The halls six wings stretch out from the central stone pedestal known as the poop deck (poop being the militarys appetizing word for information). So plebes pored over paper printouts of each months meals, posted the menus to their doors as ever-present reminders, and quizzed each other on what they would eat next Tuesday lunch, or for dinner the following Thursday. Its a rite of passage that we arent doing anymore, says Todd Manninen, a third-year student from Unionville, Mich. Its a tradition that theyve been doing forever.. Your chance of being a victim of crime in West Point may be as high as 1 in 13 in the southwest neighborhoods, or as low as 1 in 23 in the south part of the city. 5.0 out of 5 stars Hazing at West Point. Schumacher and another former cadet remember Rivera at one point declaring his intent to give cadets an experience the commandant likened to a deployment in one of the shit-istans. This consisted of TACs berating and belittling the cadets and robbing them of sleep. I remember our daughter mentioning there being a brief by the supe last summer updating the new cadets on how many of their number had left. So, that's a long way to say, what USMA cadets refer to as hazing, is much more just "be hassled," "standards enforcement," and putting cadets under varying levels of stress to train them to react to a variety of situations all happening at once. Its kind of like prison, one former student said. The end result of Plebe year can be seen easily in a comparison of what the average West Point Plebe can do in a 24 hour day compared to a Harvard Freshman.
,I know what you mean when you say the "hazing" in 2006 is not what it was in 1936 or 1876, but could you elaborate a bit more for those young men and woman who are considering applying to West Point and to whom this "hazing" thing might not (or might) be familiar?
,And while on the topic of what's different at West Point in comparison to a "civilian" college, my wife has told me by phone (she's still near West Point visting family) that several of the new cadets have already dropped out due to broken bone injuries. The deliberately punitive ethos of military schools rests on the false assumption that it wrings out bad habits and encourages good ones. All Rights Reserved. When I was a plebe, anybody could tell you your brass buckle needed a shine. In addition to their academic courses, cadets took (and still take) physically demanding classes such as boxing, gymnastics, and swimming, and are expected to complete long marches, obstacle courses, and regular fitness tests. Even the number of pushups that a cadet can be forced to do in a day or at one time is regulated. The abuse and hazing continued after summer camp ended and the cadets returned to the barracks and classes. Valley Forge has long billed itself as the kind of institution that breaks young people down in order to build them back better. He ascended through the Army ranks to the position of major general and served in Sarajevo and Afghanistan. Underweight cadets receive milk and cod liver oil, circa 1933. Hazing was modified in the wake of scandal, but the almost sacred rite of passage could not be eradicated. Learn how your comment data is processed. Rivera was well-contained during the presentation, Schumacher said, but their effort to speak truth to power amounted to naught. He never woke up, said a cadet familiar with the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. Former cadets Ryan Niessner, Jordan Schumacher, and Young Sheng are among the former cadets speaking out about their experiences at the Forge. Military schools increasingly became associated with discipline for kids with behavioral issues. he said that . Why do the numbers keep going up? Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do. But what really rankled Hammond and others was that upperclassmen were so busy trying to lead plebes, they didnt spend enough time working on their own character. There were times, as a cadet, I thought some of those things silly and of maybe not of large consequence. Hammond says previous attempts at reform failed because they attacked the symptoms of abuse, not the cause. he was then kicked off the football team. A lot of the things we have to do, the upperclassmen had to do. Another one recalls Rivera flirting with her repeatedly and saying she reminded him of his wife. In 1999, the institution officially banned hazing with pie or anything else. One student stabbed a classmate with scissors; another bashed his peer with a baseball batneither met serious repercussions. His masterwork, The Catcher in the Rye, opens with Holden Caulfield at Pencey Prep, a fictionalized version of the Forge. One TAC extinguished a cigarette in the palm of an underage