West Point forbids traditional plebe pillow fight
After a particularly bloody pillow fight a few weeks ago, officials at the US Military Academy has forbidden the traditional Plebe pillow fight for first year students, according to USAToday;
First-year students, or “plebes,” organize the annual fight to help the group bond after a summer of intense training.
The event, which appears to have been held almost every year since 2001, was particularly violent this time. In one case, a cadet was hit from behind and knocked unconscious, according to a West Report report of the incident. He was given first aid by a cadet who was a certified Emergency Medical Technician.
Other injuries included a broken nose and a fractured cheek. A photograph posted on Twitter showed a cadet wearing a helmet and body armor with blood pouring from his nose and mouth.
I’m sure the plebes can find another way to “bond”, you know, like Army training. Push ups always bind me to my friends. If pillow fights are too violent for the freshmen, maybe they need to find another endeavor anyway.
Category: Army News
How can you be all that you can bee without a fucking pillow?
Silly String fights were ruled out as contributing to global warming.
Maybe they can just have a giant tickle fight because that’s not as bad as having to bite the pillow.
“Army bans pillow fights.”
Holy shit, we’re in the Twilight Zone…
First rule of Pillow Fight Club, don’t talk about Pillow Fight Club.
Those nasty pillows are just too tough for those pansies! Bloodied by pillows, my my!!
Desert,
It is quite easy to bloody someone when you put a plate from your body armor into the pillow.
The point of a pillow fight is that it does not lead to a whole mess of concussions.
Dacron fiberfill is the problem. They need to move to something a bit more hypoallergenic.
They should have banned them after the first one just because pillow fights are so freakin’ gay. But, noooooooooooo, they were banned because they became too violent. Cripes. Not to worry. Footy pajamas and sleep-overs are still okay at The Point.
I concur. Who the fuck wants to hear of a pillow fight at a Warrior Institution.
WTF is next, are they going to have Teddy Bears issued to them?
Not just Teddy Bears, but Care Bears and My Little Ponys.
You were not permitted to have pillow fights in the barracks during basic either. Did it “pussify” you?
No?
Then quit your bitching.
You just can’t stay away, can you Lars?
Like a moth to the bug zapper.
That’s complete bullcrap, as usual.
We GIRLS (WAVES) had both a pillow fight AND a toilet paper fight the next to last night of boot camp.
Now, granted, we were wimmin and we tend to be a bit more in-your-face than Army recruits, but nobody got bloody noses or black eyes out of it, unless you count the mascara smears.
You know that there was some serious fapping going on using the mental image you provide don’t you?
Of course, but it’s true.
NO pillow fights, we did hand to hand combat training where we gracefully knocked the shit out of each other and practiced it on each other when we thought the DS’s weren’t looking or listening.
Hey Lars, before your next post, please consider one thing:
NOBODY GIVES A FUCK!
Wow, I really seem to have hurt your feelings with the “troll” comment. It has been three days now and you just can’t come to terms with it.
It happened. While I originally felt like I had misjudged you, I now realize it was right on the money. Deal with it, and move on.
AAAAWWW, whatsa matter Jiffy-poo, did mean ‘ol TOW make you feel poopy and throw your teddy bear across the room? I wish my ex-wife on you!
Ex-wife? Jesus, he’s an asswipe, not a nazi!
Not really, Lars. I’m just sick and tired of your shit. And as I said before, I reward assholery in kind. Any “trolling” is no more than a self-fulfilling prophecy on your part. You demonstrated yourself to not be worth civility or consideration, because you give none to others. So eat a dick on that count.
Another thing, have you considered that the mere fact that Jonn hasn’t banned you disproves just about everything you say about us? I guess that’s another one of those inconvenient truths for ya.
So get fucked.
Don’t believe I ever heard of anyone attempting a pillow fight in Basic. i recall a black eye or two, but I am pretty sure pillows were not involved.
Well, there is a reason for that, David. Until the issue was raised by the resident idiot, no one else had heard of it either. He must have been told “No trainee!” by the DS.
