30 West Point Cadets Injured in the World’s Most Brutal Pillow Fight
Putting the fight back into pillow fight
Ahh, pillow fights: spontaneous, blithe … and deadly?
As part of an annual freshmen pillow fight that escalated into an all-out brawl, 30 cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point were left injured, 24 with concussions, according to The New York Times. The yearly pillow fight has taken place since at least 1897 and is meant to help freshmen blow off some steam after a summer of hellish training.
However, some of the more bellicose cadets turned up to this year’s brawl, which went down on August 20, with their pillowcases packed with hard objects. Cadets were knocked unconscious, lips were split, and bones were broken during the pandemonium. Photos and videos of the feathered bloodshed popped up on social media, with things looking a little more like Apocalypse Now rather than the stuff of slumber-party lore.
US Military pillow fight with helmets and body armour leaves 30 injured#WestPoint #WTF http://t.co/QgH3JgiUTa pic.twitter.com/co1tp0Bsfx
— Tom Antonov (@Tom_Antonov) September 5, 2015
Lt. Col. Christopher Kasker, a spokesman for the academy, shrugged off the incident as typical boyish caper. “West Point applauds the cadets’ desire to build esprit and regrets the injuries to our cadets,” Kasker told the
Times
. “We are conducting appropriate investigations into the causes of the injuries.”
The
Times
also reported that no cadets have been punished and that there are currently no plans to end the hallowed tradition.
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