cadet caught smoking, a former administrator told me. It was a brush off the shoulder kind of thing, he said. Down a pint of ale where the Bishop of Ely's servants slept in 1546. Creativity apparently kept that plebe out of trouble, but for most others, failure to achieve geometric perfection resulted in being yelled at or ordered to run laps around the poop deck. An additional 15 await final determination by the armed forces medical examiner. After this meeting, he wrote, I was discouraged from reporting this incident to anyone else. A few years later, he shared his story with the police, who spoke to school officials. After four months of constant torment, including a beating in an organized boxing match, ridicule for reading his Bible, and the forced consumption of hot sauce in the cadet mess hall, he resigned. The 2008 suicide rate of 20.2 per 100,000 marked a historic high for the Army, and for the first time since the Vietnam War era it surpassed the overall U.S. rate for people of similar ages and backgrounds: 19.5 per 100,000 in 2005, the latest year for which the statistic is available. Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox. A rappel tower the Army constructed on campus for its Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC), a program in which Valley Forge no longer participates. On Saturday, a freshman cadet took an overdose of medication and collapsed near the gymnasium wearing his full combat gear, according to students and officials. Major Fetchet, a West Point man and soldier of the civil war, says that hazing first started at West Point as a social protection for cadets who had not the advantages of wealth or social standing and were apt to be snubbed by those who possessed these advantages. Nobody knew where the money was going, one recalled. Anyone can read what you share. One can reasonably argue that the military must instill compliance and cohesion in its combat units. There are many fightsI mean many, many fights I have seen that played out completely, he added, where one student was beaten to a bloody fucking pulp before anyone intervened. (In December, the Valley Forge Sucks Instagram posted a video of two young cadets in camouflage freely pummeling one another in a bathroom.) Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Arizona governor wont proceed with execution set by court, Civilians flee embattled town of Bakhmut as Ukrainian pullout looms. The culture was rife with abuse of every part of a persons being. Recalls another alum: I didnt feel like a human the majority of the time I was there.. Officials said the two cadets who died had psychological conditions. Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. Therese Dougherty, who oversaw student activities and the schools summer camp for McGeorges successors, filed a gender discrimination lawsuit in 2013 contending that administrators treated her in a condescending and demeaning manner and showed favoritism toward male employees. Can you pitch in a few bucks to help fund Mother Jones' investigative journalism? To close budget gaps, they chopped haphazardly, deferring major maintenance projects, gutting academic programs, and laying off dedicated employees. But the leaders role is to remove stress.. When Oscar died a year and a half later from tuberculosis of . The pie scars remain: West Point grads from that era, now 20 or more years from graduation, have been known to feign terror at being asked to cut a dessert. It's us but for your ears. As he sped off, he began crying. Hazing of first-year cadets, or. We keep hoping these guys would go away, Helgeson complained to the newspaper. Officials constantly worried about themselves and covering their own asses, says a former longtime TAC. One hundred years ago, in an underground boxing match at West Point, my great-grandfather Frank Keller beat up a schoolmate named Oscar Booz so badly that Booz dropped out, moved home, and died. Plebes of old had to do such things as memorize how many ice cubes go in the drinks of upperclassmen. After struggling for several minutes to cut the prescribed seven slices, he grabbed his spoon, stirred the pie vigorously, and amended his announcement. Its the Armys concept of leadership that initiated the change. The new class of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy this year has been spared a disciplinary ritual as old as West Point itself. He didnt just kick somebody out, a former trustee told me. The mistreatment amplified my anger issues, Sheng said, and led him to abuse others in turn. We didnt get anything done.. Titled State of the Forge, it detailed squalid living conditions, flawed Covid-19 policies, and ongoing bullying, including an attempted lynchingin which Black cadets offended by a white students racism allegedly tried to choke the kid with a belt. Ryan Niessner, who submitted a sworn affidavit for one of Stewart Ryans cases, told me he was sexually assaulted as a 15-year-old Forge cadet in 2009. Give this article Give this article Give this article. Military schooling took off nevertheless during the early 20th century, with roughly 280 institutions opening in the United States between 1903 and 1926. But, I never did it yelling, and they were for things that they are supposed to know and do, so in reality, enforcing standards. 