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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BILL: There are two things. It s fifteen years to mak staff rg ant u ually in th Marine Corps, and gunnery sergeant that's five stripes, near the econd sl v . ir t Sergeant, six stripes and he's the administrator. He s the senior man. The gunnery sergeant is in charge of the field. When you're out in the field, the gunnery sergeant l ad the company. You don't answer to anybody but the company commander. I made taff Sergeant Meritorious, and I made Gunnery Sergeant Meritorious, and that's unheard of. Unheard of to make Staff Meritorious, and then to turn around and make Gunnery Sergeant Meritorious again, they look at you like "who the hell are you?!" [laughing] "Who do you know?" JAS: How did you do it? BILL: Because I knew my job. I have to admit, I knew my job; and the best job in the world is company gunny. That's what you aspire to be is the company gunny. After that, after gunny, that's where the alcoholics come from. It's First Sergeants and Gunnery Sergeants that are no longer company gunnies that are now supply and other things - not an infantry company gunny; because when you're the infantry company gunny, everything rotates around you. You tell the Company Commander how many people you've got for work details; you see that the training schedule is adhered to; you take care of all the problems before they have to go to the Company Commander. You take care of them. Well, these people that have been Company Gunnies and First Sergeants that are now out of infantry unit, they have nothing to do, so they go over the NCO Club and sit their and drink their beer all day and tell each other what big shots they used to be. That's pretty sad, because these guys were something at one time. But that's their job now. So instead 136