Posted on 09/05/2015 4:32:32 AM PDT by Timber Rattler
For generations, freshmen cadets at the United States Military Academy have marked the end of a grueling summer of training with a huge nighttime pillow fight that is billed as a harmless way to blow off steam and build class spirit.
But this year the fight on the West Point, N.Y., campus turned bloody as some cadets swung pillowcases packed with hard objects, thought to be helmets, that split lips, broke at least one bone, dislocated shoulders and knocked cadets unconscious. The brawl at the publicly funded academy, where many of the Armys top leaders are trained, left 30 cadets injured, including 24 with concussions, according to West Point.
In interviews, cadets who asked that their names not be used for fear of repercussions in West Points strictly controlled culture, said the fight had left one cadet with a broken leg and dislocated shoulders in others. One cadet was knocked unconscious and taken away in an ambulance and had not returned to school, they said. But a spokesman for the academy, Lt. Col. Christopher Kasker, said all cadets had returned to duty.
Though talk about the brawl on Aug. 20 had circulated on social media, West Point did not confirm it to The New York Times until Thursday.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I was thinking more alont the lines of wooden swords
That's right. They wore special body armor that exposed only the 'safe' parts of the face.
Their male bonding ritual was bound about with rules. If you broke them then you went to jail or were executed.
ping
There's another dimension to this to be considered. Parents and other loved ones put a lot of trust in leadership to keep it tough but safe for that summer training. After the summer training is over, those who made it go through a big ceremony when they enter the Corps of Cadets. None of those cadets who made it through Beast Barracks have to stay, and unless they were already serving, they have no obligation to the Army.
I could see this adding a dimension of mistrust between parents and the Academy that could lead to Cadets being more tempted to leave. It takes an impressive resume to get into WP. It's not like the Cadets don't have other choices.
I'm with you. Ideal Cadets are tough and competent, and should have good enough judgement to not do things that can injure their peers. What happened is not leadership potential.
Where are the girls ?
No girls means more female over male propaganda
chip chip ...
snip snip at the American fabric.
How many cases of rectal syphilis were reported?
The only “enemy” our military will be allowed to defeat is us.
I doubt they were “executed”.
Germany a century+ ago was a civilized land, and executed people much less often than France and probably Britain too.
And a Junker lad who forgot himself much less so.
I see both helmets and body armor on some of the smarter cadets.
...
Those are the ones with rocks in their pillow cases.
I would be inclined to expel the entire class. Group punishment is often used early in military training. Expel the entire class sends a good message to future classes. Now if the “cheaters” are turned promptly I might rethink the entire class thing.
The Russians would be snickering if our officer corps was having actual pillow fights.
Cracking each others skulls — much more in keeping with the warrior mentality.
The “cheaters” should be turned in.
Aren’t they all under the cadet oath?
Then it's hilarious. When stationed on the DMZ many years ago, a Korean soldier who did not understand our level of aggression and proclivity to have friendly fights at the drop of a hat (friendly in the sense that there were no hard feelings after, they could be quite brutal), remarked, "When there is no enemy to fight, you fight each other." Yep, and that's why we are the best Army in the world.
My limited exposure is that those gals are impressive. They're smart, independent minded, leaders, athletic, excellent students, and accomplished. The ones I encountered learned to succeed on their own merits, not to fall back on whiny female victimhood routines.
Bill Cosby graduated from Temple ....
It all makes sense now...
SIR, FGY, SIR !
Pussifying them will make it all better.
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