2023 Atlas Obscura. Lord also provided intense guidance to misbehaving cadets and booted a handful whose behavior had become threatening. In the name of leadership, plebes were mandated to learn not only military history, but pages of other trivia and gibberish that, in effect, equaled an extra academic course. monopolies of the progressive era; dr fauci moderna vaccine; sta 102 uc davis; paul roberts occupation; pay raises at cracker barrel; dromaeosaurus habitat; the best surgeon in the world 2020; About 35 percent took their lives after deployment. We're a nonprofit (so it's tax-deductible), and reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget. A former Boy Scout whod joined a junior ROTC program at age 11, he was proud of the promotion and ready to lead. The presentation claimed that five classmates had either tried to kill themselves or had spoken to leadership about doing so that school year. He now represents the former cadet who filed the tooth-pasting lawsuit, and three others who allege that, as minors, they, too, experienced tooth-pasting and other abuse at the Forge from 2014 to 2018. The image dimensions are 11 x 14 inches. 0 . That kind of mentality grows here; once someone gets ostracized, it snowballs.. Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation. The fictional Pencey maintained strict rules and excellent academicsvirtues, if ones Holden couldnt live up to. Friday, January 30, 2009; Page A02. Police reports obtained by Mother Jones from the last decade involve cadets as young as 13 experiencing psychiatric crises, including suicidal behavior. In those days, plebes had much to fear from Washington Mess Hall, the cavernous stone building where cadets ate, and still eat, their meals. When students arrive at West Point, they are called plebes and hazing quickly begins. It was, Toughen the fuck up! None of the West Point cadets who committed or attempted suicide had combat experience, but some students said they believed the intense pressures of life at the academy, as well as constant hazing by classmates, contributed to the tragedies. Offer available only in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico). (The board rejected the plan, citing trustees dearth of educational experience and a lack of competent curriculum guidelines, and accused the Forge of trying to subsidize its private school with taxpayer dollars.) Finally, in a decision the cadets would feel acutely, Helgeson promoted TAC J.J. Rivera, a fellow Marine, to the title of commandant. The thought being it would weed out those who didn't belong, and make those who "survived" tougher. In 2016, an 18-year-old cadet took his own life in Lafayette Hall. how bad is hazing at west point. The police data, and campus security logs, document a litany of allegations, including assault, arson, burglary, larceny, narcotics and weapons possession, stalking, and rape. But once again, while the physical brutality lessened, the ritual remained. The rumors were that we were all sluts, and that we were easy, one of them told the local paper. They did their best to prevent fights, and would rush injured kids to the hospital. Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. A few years ago, the school began rationing toilet paper. Schumacher returned to the dorms but quit the school for good soon after. They have programs here, but they are so unfriendly, and people are afraid it will affect their careers, the student said. An eye-opening journey through the history, culture, and places of the culinary world. When cadets circulated a petition demanding Bliss be held accountable, Thayer expelled its 189 signatories and court-martialed the five organizers for leading a mutiny., The incident helped codify a punitive atmosphere that has plagued military academics and the armed services they populate ever since. We were there to be a role model for these kids, not a drill instructor. Theyre weakening the brand.. Hazing has been punishable by courts martial since 1874, but a Department of Defense report in 1992 found that "hazing-type behavior" was still prominent at West Pointand cited pie-cutting. It's a tough summer, but the vast majority do make it.
