Bill Pastore, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Jason Hardy, September 20th, 2006: part of the Saving the legacy project

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he was always the platoon leader. He was always the hero and he was always m . And I just wanted to be - and I don't know where it come from - my fath r wa never in the military (in fact, he disliked the military thoroughly from what my si t r and stuff told me). But my middle brother, Harold, I'm sure he didn't care - although he did retire from the navy. And my oldest brother, he was drafted in the army. When the first started, it was a year and a day. He didn't get out until after the Second World War, so his year was a little longer than normal years. But he didn't dislike the military - but he certainly didn't crave it. And me, I loved the military. I love the marine corps. I'd never had any discipline, no guidance of any kind (no masculine guidance) because my father had gone when I was young, and so I grew up doing whatever I wanted to do. If my mother or somebody didn't like it, that's tough- I'd do it anyway ... Until I got in the marine corps. And all of a sudden, the marine corps became my family. It became my father, my mother, my sisters, my brothers- it became everything to me. I loved the marine corps. I still do love the marine corps! And I rose from a private in the rear ranks to an officer with just a junior high school education (which isn't bad, especially in the marine corps). JAS: Yeah. BILL: And I did go to the university for, I think, one or two semesters, but that was - I took geology and archaeology because I was interested in them. I didn't care to get a degree in either one of them. I didn't care to advance myself academically that way, I just 2