The 2015 annual West Point pillow fight ended with impressive statistics: 30 injured, 24 concussions, a broken leg, quite a few split lips and dislocated shoulders. These future leaders of our United States Army must be so proud. Well, they sure are. A female cadet, in an article on Business Insider stated:

A female student who participated in the brawl told the Times, “when we learned how many people had gotten hurt, everyone felt totally hard-core. I know it looks weird from the outside, but it really bonds us.”

Nothing like severely injuring a fellow classmate to provide that “bonding”. It is some solace that “everyone felt totally hardcore”.

Chris Bray in New York Magazine has this charming paragraph:

The ritual, a West Point tradition since 1897, is meant to instill feelings of camaraderie and spirit in the cadets following a 7-week basic training regiment which precedes their first year at the academy. The event was cancelled in 2013 after a cadet loaded a lockbox into his pillowcase the previous year.

As the mother of a United States Army Captain who is a military college graduate, this is clearly a lack of leadership. The cadre who oversee this annual tradition should be severely punished. West Point had tried to keep this August 20th event quiet. Cadets are taking down photos and videos for fear of repercussions. There should be repercussions. Dismissals.

The New York Times article quotes a West Point spokesman, Lt. Col. Christopher Kasker:

Upperclassmen overseeing freshmen “allowed the spirit activity to occur out of the desire to enhance the spirit of the class,” Colonel Kasker said, adding that those upperclassmen took “mitigating measures” to prevent injury, including requiring cadets to wear helmets.

Instead, the cadets stuffed the helmets into the pillow cases, the better to beat their classmates senseless. Worse than that, some of the cadets didn’t get the memo about the required reflective belts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieFwfDQ95UE