Virginia Military Institute
“You may be whatever you resolve to be... as long as it starts with 'bad' and ends in 'ass'”
| Virginia Military Institute | |
|---|---|
 Logo of the VMI | |
| Motto | Consilio Et Animis |
| Established | November 11, 1839 |
| School type | Senior Military College |
| Head | His Imperial Peay'ness |
| Location | Lexington, Virginia, USA |
| Campus | Fairly Prison-Like |
| Enrollment | 1650 |
The Virginia Military Institute, or VMI as it is often abbreviated, is a state military college in Lexington, Virginia. It is one of six senior military colleges in the United States and is considered by many to be the greatest educational experience on earth, although VMI cadets are often the most vocal skeptics of this fact. General Robert E. Lee said, during the glorious Southern victory of Second Manassas, "The Institute is perhaps the greatest school in the universe."
History[edit]
Founding and Uprising Against Northern Tyranny[edit]
VMI was founded in 1839 on the site of a former Yankee arsenal. The arsenal was located on a bluff over the Maury River. In honor of that tradition, VMI has been maintained on a bluff ever since.
The VMI cadets under the command of His Supreme Excellency Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson seized the site from those occupiers and tyrants and proclaimed with loud voices that forevermore, Sons of the South would receive training there in order to become officers and later lead the South in conquest of other realms. This first occurred during The War of American Slaughter of a Third-World Country I as officers newly minted from legitimate military academies such as those in South Carolina led troops in destroying Mexico. Not content with their role as glorified USO models, the VMI alumni tactically acquired numerous articles of male lingerie.
During the Glorious Southern Uprising I, VMI led the way in crushing Yankee forces all over the United States. It is even reputed that cadets seized the White House in June, 1863 in order the have lunch with Abraham Lincoln, then they destroyed the entire city and advanced to the rear somewhere near Richmond. Due to a book-keeping error, the North won the war despite billions of casualties, no doubt dealt at the hands of the VMI cadets. Unfortunately, the North didn't get the memo and the nefarious traitor, Cyrus McCormick, personally led the evil Union forces against the school itself in retaliation for how awesome it was. The Union burned the school to the ground. The school was rebuilt in 1869 and continued to produce officers for the military as undercover agents waiting for the second Southern Uprising. In retaliation for the grave crimes committed against the Institute, General Jackson resurrected himself from the dead to beat the living manshit out of Cyrus McCormick before imprisoning him in molten bronze which was then placed on a pedestal in front of Washington and Lee University to be used as a urinal by cadets on their way back from Macado's. The school's graduates would again be prominent in The War of American Slaughter of a Third-World Country II as they personally destroyed not one, but many countries, including: Cuba, The Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Spain. VMI graduate "Tenacious D." Teddy Roosevelt led the conquest of the infamous San Juan Hill. To mark the occasion of his slaughter, he proclaimed; "In the famous words of Saint Stonewall, the Institute was indeed heard from today." Roosevelt would go on to become President.
Battle of New Market[edit]
The Corp(s) of keydets is the only student body to ever participate in Mortal Kombat. In 1864, the Corps marched the 86 miles from Lexington to New Market in about 3 hours, with a stop for lunch. Major General Breckinridge, the Confederate Commanding Officer at New Market, told VMI Superintendent Lieutenant Colonel Scott Ship, "I do not wish to put the Cadets in if I could avoid it, but that should occasion require it, I will use them very freely." The Corp(s) of Keydets took this as an insult to their greatest possession, their Honor, and they voluntarily entered the fray, single-handedly destroying the Union Forces with only 10 casualties. As is a tradition at VMI, the "Rats" (freshmen) were in the front rank when the shooting started.
During the battle many cadets lost their shoes while advancing across a muddy farm field to assault a union battery. This became the "Field of Lost Shoes", a legend in Civil War History, and caused the casualties to be considered heroes. What is less known is that this also got the remainder of the cadets "boned" for being out of uniform outside of barracks.
World War I[edit]
A shitload of graduates won the Medal of Honor. They're all pretty badass according to "Black Jack" Pershing, who is often attributed the quote, "They're all 50 times the men I wish I could be..." Woodrow Wilson specially visited VMI in 1917, aware that is was custom for the President to gain the VMI corps' approval and blessing before going to war. The corps figured it had been almost two decades since the last major war and decided that is was just about time for a good old fashioned American ass-kicking. With the Battle of Verdun going badly for the Allies, France and Great Britain expanded the Lend Lease Act in attaining military assistance from VMI cadets. Specifically, in early September 1916 the Allied Forces garnered a special semester permit for the Rat Class and put them to work digging every square inch of the Allied Trench system with their bare hands and teeth, knowing a Rat's penchant for gnawing and digging. With their blessing, the United States went to war and destroyed Germany and later that week France.
