When pillows attack! West Point fun & frolicking

Our "best and brightest" future ARMY officers kicking it old school?
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/09/0...nt-30-cadets-hurt-including-24/?intcmp=hplnws

Pillow fights?!? At the officers' academy? How long has this tradition been going on? I can't believe they ever thought letting "girls" in would be a problem.

Perhaps there is a culture of machismo that needs to be addressed...

haha. That will never happen in THIS country. You've visited America, haven't you? You've talked to its people, even our women have a patriarchal edge to them.

This sums up why I have so much disregard for so called military traditions.

It's the same frat boy stupidity you see at colleges.

Did you miss the part where 24 people got injured? Because the pillow cases contained more than pillows?

No, no. I got it. Somebody wanted a little S&M mixed into it; to each his own. But you have to admit... boys and pillows?

Hmmm.......a culture of machismo in the military of all places, where your ultimate goal is to kill better & faster, or better yet avoiding it by intimidating the enemy into submission? Highly unlikely. But I see your point - I think shit like this is silly, yet harmful at the same time. That said if a tradition promotes pride and esprit-de-corps and is all in good fun, then it's okay. For example in the Air Force when a high ranking officer/pilot makes his final flight while still in command (leaving to go somewhere else) a fire truck (and crowd of well wishers) greets him to "wet him down" when he exits the aircraft.

Machismo isn't a necessity for being a warrior IMO.

That is true especially in today's "high tech" world. It's pretty much brains-over-brawn except for certain specialties.

I'd bet my bottom dollar that no longer flies (pardon the expression) because of all the hazing shit that's come down since you left the service.

This is from one of my father's letters home from cadet training in San Antonio, dated May 14, 1943:

Yes, officers can really catch hell, but they pretty much have to take it in stride since they are "gentlemen" and all. Once at a field exercise in Germany a few of the NCO's kidnapped our sleeping Company Commander and 100 MPH taped him (in his underwear) to the hood of a HUMVEE and drove him around the field site. That's when he knew he had the NCO Corps respect and admiration. If an NCO is aloof and overly formal to his commander (especially off duty) he hates him/her.

I know some people in the AF so If I get a chance I'll ask them. I do know the Army has managed to suck the fun out of anything and everything. Everyone walks on eggshells because everything offends somebody somewhere at sometime. I think I made a thread a while back about an E-4 who was airborne (and leaving the Army in a few weeks) and made his last jump with his pet fish in a water bottle. Jesus H. Christ the whole fucking military has their collective knickers in a twist these days over the stupidest shit. Funny though if this same guy was an E-7 and got a DUI they would sweep it under the rug. One reason my kid is getting out - the politics/hypocrisy/off the rails judgement is driving him crazy. Anyway here is an example of the "group punishment" mindset and general FUBAR reasoning in today's Army. SELF AWARENESS TRAINING? And I thought CONSIDERATION OF OTHERS training was stupid!

http://www.duffelblog.com/2015/07/fort-bragg-cancels-july-4th/

OOPS! Turns out is a satire magazine. But we did indeed have CONSIDERATION OF OTHERS TRAINING when I was in. My son tells me of some of the new training/classes they have and holy shit talk about a of pussification.

Here's the fish jumping link. Sorry, formal punishment was a dick move considering senior soldiers commit atrocious crimes and it's swept under the rug.
http://www.armytimes.com/story/military/2015/04/28/jumping-paratrooper-fish-selfie-update/26536155/

Now some of these guys did stupid things like putting helmets in their pillow cases, but stuff like this builds a group memory which bonds them in a collective story. I am a huge critic of macho deuchebaggery, but even the injuries that are a part of this are ones that are part of something between these men. I will say that these bonding events do not need to be injurious, but they do have value in camraderie and brotherhood. One of the reasons I have grown to appreciate my own manhood was that I had done stupid shit like this with my squad of people. I am not trying to sound superior here, but rather making a recommendation. If you are a guy and you have not had a chance to do something like this with the groups you participate in you may wish to try it. I am not saying you have to have a pillow fight, or that you need to injure yourself, but these sort of events are something you and the people you participated with will always have stories of. It does not even have to be hazing, but just some sort of annual thing your tribe gets together to do.

Even with the injuries, boys will be boys. These guys are in the business of toughening up and taking a path that is different than a civilian. I actually knew a lot of them personally because my business was responsible for supplying air and other support to their annual paintball scenario game which is invite only if I am correct. It may have changed since then, it has been a long time. We also worked in some training excercises vs the cadets. The people that I was with were extremely familiar with each other and battle simulations. Our job was to give them a hard run of creative responses because we could come up with the best in the business. I know the school and the cadets are good guys. That rough housing and those injuries are a part of what is going to weave them together. The injured will have to buck up, and their squads will have to learn how to accomplish things while dealing with an injured member. To get that sort of experience you actually have to have injured members.

I am so not trying to say you are a lesser man because this is really a different path sort of thing. Some people, I should not say only men, have to travel a path of combat. It is where they excel. We can guide that energy in peacetime, while still allowing them a place to do their thing. I say things about stupid jarheads recognizing that there are military people who work better in that sort of environment. There is a difference between a dimwitted macho asshole and getting involved in this.

I think events like that are an important part of building the bond between the people in the unit and other units. There is being friends, and then there is being part of a military style unit.

[envisions pillow fight]



*sniff* God bless our military! Semper fuck...er fi. Semper Fi.

Only white chicks? Racist.

It's the only large picture of a girl pillow fight I could find. I would gladly accept other submissions.

I'm sure @garamet has plenty available... all home made.

The black chicks are brawling at the Waffle House.

I see your point, but when a lot of folks are sent to the hospital, that can be counter-productive.

Apparently a Navy thing as well.

Funniest wet down I ever witnessed when I was in the AF: they taped a guy to a chair (arms and legs) and carried him out to the middle of our big parking lot. Then they toted buckets of cold water and poured them over him, while everyone driving by honked and pointed and laughed. When they were done they left him out there taped to the chair, with people still driving by and laughing at his predicament.
The more he was out there, the more pissed off he got. So he started scooting the chair in tiny increments by jerking his whole body, across the parking lot back to the hangar. It was pretty cold outside, being England and all. When he almost made it to the door, he jerked too hard and tipped over. Imagine Artie Johnson on "Laugh-In" tipping over on that tricycle. Taped to a chair, soaking wet out in the cold. Sounds like a great country song!

When I read this, I keep thinking it's some kind of go-ahead signal to start a plan of attack.

Just out of curiosity I decided to do a Google image search on waffle house fights and it seems both the black chicks and the white trash chicks who visit waffle house are not the classiest people.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...d=0CCEQMygFMAVqFQoTCPqYg-jK6McCFcgriAodrUwCmw

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RcHPFxOS47A/hqdefault.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcHPFxOS47A&h=360&w=480&tbnid=YJiC4H1h4cZ_3M:&docid=FWtXpEcXoUqlkM&ei=UG7vVfqwEsjXoAStmYnYCQ&tbm=isch&client=ms-android-verizon&ved=0CCcQMygLMAtqFQoTCPqYg-jK6McCFcgriAodrUwCmw

Ahh, Waffle House. Where would America be without you?



And let us not leave out the white trash.