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DEFENDING MY BUNK
SIR!
by GARRET MATHEWS
Like the main character in the book, I went to
Fort Leonard Wood, MO in 1971 for basic
training. I was sure the drill sergeants were
going to kill me. - Garret Mathews
Humor/Military
5.25 inches x 8.25 inches
256 pages; Paperback
ISBN 097556675X
Regular Price $14.95
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- "Return with us now to the terrifying and strange days of the draft lottery and watch as a
young man is jolted from a peaceful college campus life into the chaos of boot camp. Garret
Mathews tells his true story in vivid and sometimes shocking colors. Funny and observant.
- Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune and WGN Radio
- 1971. Black lights. Flower power. Hair down to there. Make love, not war. Peace
demonstrations on the Ellipse. Young America is free at last after being oppressed by grownups
so uncool they’ve never heard of the Who.
College is freewheeling. Get up when you want to. Wear the same pair of jeans for the
entire semester if you want to. Piss off the porch of the Dean of Students if you want to.
The military – and the spectre of being sent to Vietnam - is the sworn enemy of this
enlightemment, the coughing up of everything that was college.
Thousands of young men fresh off the dorm with low draft lottery numbers face an
unwanted Armed Services experience…and without their Doors albums.
Defending My Bunk Against All Comers, Sir! is the story of the 360-degree lifestyle
change that is basic training. No more doodling pictures of Nixon in a ponytail, replaced by
falling out this minute in front of a drill sergeant with a cinderblock for a forehead.
There’s the grenade throw and the rifle range and enduring the gas chamber. There’s
visiting the brothel off base and getting haircuts every other day and learning to eat liquid
mashed potatoes.
And learning to make your bunk, which is almost as important to the Pentagon as taking
out enemy fire bases. Defending it, sir. Hospital corners. The symbol of a nation’s resolve.
Garret Mathews writes the metro column for the Evansville, Ind., Courier & Press. Born in
Abingdon, Virginia, he graduated from Virginia Tech and worked on the Bluefield, W. Va., Daily
Telegraph before coming to Indiana. He has won numerous awards from the National Society of
Newspaper Columnists and the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2000, he was Columnist of
the Year for Scripps-Howard newspapers. His other books include Baseball Days, Swing Batta,
Past Deadlines: Past Lives and They Came to Play. He also has written two theatrical plays,
Bench and Jubilee in the Rear View Mirror.