

As you can see, being on the business end of a Stormtrooper was not the place to be if they had a problem with you. No matter what kind of Stormtrooper you might be a fan of, you can rest assured that you are one of the cool kids in class if you recognize that the true unsung hero of the Star Wars movies, is the venerable Stormtrooper.

Stormtroopers RULE!