No, moron, I was referring to Infidel’s “teddy bear” implication that not having pillow fights made West Point Plebes somehow softer.
I love it when Taylor demonstrates – yet again – his inability to recognize either obvious satire or nuance. API’s comment above about teddy bears was one of the more obvious examples of satire I’ve seen this year.
Besides, I thought “recognizing nuance” was a mandatory course in all political and social science degree programs.
…
No Lars, we didn’t have pillow fights in basic. We had blanket parties for pussies and shitbags like yourself.
Oh really? I went to basic, dipshit.
So did I, Jiffy-poo! I went through in the ery nineties when “wall to wall counseling” still occurred, something that the Mommies and Daddies of candyasses like you screamed to the media about. I’ve made it in both the Military and Civilian worlds, ditto for the other TAH Regulars, some of which are successful Business Owners, have you ever had a decent paying civilian job? I have one where I make more than one of my buddies I deployed with, and he has a MA in Psychology! Tough times and tough, realistic training is what tells who can hack it and who the weenies are, that’s probably why you ended up as a desk jockey! BTW, I’ve been to West Point, I was part of the Summer Training Cadre one year when I was AD.
When, exactly, and where did you go to Basic, Lars?
LARS! Hey Jiffy-poo, I just thought I’d add that you remind me of a few Officers that would attend the Hand to Hand Combat training sessions and then scurry off when the face-offs and challenge sessions began. YES, we had Officers and Senior NCO’s that stayed for that AND they had the balls to go head to head with us when challenged, the ones that scurried off were regarded as “wusses”!
Lars….
Proving with every post that he was the most hated suck ass type of officer any enlisted member has ever been subjected to.
You little bitch. I bet the 11 series folks serving with you still talk about it today over beer and laughs.
Dildos and stress cards.
That is infidel’s era, not mine.
Are you even trying, Jiffy-poo? A sixth grader can do better than that, you are one very thin-skinned critter!
Well, whatever you want to call it then, “stress cards”, “time-outs”, “do you need a break, recruit?’…
That is your era of training.
When was your era of training?
HAAAA!!
1991, my thin-skinned little Jiffy-poo! NO SUCH THING back then, YOU LOSE YET AGAIN!! 
HEY LARS! Yo Jiffy-poo, now that there’s 0bamacare for dweebs like you, maybe it’s time for you to find a Taintologist and get that part of you splinted!!
AND I LOVED EVERY MOMENT OF THAT!!!!
How did they bond before 2001? In the absence of pillow fights how on earth did every single class from the 1802 to 2000 become properly acquainted with each other and form the appropriate military bonds?
Jonn’s right, shared discipline with your fellow classmates bonds you to each other. That shared discipline and struggle forge true bonds, not some idiotic pillow fight that requires body armor and helmets and still results in broken bones.
Sports. Lots and lots of sports. There are clubs, intramural teams and, of course, the big boys. That’s how. Participation is not optional.
Well, that plus the first year students (“Plebes”) reportedly being treated more-or-less like crap for the entire first year by everyone senior to them. Reportedly that experience rather bonded the incoming class together and taught them to work with each other, and together as a group.
Geeezussss! Come on Army- read what VOV says: “shared discipline and struggle forge true bonds—–” Semper Fi (The Citadel ’62)
’63
How about a double-elimination Pugil Stick tournament?
Olympic Modern Pentathalon?
Orienteering (map and compass navigation) Triathalon?
How come I can come up with three militarily useful ideas right off the top of my head, and 15 years of “trade school” types max out at “pillow fight”?
They actually did something like that back when I was an (ROTC) Cadet. West Point had a decathalon style team event with different stations – a lot of CTT style stuff- assemble/disassemble M16/M60; don your mask properly within the alotted timeframe, land nav, road march, etc. Went as part of a team from our university – got our butts kicked too. Sandhurst games (they invited a Brit team as well)? Something like that.
