The Army And The Pillow Fight Tradition
Since nobody else has mentioned it I gotta wonder if there is a level of embarrassment involved?
West Point Pillow fight turns nasty.
WEST POINT, N.Y. — An annual freshman pillow fight at the U.S. Military Academy turned bloody this year when cadets swung pillowcases packed with hard objects, injuring 30 cadets, according to a newspaper report Saturday.
Two dozen cadets suffered concussions in the Aug. 20 bedding melee, though all have since returned to duty, West Point spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Kasker told The New York Times for a story published Saturday.
I didn’t know about this annual event myself. It is apparently intended to “to build camaraderie after a grueling summer of training for the rigors of West Point“.
So I won’t dismiss a concussion as trivial, but this IS West point. In the new liberal Army I could see such an event as a celebration for “female” Ranger graduates and the like.
None of the sources readily found offer information about the genesis of this “annual event”. Mind you – I’m not ready to make fun of our military traditions, but a Pillow Fight” to build camaraderie raises questions… fun questions.
I’ve been giggling here on Pine Island just waiting for for Jonn to post about this. I wonder what kind of event his Army offered after becoming Airborne qualified. The mind boggles at the possibilities.
Weigh in if any of you ever used a pillow fight to build camaraderie?????
Category: Geezer Alert!
It wasn’t a pillow fight it was the new Pre Ranger.
Word.
At least they were not using dildos while dressed in drag.
The way the Army is going these days, it is just around the corner.
Great job McHugh and Dempsey! Maybe Milley can right the ship.
I doubt it though.
Uuhhm, NO, no pillow fights, but we’d have a ball knocking the crap out of each other in hand to hand Combat training on Sergeant’s Time as well as tackle football games during weekends on the PT Field. But the Cadets? They’re not even 2LT’s yet, so I assume they break easily. /sarc on the last sentence
I figured SOMEBODY was gonna mention this. You are now a somebody, Admiral Z.P.
It’s the new softer, gentler, gay-er Army, I guess, replete with feety-pajamas and slumber parties. Hey, don’t forget the popcorn and is that new PT instructor cute or what?
After Ranger school? I’m sure they all went out and got drunk.
A new Ranger wants two things immediately after graduation: Food (LOTS of it!) and sleep (even MORE of it).
If this had happened on any other active duty military post or during any Reserve Battle Training Assembly, the entire chain-of-command would be relieved and careers would be over. Since you need a three-day safety briefing before operating a floor buffer, and need to wear a reflective belt when using it, where was the Risk Management Matrix for this one? Only in this dome of diplomatic immunity can you possibly get away with this.
WHOA, WAIT, you mean they likely did that sans PT Belts? OOOooh, some Sergeant Major is gonna shit a cinderblock, next we’ll hear they did it out on the grass!
Nope- they had PT belts, Helmets and body armor!
It looks like The Long Gray Line became the long black and blue line.
The only tradition I could recall in the military is the infamous blanket party. That was intended to be a form of ‘character development’ tied to supposed camaraderie, teamwork and the delivery of unit-brand discipline.
That said, I’m not Down with this Fowl form of tradition (puns intended). Maybe next year they’ll use powder puffs.
Go Army, Beat Army!
Pillow biting to build camaraderie? Oh how the mighty have fallen.
Never attended a pillow fight. Never saw one except in some movie or another. Never imagined one occurring at a US military academy.
The lesson may be that should any of us ever find ourselves contemplating being in a pillow fight, a thorough search of the pillows before the fight begins might be in order. Yeah, that does sound pretty wimpy. But, its a pillow fight. No way to make it sound like something other than what a group of 8-year old girls might do during a sleep over.
were they wearing their reflective belts? If so, nothing to see here, CM!
