Why We Lost Afghanistan: West Point cadets are ditching bed-making with this elaborate hack

Triangle News Hub ^ | 23 August 2021 | Sarah Sicard

[Apparatchik]

Junior softball player and West Point Cadet Leila Hurst is a genius, leading the charge in the war against unkempt beds.

“Every morning until noon, cadets are in what’s called AMI (AM inspection),” wrote former Cadet Andrew Hutchinson. “When you’re in AMI, your door has to be propped open 90 degrees, your room has to be clean, and your bed perfectly made with hospital corners in the comforter. And there’s no sleeping allowed.”

It’s not so easy to get up at the crack of dawn every day and make your bed to perfection. I don’t think I’ve ever woken up and thought my sheets and blankets would be cozier if I added hospital corners. But then again, I’m not a 219-year-old military institution.

To fit these standards, Hurst revealed that she and fellow cadets have a secret for ensuring they’re always prepared for AMI. Let’s just say it’s a little unorthodox.

The process, which Hurst showed on TikTok, involves the standard hospital corners, held in place by boot-bands and an epic amount of duct tape.

The trick is meant to last for an entire semester. In the end, the underside of the bed essentially looks like a MacGyver-designed corset.

“We don’t actually sleep in our sheets,” Hurst noted.

[Apparatchik]

If you want to understand why we failed in Afghanistan, look no further than West Point - a corrupt institution that has taught generations of cadets to lie and cheat to get ahead. These same cadets are now the generals charged with building security in Afghanistan The Academy takes a simple task to reinforce concepts of self-discipline and responsibility—making your bed every day—and imposes a zero-defects standard that drives cadets to create a fake display model that they can’t even sleep in. And the really twisted thing here is that such cheating is actually celebrated.

That institution has produced liars and cheats like Dempsey, Petraeus, McChrystal, and—most recently—Miller, who for years kept telling our leadership that everything was going swimmingly in Afghanistan, that the Afghan military was both willing and able to defend their country. And now we find out that, despite appearances, it was all just held together with blousing cord and duct tape.

[damper99]

I guess they must not have linen exchange weekly? Seems the supply folks would have noticed this.

[lightman]

Poor little Leila.

She’s receiving an ALL expenses paid 4 year college education and the guarantee of well paid employment through her commissioning commitment.

Suck it up, buttercup!

[MuttTheHoople]

When I was in boot camp, I slept on the top of my sheets because I didn't want to have to spend time making up the bed precisely.

What I found out, was as I went along in Basic Training, I could easily make up my bunk in about 60 seconds. Forget sleeping on top wearing only my Army sweat clothes...I could curl up in my comfy trundle bundle and get a good eight hours (err, "allegedly") sleep a night (when I wasn't pulling fire guard).

[Reily]

Miller ??

[FatherofFive]

“We don’t actually sleep in our sheets,” Hurst noted.

That is really sad

[Apparatchik]

Miller ??

General Austin “Scott” Miller, last commander of US and NATO troops in the Resolute Support Mission.

[jz638]

I got no problem with the cadets looking for shortcuts and trying to find loopholes. In the real world that's what makes the difference between the quick and the dead, and bringing men home alive or writing letters to their next of kin.

The problem is the upperclassmen and cadre allowing known shortcuts to persist and propogate. The moment the "hack" was found out, all beds should have been tossed every night for a week. That isn't ingenuity, that's laziness and corruption.

[Reily]

Ahh !

[Apparatchik]

100% agree - don’t blame the troop, blame their leaders.

[LegendHasIt]

Heck, I did that 55 years ago at the Academy... With the boot blousing bands... Not Duct Tape, which would have been TOO obvious.

At least we didn't have anyone like this:

If we discovered anyone with that attitude they would have gotten a good 'blanket party' for an attitude adjustment, and if that failed, they would have been forced to resign.

[smvoice]

Future leaders who will duct tape problems under the rug until we cease to exist as a Country. They’re doing it now. All the way to the frickin top

[larrytown]

Common dodge is to have extra sheets permanently set on bed - and just swap out the sheets from the week before, having stashed them somewhere. Sleeping on top with a poncho liner or cheap comforter was norm where I was.

This practice is a symptom of the problem of image over substance.

[Fury]

Re: 4 - We were, uh, “discouraged” from sleeping on top of the blanket. Several profanity laced tirades awaited several people that did that the first week or so of Basic. And frankly too itchy for me. Hated those damn blankets.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

This bed trick is older than dirt, and nothing new. At the Naval Academy, same bed-making rules rules applied. Most mids even a half-century ago slept on top of their bedspread rather than under the sheets. Except on "hotel night", which was the night before you had to strip the bed the next day for laundry, and so didn't have to worry about having it made in the a.m.. of course, if you'd short-sheeted the bed, you were out of luck on hotel night.

Trying to say Afghanistan bears any relevance to a time-saving trick is ridiculous.

[Gay State Conservative]

I guess they must not have linen exchange weekly? Seems the supply folks would have noticed this.

We did the same thing at Fort Knox in '69. We slept on top of our blanket...made it easier to get our rack ready for inspection in the morning.

We were 19...and didn't need a 219 year old educational institution to figure it out.

[2banana]

Dude.

We all slept on the floor in our sleeping beds.

In basic training.

So we didn’t have to make our perfect bed.

[Bigg Red]

Exactly.

There should not be any females in West Point either.

[ealgeone]

Trying to say Afghanistan bears any relevance to a time-saving trick is ridiculous.

***************

I think the issue is about discipline...or the lack there of. If you cheat in the small things or don't think they're important you'll cheat later.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

Oh please. The goal is to accomplish "the mission", which in this case was having a made bed every morning. People who blindly follow procedures and can't think creatively make terrible officers.

Hell, we were actually encouraged albeit incorrectly, to occasionally break rulesto do thinks like steal a cannon at night and put it in the office of your company officer. If you got caught,you.got hammered. But if you pulled it off, you were rewarded. As it should be.