World War II[edit]
Well, conventional wisdom states that the Marine Corps single-handedly whooped up on Japan during the second world war. The War was started on December 7th, 1941, a pretty infamous day. Combined forces from the Japanese Empire and Germany launched a devastating sneak attack upon the city of San Francisco. None were left alive. FDR the next day gave a stirring speech from Jackson Memorial Hall at VMI in which he asked the corps for permission to ask congress for a declaration of war. The vote was unanimous in favor of teaching Japan a lesson. The VMI cadets were then tasked with leading the U.S. Army and Marines in the Pacific. Under their illustrious leadership, the Atom Bomb was invented over the course of the next 17 days and George C. Marshall personally nuked the nation of the rising sun. The sun would rise on Japan no more...
Students[edit]
Admission of Women[edit]
VMI had long been an all male school. Many contend that this was not ghey. At any rate, the school was forced to admit women in 1997 by the U.S. Supreme Court.
VMI initially tried to gain the upper hand in the legal dispute. Once the Justice Dept. ordered VMI to admit women, VMI sued the Department of Justice before they could sue VMI. They filed suit in the Federal Court in Roanoake, Va., figuring that their best chances for remaining all male were with a judge who drove a pickup truck with a rifle rack to the court house. Unfortunately, after more than seven million dollars in legal fees, VMI learned that you can't beat a federal bureaucracy that literally can print all the money it needs. As one alumnus remarked afterward, "For all that money, we could've gotten a decent football team instead."
Since that time, the number of women in the corps of cadets has risen steadily every year. The administration has made it a goal to increase the female presence at the school, publicly because the male cadets are lonely, privately because they just don't give damn either way.
Student Life[edit]
Since the admission of women, and the elimination of Saturday classes, opportunities for actually having a life as a cadet have improved dramatically. Prior to these times, VMI was essentially a monastery, but with harder beds, worse food, and no redemption for all the suffering. Also, the staff in a monastery is expected to copy other people's scriptures by hand, whereas doing the same at VMI is an honor violation.
During these times (1839-1999) cadets would resort to various activities to break the monotony. This is perhaps best exemplified by a cadet during the 1970's who, one Monday morning, jumped from the fourth stoop (top floor) of barracks into a waiting truck full of bags of dirty laundry. He was subsequently boned for "impersonating a laundry bag", and served eight weeks of confinement. Defiantly, he did the same thing the next laundry day. He would have been 56 this past October.
Many cadets enjoy the regular staples of a normal American college experience. They often sit in their rooms and roam the Internets on weekends trying to distinguish what a "keydet" actually is. Another favorite pastime is wading through the pool of water that magically appears each day in the third stoop New Barracks bathroom. Either that or if they're lucky they get piss-drunk at one of the nation's other fine institutions of higher learning.
Ratline[edit]
The practice of beating incoming freshman was instituted at VMI in 1853, thus begun the tradition of the Ratline. Since that time, more has been added to that tradition. Such modern controversial practices include: "rolling the hay", raping ducks, being boned, and Cocke Hall disciplinary sessions. The legality of the Ratline was challenged in a Supreme Court case in 1948, known as Spitzner v. Virginia. The Justices held 8-1 that VMI had the right to conduct such controversial and cruel practices on the grounds that the incoming freshmen had every right to leave at anytime and end their misery. Navy Seal training, known as buds, is based off of VMI's Hell Week, the first portion of the Ratline. Many contend that VMI, being the source of such intense military training, has the hardest 1st week initiation session in the entire country. Only Himalayan Mountain Warrior Monks and the janitorial staff of The Citadel go through more physical pain and mental stress than rats. Those monks have burning coals heaped on their heads and have nails driven through their fingers to determine if Buddha has chosen them worthy of the warrior monk life- and the janitors have to clean up after 2200 "real cadets" who have no toiletry aim whatsoever. An integral part of the rat training process includes a semester of survival swimming lovingly called, "Rat Drowning". In this training, rats are humiliated by wearing poorly fitting swimsuits, forced to swim in water temperatures only a polar bear can appreciate, for hours on end. One famous VMI graduate, Quint, the famous fisherman who caught JAWS only to be eaten by the shark on the deck of his own ship, coined the famous phrase, "Here's to swimmin' with bowlegged women" while in Rat Drowning class. Sometimes rats get fed up with the Ratline and fight back, a tradition known as a "Rat Riot." While all training lasts for a while, the Ratline ends whenever the upper three classes of the school get bored of harassing and torturing the freshman. Rinse and repeat every year.
Military Service[edit]
While in a constant struggle with homosexual tendencies, VMI supplies the United States with the majority of military officers. The good ones anyway. The only officers that even come close to rivaling VMI graduates are the leaders of the famous 501st Legion commanded by Lord Vader himself. Many like to speculate how a battle between these forces would turn out, but both factions have such admiration for each other skills that they both contend that if such a battle were to occur, the universe would instantaneously implode upon itself. As was stated earlier, the primary objective of training officers at VMI is to prepare for the Second Southern Uprising.