Trying hard not to laugh but they who live in glass houses…. Annual tradition for Middies is to greese up a pole and climb to the top… or is it a statue can’t remember but was driving past Annapolis and happened to see this. Shook my head and said yup they are Navy.. wife (who’s from the area) said they do it every year. So Army has pillow fights and Navy climbs poles. Please some in the know tell me my beloved AF does NOT have some dumb shit like this at Colorado…..
Justed looked up the Navy thing amd its an obelisk. Pole obelisk…not much differance in that symbolism…
C’mon… Yer pushing it a bit, but OK. The Navy ALSO has The Wog to Shellback ritual. Costumes and stuff?
I was just gonna leave it with the Academy, since the topic was West Point…. wasn’t even gonna mention wog and and shell back. Figured at sea rituals was best left up to those in the know and my knowledge is only second hand via sea stories. So was willing to chalk that one up.to the strange things the Navy does will away from perfectly good dry land…
I have heard second and third hand that she’ll back tradition has been scuttled to it being considered a form of hazing.
Damn you, autocorrect! Shell back, not she’ll back. Hack Stone Publishing regrets the error.
There is no way today’s Crossing the Line ceremony is anything like it was when I went through it. With PC and women onboard, it is but a pale shadow. I Crossed the Line four times, Order of the Golden Dragon once, and Bluenose once.
The obelisk at USNA is the Herndon Monument. It is greased up with everything you can imagine. A plebe’s dixie cup (headgear) is placed at the top. The plebes attempt to climb Herndon and remove the hat. The lore is that the plebe who snags the hat will become CNO, but I’m pretty sure that hasn’t happened in memory (if at all). It also signifies the end of their plebe year.
Well, the USAFA does have this for 100th Night.
http://csmng.com/2010/02/19/seniors-get-duty-stations-%E2%80%98extreme-makeovers%E2%80%99-for-100s-night/
I’m sure there are a few other “less publicized” traditional forms of mischief there as well.
Still not as bad as a pillow fight.
Famous line from “They died with their boots on”, “I didn’t know you could be kicked out of the Army for fighting” Cadet George Armstrong Custer.
Yes, it happens from time to time. And no, it doesn’t always mean the individual is unsuited for the military.
Confederate BG Lewis Armistead was one such individual. He attended West Point, but ended up resigning after breaking a plate over another cadet’s head – Jubal Early’s head, to be precise. Both went on to become Confederate generals.
Armistead died while personally leading his brigade during Picket’s Charge. He fell on Cemetery Ridge at or near the point of greatest Confederate advance, today termed the “High Water Mark of the Confederacy”.
We’re the injuries caused by foreign objects in the pillows. If so who conducted pre combat checks and inxpections
According to one source to help prevent concussions they decided to give them head geard. Well guess no one thought to tell them it goes on thwir heads not in the pillow cases…. just think a furture Cheif of Staff of the Army may be in that class….
“Since nobody else has mentioned it I gotta wonder if there is a level of embarrassment involved?”
Uh, check the entry from 07:36, Saturday on your Facebook page…
Er, Um…. I don’t do FB daily any more. Once or twice a week, maybe.
No pillow fight story, but I do have a pillow story. The place, Camp Fuji. The time, just about thirty years ago, give or take a few weeks. I was sharing a Quonset hut with a few fellow NCOs, most being tankers and tank mechanics. The other radio repairman in the company was a pompous ass who for some reason thought that he was intellectually superior to everyone else. Not too many people liked him, to include me. Well, he was out in town, and we were ready to hit the rack, when someone mentioned that we should fuck with him. The problem was, nobody had a worthy prank to pull on him. As usual, Hack Stone had to step up and fill the void. “It would be really fucked up if someone was to put a sandbag in his pillow case.” Well, that was the spark that lit the fire. Someone went outside, grabbed two sa bags, brought them inside, and inserted them in his pillow case. Guys grabbed their cameras, waiting for “it” to happen. I fell asleep, and woke up in the middle of the night to make a puss call. His rack was directly across from mine. As I put on my shower shows and navigated by the red light towards the door, I saw a trail of dirt leading the way. Outside, there was an empty sandbag hanging from the power line. The following morning, his one and only friend, an idiotic Staff Sergeant came into the hut, and asked him what was with the sandbag hanging from the power line. He responded with “I seem to be the butt of a practical joke.” I served with that same idiot five years later in Desert Shield. Still a pompous ass. I made sure that everyone in our unit heard the story.