,Reportedly one new cadet who broke his foot kept it secret for two days because he didn't want to be sent home. Former Valley Forge president Walt Lord presided over a brief period of reform before stepping down. For the unaffiliated, the cadet mess looks like a Hollywood set: one part Game of Thrones imposing, one part Harry Potter magical. WEST POINT, N.Y., Nov. 9 The United States Military Academy admitted today that female cadets had been ordered last summer during maneuvers to kill chickens "by biting them across the tendons. Sir, the dessert for this meal is cherry cobbler!. Last August, a mother sued the Forge, alleging that Black cadets were punished far more harshly than others. Hicks denied engaging in sex with the boy, but was convicted of corruption of minors. The Forge had hired her to replace another female counselor whose comportment with students came under scrutiny. They are going to do hell across the board.. Schumacher found respite at the stables, where he and other members of the schools mounted battalion spent hours each week dealing with the horses and dealing with ourselves. He almost dropped out when the Forge, to cut costs, abruptly disbanded its cavalry and repurposed the polo arena for paintball. Citing privacy concerns, retired Marine Col. Stuart Helgeson, the schools president, said in a statement that the Forge has zero tolerance for hazing and illegal and inappropriate activity, thorough policies and procedures in place to address allegations of wrongdoing, and a proven track record of taking action to address concerns quickly and appropriately. The school, he added, will continue to manage matters that arise according to law, policy, and the best interest of the cadets entrusted to our care., School trustees and senior administrators, according to legal documents and numerous sources, have minimized rather than remediated the problems. These concerns were echoed in an audit undertaken on behalf of a board member by the Healey Education Foundation, which warned that Valley Forge is not going to survive by looking backwards. A draft report, leaked to the press in 2019 and cited in a lawsuit that was later dismissed, noted that enrollment had declined 40 percent in the previous five years, and the school was nearly $7 million in debt. 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 . A recent post on a private Instagram account titled Valley Forge Sucks shows two cops peering into a schoolroom, with the caption: Normal day at the Forge., Valley Forge administrators declined to respond to detailed questions about the concerns raised in this story, or to make named staffers, administrators, or trustees available for interviews. Or double-time around the barracks at 120 steps a minute, squaring corners like robots. (Tuition, plus room and board, starts at just under $38,000 per year for middle and high school and $48,000 for college.) Perhaps the schools most formidable foe these days is Stewart Ryan, the Philadelphia-based lawyer who prosecuted Bill Cosby. President Trump has enraged the U.S. militaryfrom top to bottom. Nearly 4,000 parents and alumni signed a petition imploring the board of trustees to work out their differences with Lord so that he could be reinstated. None of them tried it again, to his knowledge. English demanded a say in day-to-day decisions but neglected systemic issues, according to the former trustee, who adds that most board members were disengaged: Everyone told war stories. Yet Lord felt micromanaged by the trustees, including board chair John English, who served briefly in the Marines before founding a consulting firm. Even the famously reclusive Salinger would eventually open up about his ambivalence toward the Forge. The TACs were willfully inattentive to misbehavior, a 2021 graduate said. "They have programs here, but they are so unfriendly, and people are afraid it will affect their careers," the student said. There have been a number of books written about the West Point Hazing scandal of 1898-1901.
To be sure, theres a lot more than pastry in West Points pies. They ruled by intimidation and fear.. The ritual was something out of a bad fraternity movie: blindfolded neophyte cadets, half-naked seniors and a threat of forced oral sex. Schumacher stormed back to his dorm afterward, gathered his belongings, and threw everything in his truck, yelling and banging doors as he vented his rage. A stocky history nerd with dark brown hair, he spent hours memorizing school trivia and passed his cap shield exam in near-record time. On Jan. 15, a junior put a belt around his neck in an effort to hang himself and later tried to jump out a window, but he was stopped in both instances, they said. Naval Academy midshipmen climb a lard-covered monument for a hat. Sign up for our newsletter and enter to win the second edition of our book. Former cadets Ryan Niessner, Jordan Schumacher, and Young Sheng are among the former cadets speaking out about their experiences at the Forge.Photographs by Devin Oktar Yalkin. In recent years, budget cuts reduced the baking staff from 22 down to four, and they no longer have enough hands to roll out individual circles of dough for the 400 to 500 pies they need to serve the corps of cadets. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. I never really felt like they were following financial aid procedures, one former staffer recalled. But it was escaping the campus that brought him the greatest joy: Though [the Forge], to me, was on the whole a thoroughly bad joke, its pretenses and posturing irreversibly sham, contemptible, Salinger wrote, I wonder if I ever again felt as free, as gratefully on the loose, as I did on that pretty walk to Wayne and the diner on a Sunday after signing out.. Perceived stigma for those who seek help is a continuing problem throughout the Army and also exists at West Point, officials and students said. Some West Point students blamed the problem on the high stress of life at the academy as well as hazing and said there have been as many as five suicide attempts since November. Both young men survived. Nestled 20 miles north of Philadelphia, the private institution teaches middle school, high school, and junior college students. In another troubling case that Wood discussed with a local newspaper in 2017, four male college cadets conspired with a fifth to covertly film his sexual encounter with a drunk female cadet. They had the wrong idea of what service and tradition really are. But he was even more frustrated with the school for creating an environment in which college kids were saddled with responsibilities beyond their age and experience. They give guys the ax quite frequently at Pencey. These parts of Salingers depiction no longer seem so apt. The death looked like hazing: Keller was a senior, Booz was a freshman . And the female cadets were met with hostility. The son of working-class parents, Lord grew up in an Irish Catholic neighborhood in South Philadelphia. Hazing at West Point Tweet Save Alfred Eisenstaedt created Hazing at West Point in 1936. Journalist Hank Nuwer is the Alaska author of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives; Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing, High School Hazing, Wrongs of Passage and The Hazing Reader. On a chilly evening in September 2020, Jordan Schumacher solemnly patrolled the grounds of Valley Forge Military Academy, near his wits end. Any students now can verify/confirm this? A prime slice of campus was sold off to developers for $1.6 million. By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from Mother Jones and our partners. Young Sheng, a 2015 graduate, recalls a punishing world of sleep deprivation, verbal abuse, and smokingextreme physical conditioning that caused cadets to puke and pass out. Perhaps remembering his own humiliation, MacArthur curtailed abuses of the fourth-class system upon his appointment in 1919 as superintendent of West Point. Backlash Over Leniency at West Point After 73 Cadets Are Accused of Cheating The revelations and the academy's handling of them have prompted a debate about integrity, rehabilitation, and. join us with a tax-deductible donation today. No purchase necessary. WEST POINT, N.Y. The new class of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy this year has been spared a disciplinary ritual as old as West Point itself. Its the United States Military Academy, Hilferty said, but he added that nothing is more stressful here than it has been.. But he soon came to see the exam as an empty ritual. West Point hazing was supposedly instituted to improve the character of neophyte officer candidates. That particular brand of hazing is officially outlawed at West point. I got the ax, he informs readers. George Patton, class of 1909, mentioned in personal letters how upperclassmen made sure that he would always brace, that is eat and walk so erect as to push his chin into his gullets. According to Cadets on Campus, a history of military schools, Thayer defended his commandant, Captain John Bliss, after Bliss brutally assaulted a cadet. There has been at least one university hazing death each year from 1969 to 2021. As Riveras former supervisor, Bossert recalls cautioning him about his demeanor with the young women on campus. Nuwer, former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird, finished a stint as managing editor of the Celina Daily Standard to accept a new position as managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska. In 2018, one former TAC said he was tasked with a night shift overseeing four buildings, or 300 kids by himself. The move evoked a vehement response from powerful alumni (including McGeorges son), who complained that Valley Forge was losing its character. <p>A friend of the family began his experience at westpoint many years ago, being admitted to westpoint on a football scholarship. It begins: Ive planned for years to stop by and either tear the exhibit down or at the very least add a little obscene graffiti at the bottom, Salinger wrote. Out on patrol that night, Schumacher told me, he felt on the brink of darkness.. If I hear you have problems, then fucking leaveI dont need a broken soldier, another former cadet recalls. A plebe today may refer to being hassled by an upper classman by having to recite "knowledge" on the spot or having to drop for pushups as "hazing" but in the traditional sense it is not. The number of suicides in Afghanistan, which had ranged from none to two a year, increased to seven last year, corresponding to an increase in anxiety and exposure to combat, said Col. Elspeth Ritchie, an Army psychologist. Upperclassmen had the right to come up to any first-year students wearing a crooked cap or dingy belt buckle and literally shout in their face the proper rules for conduct.