How about a belching contest? Arm wrestling? Skivvies pool?
Reading the above comments I think some of you aren’t aware of the full details. Some of the cadets were placing hard objects, such as kevlar helmets, inside their pillow cases.
1. A pillow fight is stupid.
2. At what point in your critical decision making process do you decide that putting a helmet into a pillow case for a pillow fight is OK?
Just shaking my head at both parts of this … our future military leaders at work.
Well, the ones who put the hard and heavy objects in the pillow cases are general officer material. Of course, they’ll be booted or get bad paper. The sissy marys in the footy pjs will be fast tracked.
I WEAR FOOTIES AND ONESIES!!! AND I LIKE TO DO THAT WITH A CUP OF HOT COCOA AND TALK ABOUT HOW OBAMA HAS CHANGED THE WORLD FOR THE BETTER!!!
I will admit that I own a Superman onsie pjs complete with cape. I got it to wear when my grandkids come over for a sleepover. The things we do to make our kids and grandkids happy.
Thanks for the additional info. I was wondering how in the hell you get knocked out or broken bones or bloody noses from a PILLOW??!!
Yeah. . . add additional weight. . . that’s the ticket to screw over yourself, your classmates, and a pleasant tradition.
I’m sure that outside the perp who swung the lead weighted pillow(s), someone else knows who did this. Those perp(s) need to be passed around, and silently ostracized and “blackballed” by the student corps.
‘Those perp(s) need to be passed around, and silently ostracized and “blackballed” by the student corps.’
No. They need to be busted down to E-1, sent to the real Army for four years of EMI including menial tasks like cleaning lavatories, chipping paint and painting bulkheads, and doing general maintenance duty.
Anyone who is dumb enough to do this kind of thing for ANY reason is displaying sociopathic behavior right off the starting line.
In general, a first or second year student at any of the military academies doesn’t have a MSO. So if identified, likely they’ll simply be booted.
Frankly, I think that’s likely the best course of action. The Army already has enough bozos without common sense that manage to slip through IET. IMO we don’t need to add any more self-identified fools to the force.
We had a similar tradition at Norwich University called the “UP 500” (UP=upper parade ground). Basically, once enough snow had fallen, the Junior and Senior cadets constructed obstacles and threw snowballs while each Sophomore company ran a lap around the UP. The freshmen were locked up while this was going on (not that it mattered, as some were all too eager to post pictures of the events on facebook right after *facepalm*). You were encouraged to run as naked as possible and many had on little more than boots and a speedo. In fact, the more you wore, the more you would be pelted by the upperclassmen. Keep in mind this is Vermont, at night, in December.
Anyway, the same thing happened there. People started getting more extreme by pouring water over their snowballs, throwing ice, icing the track, some asshole even threw bleach and rocks. And apparently someone got her boobs fondled. After that, the administration decided such an event could not be controlled properly and was thus too unsafe. At the time I thought they were killjoys for destroying such an established “tradition” (it had been done for decades, even after the school admitted women), but years later I find myself agreeing with them.
I guess they’ll have to stick to painting each other’s nails or prank-calling the commandant.
Wait a minute. Stop and think about this. This tells our enemies that the American military can be dangerous even if all they have is PILLOWS! I think this is GREAT for psychological warfare!
I second that!!!
They’re going into the fucking Army, but a pillow fight is too violent? I hope none of these special snowflakes are ever asked to go to war, they might not be able to cope without their blankie.
Think more along the lines of bricks in a sack kind of pillow fight…it becomes a bit more stupid and dangerous in that light.
When you put a brick in your pillow case and wind up on someone that’s how the concussions and broken bones take place that they article describes…it’s sort of a free for all blanket party in broad daylight but instead of bars of soap it’s kevlar helmets and bricks in the pillow case.
Anyone remember a sock with 8 ounces (250 grams for you metric types) of lead shot in it? If you hit someone up side the head with one of those they usually go right to sleep. But that isn’t a sock fight, it’s a sap.