The preceding story is 100% true. Tank Boy can vouch for me.
You’ve never heard of short sheeting the rack, or salting the sheets?
Those are only two of many things you could have done.
Short sheeting the rack is for beginners. Have you ever side sheeted the rack? How about filling someone’s boots with shaving cream? I have a few other stories, but it works better as a live oral presentation. More incentive for you to attend the TAH Beer Summit.
TAH Beer Summit? Wait… WHAT? When and where?
This is a joke, right? From the Onion?
“Whaddaya think, Mr., this jokes a program?”
No, and it’s not from the Duffle Blog either – though the Duffle Blog did run this almost 3 years ago:
http://www.duffelblog.com/2012/11/mob-violence-breaks-out-at-west-point-63-wounded/
At a YMCA summer camp, pillowfights are a big deal.
Double up a pillow case. Insert a folded Army wool blanket. Knock that overgrown bully down a peg or three when you clock him with one solid whack. (Grin…)
They have to teach that crap at West Point? Wow.
I didn’t attend West Point (I went to an accredited university), but I’ve heard of the pillow fight and a lot of other really strange traditions. BTW, although Duffle Blog is satire, there is a lot of truth in this story if you look for it:
http://www.duffelblog.com/2012/11/mob-violence-breaks-out-at-west-point-63-wounded/
What you have to remember is that USMA is basically a college, and most of these cadets in particular are freshmen. West Pointers have a reputation for being socially inept their first few years after graduating. Us ROTC guys would say they were in prison for four years and are now out on work release…
See, freshmen can’t do what normal troops would do when coming back from the field (get drunk and get laid), and the upperclassmen have just come in from doing just that. They build this event up in their minds, plus it is a chance for the Plebes to get back at the Cows and Firsties that have been torturing them.
Still pretty stupid.
Might want to rethink that “accredited university” comment after reading the link below. USMA is hardly unaccredited.
http://www.usma.edu/academics/SitePages/Home.aspx
Didn’t think he meant anything by it other than he didn’t got to an Academy. For the most part I will agree with Hondo, all our Academies off some of the best education in the country. Even if some of the traditions may be a bit off. 🙂
That was satire, a form of irony often used as humor.
There are a million of West Point jokes in the Army, this is just one of them
The big controversy here is what do the trannys wear, jammies or nighties?
Naw, the big controversy is whether or not they’d survive the first six weeks trying to get into the women’s bathrooms.
Easy there you judgemental pack of geezers 🙂 I went to that fabled Hudson Valley school for (formerly) Boys just shy of 14 years ago. The pillow fight sounds goofy but it really is just a giant brawl. Locks, rocks, helmets, etc are the norm. Course we wore our helmets. A lot of blood is spilled and quite a few end up in the clinic. This is the first year so many got concussions so it made the news . (Probably because they put the helmets in the pillows instead of wearing them) Freshmen aren’t allowed to blow off steam with booze, women, or even speaking in public (that’s right, you can’t speak in public unless directly addressed). So they take what they can get. And yeah, guys at the duffel blog must be psychic
That did partially answer one of the lingering questions I had – “tradition” could hold some variation among us peeps out here without direct knowledge of the academy. Ya know, like how long this “tradition” has been in place. Seems like it is at least in excess of 14 years.
It’s relatively recent… only since the late 1890’s. And, no, that is not a typo.
Let the kids blow off some steam after a rough summer. That’s probably WHY it’s there. Dumb, but no worse than a few other things.