He was born Stephen Hites but changed his name to that of the protagonist of Robert Heinlein's political science fiction novel, Starship Troopers.
He graduated from the University of Colorado Denver with a master's degree in criminal justice in 2001 and worked as a probation officer before enlisting in the U. S. Army following the September 11th terrorist attacks.
[2] Rico published his first book, Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green: A Year in the Desert with Team America (Ballantine/Presidio, April 2007), based on his experiences as a U.S. Army Infantryman deployed to Afghanistan from 2004-2005.
[3] Critically acclaimed, Publishers Weekly hailed this work as "a timeless story of confounded youth and its eternal struggle for meaning, this book may well signal the birth of a titanic new voice".
Johnny Rico has been asked to speak about his book, Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green: A Year in the Desert with Team America, on multiple occasions.