When those children started putting helmets and bricks into pillow cases, one of their NCOs needed to speak with them out behind the barracks.
I did not participate in a blanket party however after a 20-miler in full field gear one of our Drill Instructors was standing too close to the door when he yelled “Fall out!” and he was trampled by the crowd. The DI was pretty upset and he didn’t look so good. During the subsequent discipline, the DI struck the last recruit he saw before going down. The unit CO had to ask the recruit if he wanted to press charges. He didn’t and it all turned out okay but I seem to recall that we only did five or six hundred pushups. At the time it seemed pretty fair.
How about going after the dickheads that put hard objects in the pillows. Once again someone is overcome with stupid and Command over reacts and moves further into pussification. I like the idea of pugil stick tournament.
I doubt that in 20 years anyone is going to say;
“Hey, remember when there used to be an annual pillow fight at West Point every year?”
“Yeah, man, that was back when West Point was hard.”
…
OK, THAT was hilarious…
I give credit where credit is due, and that was some funny stuff right there.
No wonder Navy keeps kicking Army’s ass in football.
(Do I really need a /sarc tag?)
Heeheehee!
I think a pushups competition, followed by a belching contest, would be just as bonding.
Take a look at Navy’s uniform for the Army-Navy Game:
http://www.brobible.com/sports/article/navys-under-armour-uniforms-for-the-army-navy-game-are-the-sickest-uniforms-in-college-football-history/
If that doesn’t say BADASSMOFO, I don’t know what does!
The pillow fight was an ironic joke- it was meant to sound innocuous while allowing a way for the cadets to have a blanket party and police their own ranks while having fun.
They did it right after coming back from Cadet Basic but before they start a full year during which they are treated like privates 24-7 while going through an intense academic and military training year- the first of four.
They still do Plebe Boxing, combatives, and hard PT and spend every summer doing additional training.
Like all USMA traditions, I think it is kind of stupid, but don’t think that USMA is easy based on this one glimpse into the life of a cadet.
At Bezerkley we have to engage in many years of white privelage/man shaming and social justice warfare to be accepted as a pledge to Lambda Lambda Lambda and to major in Womyn’s Studies
Based on what I have seen, this isn’t your basic gang of prepubescent girls throwing pillows at each other. This appears to be a case of people putting hard objects in pillowcases and swinging them like maces. In other words, think of the ‘blanket party’ that Leonard Lawrence got in ‘Full Metal Jacket’. Whether or not that behavior should be allowed in the Army is for the Army to decide. I just hope the Army’s decision proves to be the correct one.
It does sound like someone was out to get even with someone else. Pillow fights are generally harmless exercises in whacking someone else.
It’s when heavy objects are added and someone gets hurt that the bonding process stops, if it ever really started.
It sounds like someone in the Cadet CoC dropped the ball in PCC/PCI before the fight where some kids got hurt!
They obviously need to just bring back mandatory boxing. Young guys training for war are going to have to let off steam somehow.
Mandatory boxing! Great Idea!
I didn’t learn boxing until I need to follow Jonn’s Law – don’t screw with old people.
I was immediately placed on Engineering ‘Smokers’ team. Primarily do to my reach, size of my hands (claws), height and the fact that I was 100% Irish.
Fantail Smokers was common in the Navy. However, I don’t know if they do it anymore.
Pick up boxing matches ‘smokers’ is a great tool.
Today, I think is it called ‘assault with intention to harm and cause someone to seek a safe space’.
The Army has changed for the worst. I remember back in the day the army was tough now it’s to PC!
How can you remember something that never happened. The Army was the hardest 2 weeks of your life, right?
Well, well, if it is bunnii-boi, GFY tweezer dick.
Dalton spent two weeks taking it up the ass. That’s why he’s so butthurt.
HEY BUNNY-FART, just tell us HOW tough your two weeks of Reception Battalion was before you go on another bunny sphincter-sniffing binge!!
