Comment on 30 military cadets hurt in West Point pillow fight

Washington (AFP) - Thirty cadets who just completed their first-year summer training at the prestigious US Military Academy at West Point were injured when an annual pillow fight tradition turned bloody, The New York Times reported.The brawl left 24 young cadets with concussions, The Academy told the paper, after reports that some stuffed their pillows with hard objects.A total of 30 cadets were injured, and students reported that the list of wounds included one broken leg as well as dislocated shoulders.The yearly right of passage is meant to foster class spirit and celebrate the first-year "plebe" class's completion of its rigorous summer training.However, the August 20 pillow fight took a turn for the worse when some cadets reportedly stuffed the helmets they were encouraged to wear during the fracas inside their pillow cases. "Mitigating measures" had been put in place by the upperclassmen who oversaw the event, such as requiring cadets to wear helmets, academy spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Kasker said in the Times.Video posted on YouTube showed several hundred students vigorously socking each other with pillows during the free-for-all in a courtyard.