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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And like I say, I don't know- you just don't get to know th people in bo t camp. You're just a group of people trying ... you're learning to be a unit you relearning to work as a team, but not as "me and you," just as a team. It doesn't matter who you're with. Names don't mean anything because you know you're not going to be with them only seven weeks and they're gone wherever they' re going. And I put in- you're given a choice of what you want- well, it's like anything, any part of the military: you get a choice but they put you where they want you. So if they say, "Well, yeah, he was just a Remington Raider." Well, a Remington Raider is a clerk typist in the marine corps. That's what all of us call a clerk typist is a Remington Raider because they use a Remington typewriter. But you don't look your nose down at them because that's where the marine corps placed them. That's where they said, "Well, we want you to do this." If they had wanted me to do that, that's what they would have assigned me. JAS: So you didn't have any choice over jobs? BILL: Oh, sure, I had a choice. I put down "infantry" and my first choice was raiders and then my second choice was infantry. You always get two choices. Well, if you get them, great. If you don't get them, you might eventually get it, you know. And they all - everybody thought I was crazy when they said, "What do you want?" And the whole platoon is there when they're asking you and putting it down in 5