Aug. 27, 1999 Rat hill now higher, less steep Stray bullets were going into new subdivision By MATT CHITTUM THE ROANOKE TIMES There won't be any return to Virginia Military Institute's freshman rite of climbing up an impossibly steep and muddy hill to "breakout" of the "ratline" training period. To do that, you have to have a steep hill, and VMI's just isn't what it used to be. Bulldozers and backhoes have reduced the once near-vertical grade to a smooth and steady, albeit higher, slope, a committee of the VMI Board of Visitors learned Thursday. The hill's primary purpose was serving as the backstop for a rifle range, but some stray or ricocheting bullets have escaped over the hill in the direction of a new subdivision, VMI business executive John Rowe said. The changes should remedy that problem. Freshman "rats" climbed the hill each February or March for more than 10 years to mark the end of VMI's grueling training period. But last year, class leaders opted for the cleaner, if still arduous task of marching the last 18 miles of the journey from Lexington to New Market, where 10 VMI cadets died in a Civil War battle. Committee members applauded the remedy of the stray bullet problem, but joked that perhaps someone should take a look at why students at a military school are such bad shots.