I guess “back in the day” was the four years ago for your 46 total days of service (July to September 2011, both DEP and Active) when the Army was tough enough to kick your little fefe forking ass to the curb. So tell us, were you a bedwetter? Umbilical cord too short? Fefe withdrawal symptions? Stubbed your toe during the first day of D&C? Just why did they boot your “Texas Ranger Tattoo” lying ass out after two weeks of Basic Training?
DD214 in the mail yet?
FTS – Fractures Taint Syndrome.
Hey Dickless one – want some tussin for your taint? Walmart has a two for one special on it now for the holidays…
Must have been “hard” as a Rump Riding Ranger, huh Dickless? Those special ops at the “gay bar” in your assless chaps did a lot to make you a man?
Nice to see that you took care of that outstanding warrant for a traffic violation a couple of years ago… couldn’t have taken care of it earlier because you were on a “Call of Booty – Anal Buttsekks Warrior” special op? Or were you at the proctologists office getting your little bunni removed from your butt after a late night session with your felching buddy?
Deal with the fame, bytch…
Bunni-Boi, you never did answer my question as to whether Fefe is a buck or a doe.
I’m keeping it simple on this comment, only one question at a time.
If I ask too many questions at once, you’ll use that as an excuse for not mailing off that DD214 you’ve been to busy to get to.
Post Offices are open today. They even have photo-copiers in them for public use.
Dude I was freakin busy today I have a job and I need to order a new copy of my dd214. I can’t find the current one. There was a fire at my grandparents house recently and all my military medals and badges were caught in the fire.
I am sending my stuff to them tomorrow and it should be 6-8 weeks before I get something. Trust me brah I want to clear my name. I have been working hard and this is a rough time in my life.
*YAWN*, SHUT UP, BUNNY-FART, you’re at least the umpteenth mouse fart of a poser to use fire as an excuse for not having a DD214! “Blobfish” Chevalier was at least original enough to use water as an excuse, GET A LIFE, BUNNY-FART!
“There was a fire…”
Yeah, what started it? Swamp gas? Or did you get carried away washing the taste of jizz out of your mouth?
Dude? Brah? WTF does a fire at your Grandparents house have to do with your DD214? We don’t need to see any medals and badges, just the DD214.
Are you telling us that you failed to follow the instructions of your separation briefing by not getting a copy of your DD214 archived into the records of your local county courthouse? You shouldn’t have to send away for a new one. Since you claim to be “medretired” a trip to a VA clinic is all you need to procure a copy.
What’s next? Two months from now you’ll be telling us that you did get a new copy, but in these rough times you had to feed the new DD214 to your little bunny fefe just to keep it alive.
Shit, lost my train of thought. Apparently Fefe-Forker doesn’t know what a buck or doe is.
Answer my question Bunni-Boi. Is Fefe a boy rabbit or a girl rabbit?
And right on cue: the obligatory “burned up in a fire” BS.
“Order a new copy” my butt. You can’t order a legit copy of something that doesn’t exist, bunni-boi.
Geez. You’re so full of crap that if you ever took a large dose of Ex-Lax you’d end up weighing less than your “little bunni fe-fe”.
Now, go home and get your shine box.
“There was a fire”… OMFG, where have we heard that line of shit before?
“Rough time in my life”… hey bunni boi, go get yourself some tussin from the local Walmart and rub it on your owie boo boo, and get that 214 to Jonn. You want to clear your name? do a couple of things:
1. Get the 214 to Jonn via mail – you know how to do that or do you need me to break that shit down Barney-style for you?
2. Stop posting – you’re already GOOGLE famous at this site and a few others for your Stolen Valor shit. Every time you open your cock holster and post here, it just generates the hits on your name.
Can you do that?
BTW – I served for 26 years (enlisted before you were a wet spot on your mommy’s mattress) and spent a couple of tours with the Marine Corps. Done more in my lifetime than you’ll ever dream of and even picked up an MBA degree in the process. I would hope that your parents taught you a little bit about respect, especially for your elders… and if they didn’t someone is gonna teach that lesson to you sometime in your future – and it’s one you’ll never forget.
