At West Point, Annual Pillow Fight Becomes Weaponized
By DAVE PHILIPPS

For generations, freshmen cadets at the United States Military Academy have marked the end of a grueling summer of training with a huge nighttime pillow fight that is billed as a harmless way to blow off steam and build class spirit.

But this year the fight on the West Point, N.Y., campus turned bloody as some cadets swung pillowcases packed with hard objects, thought to be helmets, that split lips, broke at least one bone, dislocated shoulders and knocked cadets unconscious. The brawl at the publicly funded academy, where many of the Army’s top leaders are trained, left 30 cadets injured, including 24 with concussions, according to West Point.

In interviews, cadets who asked that their names not be used for fear of repercussions in West Point’s strictly controlled culture, said the fight had left one cadet with a broken leg and dislocated shoulders in others. One cadet was knocked unconscious and taken away in an ambulance and had not returned to school, they said. But a spokesman for the academy, Lt. Col. Christopher Kasker, said all cadets had returned to duty.

Though talk about the brawl on Aug. 20 had circulated on social media, West Point did not confirm it to The New York Times until Thursday.

Colonel Kasker said the annual fight is organized by first-year students as a way to build camaraderie after the summer program that prepares them for the rigors of plebe year.

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.

But video shows that many of the cadets did not wear helmets. Cadets said that in at least a few cases helmets became weapons stuffed into pillowcases.

“West Point applauds the cadets’ desire to build esprit and regrets the injuries to our cadets,” Colonel Kasker said. “We are conducting appropriate investigations into the causes of the injuries.”

So far no cadets have been punished, and the academy has no plans to end the annual tradition. Colonel Kasker said commanders were not available for comment on Friday.

Video of the fight posted online showed crowds of cadets, some wearing body armor as well as helmets, surging together in a central quad, their yells echoing off the stone walls of the surrounding barracks.

As the first-year cadets collided into a boil of white pillows, pummeling one another in the fading light, Army-issued glow sticks flew through the air and an impromptu cavalry of riders in laundry carts dashed in, cushions swinging. At one point, a smoke grenade appeared to go off.

Photos posted later on Twitter show plebes, as freshmen are called, with bloody faces and bloody pillows, and at least one person being loaded into an ambulance.

“My plebe was knocked unconscious and immediately began fighting when he came to,” an unnamed upperclassman, who was apparently observing from the sidelines, wrote on the social media forum Yik Yak. “I was so proud I could cry.”

As the battle continued, cadets clustered around at least two classmates who had fallen, apparently unable to get up. Others stumbled to a medical area set up beside the fracas.

“4 concussions, 1 broken leg, 2 broken arms, 1 dislocated shoulder, and several broken ribs. That’s one hell of a pillow fight. #USMA19,” one freshman posted on Twitter, echoing many who seemed to see the injuries as a point of pride.

As the scope of injuries became clear, cadets said in interviews, West Point staff members went door to door in the barracks giving quick concussion checks.

In interviews, cadets said they saw the fight as a chance to have fun after seven weeks of basic training in which they were not supposed to speak to one another. It was also a chance to show grit.

“If you don’t come back with a bloody nose,” a male first-year cadet said his upperclassman commander told him, “you didn’t try hard enough.”

West Point pillow fights have existed since at least 1897, according to testimony in a 1901 congressional inquiry on hazing at the school, but there have been no other reports over the decades of injury until recently.

In 2012, a cadet put a lockbox in a pillowcase, injuring others, and in response, the 2013 fight was canceled, cadets said.

Similar violence has occurred at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs during ceremonial warfare traditions in recent years.

During the first winter storm of the year, Air Force freshmen try to throw their cadet leaders into the snow. But in 2012 the snowball fight turned into a brawl, and 27 cadets were treated for concussions, cuts, broken bones and a bite wound.

The Air Force did not punish any cadets at the time, choosing to treat the episode as what a spokesman called “a teachable moment.”

West Point cadets had mixed reactions to the injuries this year. Some saw them as a rite of passage in a school known for being tough; others saw a lack of judgment and restraint.

“At first the body count, people were joking about it,” a female first-year cadet said. “My friends were really excited. And right after, 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.”

But when she saw a male cadet being loaded into an ambulance outside her dorm room, she began to have second thoughts.

“If you are an officer, you are supposed to make good decisions and follow the rules. You are supposed to mediate when everyone wants to go out and kill everyone,” she said. “The goal was to have fun, and it ended up some guys just chose to hurt people.”

西點軍校枕頭戰打到染血 學長：我驕傲地哭了

培養美國軍事領袖的搖籃「美國陸軍軍官學校」（俗稱西點軍校），大一新生傳統的年度枕頭戰變調，有學生在枕頭套內塞頭盔打同學，至少數十人受傷。校方低調表示正調查此案，受傷學生皆已返校。

紐約時報報導，上月廿日晚間，西點大一新生在校內舉行枕頭戰，這項每年一度的傳統活動在為期七周的夏季訓練課程後舉行，是新生宣洩壓力的管道，也被視為建立班級團隊精神的好場合。

但顯然有學生玩過頭。根據部分學生上傳網路的影片，有人把頭盔或其他硬物塞進枕頭套裡，混戰造成一人腿部骨折，一人肩膀脫臼，多人腦震盪，至少一人失去意識，被救護車送醫。網路照片顯示，許多人滿頭鮮血，枕頭血跡斑斑。

西點軍校三日證實此事，發言人卡斯克中校說：「我們稱許學生想建立團隊精神的渴望，對於學生受傷感到遺憾。我們正採取適當調查，了解受傷原因。」事件發生後，校方派人逐間宿舍檢查學生是否有腦震盪症狀。

不過許多學生把受傷視為榮耀，一名新生在推特發文說：「四人腦震盪，一人腿骨折，兩人手骨折，一人肩膀脫臼，數人肋骨骨折。這是枕頭戰的地獄。」一名大一男學生說，他的學長告訴他：「如果你沒帶著流血的鼻子回來，表示你不夠盡力。」

一名當時在場邊觀戰的不具名學長，在社群論壇Yik Yak上寫道：「當我學弟一到現場時，人群同時開打，他被打到失去意識。我很驕傲地哭了。」

目前為止尚未有學生受罰，西點校方也沒有終止這項年度傳統的計畫。2012年，一名西點學生把附鎖箱子裝進枕頭套打傷人，翌年的枕頭戰因而取消。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/05/us/at-west-point-annual-pillow-fight-becomes-weaponized.html

2015-09-06．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯莊蕙嘉