Thursday, October 02, 1997 Buzzcuts get 'rat' pack banished to barracks By MATT CHITTUM THE ROANOKE TIMES VMI wound up with naked noggins after all.     Kim Herbert of Herndon and Gussie Lord of Daggett, Mich., two of the three female rats assigned to Bravo company, joined in a big head-shaving party with their company brethren and the members of the all-male Alpha Company over the weekend. Ebony McElroy, the third woman in the company, as well as a male rat in Alpha, kept their regulation haircuts.     But those rats with the prickly pates are going to pay for their non-regulation haircuts. The commandant has put them all on barracks confinement until their hair grows back. It's a particularly lousy deal for the women, whose regulation haircut is a half-inch longer than the men's.     "They knew what they were doing," said Media Relations Cadet Tom Warburton of Pulaski.     Such shows of unity are common at VMI, though not usually so extreme, since bonding and working together are important goals of the "ratline" training system.     "They look for something that they can all do together," Warburton said. When he was a rat, his company opted for the more conservative gesture of ditching their regulation shirts in favor of T-shirts one day. Other companies have gone to greater extremes. A few years ago, the members of Charlie Company branded themselves.     The punishment for the chrome-craniumed rebels was recommended by the ranking cadets at VMI and approved by the commandant, VMI Spokesman Mike Strickler said.     Each of the offending rats will have to report individually to the commandant's office to have his or her noodle inspected for compliance with VMI standards.     Since rats have few privileges anyway, confinement isn't much of a change for them, Strickler said. It mainly means they can't leave the campus when other rats can.     But no one really goes unpunished at VMI. McElroy and the other male dissenter may have ducked discipline from the commandant, but upperclassmen apparently are giving the two some special attention in the ratline for not joining in the fun. "Only straps' tradition kept under wraps     One of VMI's lesser traditions may have come to an end with the arrival of women in the barracks this year.     The corps of cadets held its first pep rally for the homecoming football game against the College of William & Mary a few weeks ago, and not one rat showed up dressed in only his jockstrap.     In the past, when the barracks was essentially a big men's locker room, it wasn't uncommon for rats to run about the barracks in nothing but their athletic supporters, or less.     "I wouldn't put it past 'em to wear that again," said media relations cadet Tom Warburton of Pulaski.     But this year, with women in the corps, decorum ruled at the only rally. Warburton said a few rats showed up with sheets wrapped around them like Roman togas, while most ran around hollering in bizarre incarnations of the many VMI uniforms before hearing a speech from VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting.     The next rally is this week, before the Keydets' game against Georgia Southern University.