Grow the fuck up little boy…
Did you send a copy of that DD214 to Jonn yet, bunni-boi?
Have you been home to get your shine box?
You mean you remember when your “Call of Duty” team decided to put “ARMY” on your gamer tags.
So, Dildo Waffleiron, did you fall asleep watching Rambo movies and wake up thinking you were really Rambo?
I bet he hugs his bunny tight during the violent scenes!
I am still waiting for the rodeos you entering for me to watch perform. Oh yeah bring your DD 214 and I check it out and report back to TAH. Joe
The Bunny sniffer is just having a good ole time trying to get folks rankled. He knows that we know his brief and unenviable military history and is just laying down some bunny turds. He stops by, lays a turd, and leaves. That other clown is head-to-toe covered in crap and hangs around stinkin’ up the place.
No, at least bunny poop is useful fertilizer.
2/17 Air Cav: true. But busting his b*lls by exposing his absurd lies is fun. And he makes it so damn easy!
I believe the annual event should be continued, as modified below:
1. Sponsored by ‘Victoria’s Secret’.
2. All female and all classes.
3. Selected ‘Victoria’s Secret’ uniforms must be worn.
4. Only carefully screened candidates may participate providing they pass rigorous height, weight and proportion classification and standards.
5. Event is televised and streamed live on the Google.Net.
That should about cover it.
PS: The notion that someone ends up with a broken nose, cheak and or brian injury at a pillow fight sickens me a bit. Who permits such sophmoric behavior at the USMA post 9/11. They could have bonded by conducting leadership forums on potentially how many friggin’ radical Islamists they might have the opportunity to kill after an education at the USMA. But no, pillow fight, yippie!
I foresee morale skyrocketing nationwide if they implement your plan, Master Chief. If only, right?
Just my point.
I take my lessons from the IDF and their annual calendar of Smokin’ HOT Jewish Female Conscripts!
But what do I know …
West Point lost its boxing program under the Klintoke regime part one but has it back for now. Perhaps the next prez will order the pillow fight back for the good of the county and free world. imho
Here my serious answer:
Full on run up Storm Mountain (close to USMA), followed by inspirational stories of former USMA grads who were KIA and wrapped up by 25 foot rope climb competion in a sand pit.
And the run back in formation singing Army songs.
Storm King Mt. … sorry!
The only Storm King Mountain I know of is in Colorado. It’s kind of a big deal for firefighters. Also a heartless bitch of a hike, which has something to do with the 14 crosses on its southern slope.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Canyon_Fire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_King_Mountain_%28New_York%29
Not huge by Western US standards, but still an asskicker on foot.
As a guy who’s hiked a lot of hills, it’s been my experience that little hills kick your ass because they look deceptively easy. When you’re looking at Mt. Motherfucker, you know it’s gonna suck and pace yourself accordingly. But when you look at a smaller hill and confidently say, “This ain’t shit,” the hill often begs to differ.
We have one due north of USMA. Kinda small but a bitch, in fact a few USMA types had to be rescued off it during a storm a few back.
Here it is:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_King_Mountain_(New_York)
NEXT we’ll hear that Jiffy-poo Lars doesn’t believe you, thus IT DOES NOT exist!
Meanwhile, the USNA has half neked plebes grappling a slicked up pole/obelisk (Herndon Climb) :0)
Well, really, Devtun, do YOU want to climb a greased pole in your good clothes? No, you wear stuff that doesn’t matter.
Hmm. “Alternative” mock fighting venue (Army cadets) vice attempting to climb and be the first to get something from the top of a well-lubricated shaft (Navy midshipmen).
Yeah, looks like I made the right decision when I joined the Army.
Oh come on. Everyone knows you are a Navy Captain. /s
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/05/us/at-west-point-annual-pillow-fight-becomes-weaponized.html?emc=edit_na_20150904&nlid=34563527&ref=cta&_r=0