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Breakout!
By John
There's three events that VMI alumni never forget. Graduation, Ring Figure (Southern-style ball where the juniors receive their class rings), and Breakout.
Breakout is a rite of passage, a physical gauntlet that's a distant cousin of the Marine Corps crucible. It marks the transformation of a VMI Freshman, a "Rat," into a VMI man or woman. Back in the the days of the OPFOR bloggers, Breakout culminated in a frenzied climb up a steep mudhill. Later the Corps added a 19 mile forced march, which Charlie and I slugged through at the end of our ratline. Not a fun time, my feet were a bloody mess by the end of the ordeal. Today the Corps runs the Rats through some sort of endurance challenge. Shame they got rid of the Hill, boy was that an experience, but this Breakout seems challenging enough.
Here are some pictures, courtesy of VMI.
Machine gun fire is a terrible way to be woken up. No doubt they had "Little John," an old civil war cannon that the Corps blast during Football games, worked into the mix as well. I was woken up in this cruel fashion during my Hell Night back in '99, miserable business, I don't mind telling you.
"Straining" is an exaggerated position of attention. If you're a Rat, and want to travel somewhere, you don't walk...you strain.
Prepping for a "Sweat Party."
Sweat Party!
Appropriately named, no?
Another sweat party, out of the heated gym and into the New Barracks Courtyard.
View from the second stoop of Barracks.
Sandbag PT!
Smart Rat.
Tired Rat.
Unhappy Rat.
The howizter pull is a new one to me, but can't be fun. Those suckers are heavy.
The payoff, of course, is when they fire them in your honor.
Nearing the end, the Rats march proudly through a gauntlet of upperclassmen.
And in a tradition that I hope stays strong till the end of time, the newly formed Class of 2010 forms up around the Sentinel Box to be recognized.
Congratulations to VMI's Class of 2010!
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Comments
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Wow, so even the AROTC department has replaced the venerable M60 with M240Bs. Damned shame, I truly enjoyed the one time I got to fire the "Pig" on a FEX with Ranger Company.
Holy hell, I just realized that the class of 2010 are my great-grand dykes (for the uninitiated, read this).
By the way, John, every class did a forced march during my time at the Institute. '02 did the Crucible-style Breakout that culminated at New Market, they were the only class during that timeframe not to go up one of the two Breakout Hills.
Of course, the real Breakout Hill was behind Barracks, not at McKethan Park. You know, where we broke out in the Old Corps.
Yes, I'm deliberately baiting LtCol P with that one.
I didn't know that you guys did the new market march?
I know you went up the *old* hill in the snow though, that couldn't have been fun haha.
Looks like Company Room in October when I was a rat... ;)
Lightning, you're right! :-) When we broke out, 3 March 1986, the day began with SNOW on the ground.
I'll say this though. When I was a Rat there was a guy from 84 in the Corps who had taken a couple years off and then returned. If I remember he said that his was the first class to break out on the hill instead of barracks. The barracks breakouts were, by all accounts, truly brutal.
And let's not forget about '87, who broke out in APRIL.
LtCol P 89
The Barracks Breakouts.
Legendary stuff. I hear rotting food played a role.
I remember they had the fire trucks out there, behind barracks, makin' the mud. Folks got downright excited.
Are purges still around? A few weeks before our Breakout, on my birthday no less, we began what we thought were events that would lead up to Breakout. The "Purge": sweat parties three times a day, lots of running around post with your rifle in formation, and a forced march down the Chessie trail to BV (I think it was 25 miles, but I don't remember). Then after a week, getting laughed at and a big TOO BAD, YOU'RE NOT BREAKING OUT, GET YOUR CHIN IN!!!! to end it all. Kind of sucked. Oh well, two weeks later, we did break out. See LTCOL P's entry above. How did COL Cummings start the speech in JM Hall, "It was a hot day in August..."
The mud from breakout took DAYS to get out of every orifice...
John, you had no ratline...
Gentlmen,
The Ratline has indeed changed since your time. The Howitzers were actually fun, and no, there are no more Purges. The last Fake Out was for the Class of 2008, and the GC, RDC, and Cadre got into A LOT of trouble for it. Thank you for posting an article. I have a description of the days events on my blog if y'all care to read it.
- Andrew, VMI 2010
"Little John"? I thought there were 4 civil war cannons Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. (Tales from my father who left during WWII and returned to finish after VJ Day),
Those are the canons that "Stonewall" Jackson taught artillery on; and they sit out in front of Jackson Statue in front of Old Barracks.
"Little John" on the other hand is a small canon used for ceremonious duties like signaling the end of the quarter at football games. The current one was made of the spent brass from the original "Little John."
And I thought Rat Bible knowledge would never come in handy.
I'm a Cid grad. We did not get our recognition until right before finals second semester (late April). Is it always this early at VMI? Does that mean the Rat Line is only 6 months long?
Skippy,
It varies. It's up to the 1st Class, the Rat Masses' Dykes, to decide when the Rats are ready for Break Out.
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It USED to be up to the student body (corp of cadets) but now it is up to the school administration (read: Gen. Peay) and they are under the impression that Break Out is about "unity building" and a "culminating event" as opposed to a "last chance to prove what you are worth and that you can push yourself farther than you thought possible".
I read the comment from the Cid Grad. I too am a Cit Grad '81. One of my 3 sons is now a Rat at VMI and I can testify that although the Rat Line is shorter than the 4th class system at The Citadel, VMI has a very intense system and a much more Spartan lifestyle than The Citadel.
I've been very impressed with the entire VMI program.
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