Gunnery Sergeant Stare

After lunch Gunnery Sgt. Stare came and picked us up. He can be described in one word: intense. He lives and breathes energy. He's nearly 40, he said and was formally an infantry Marine. He has been a combat correspondent for 3 years. At headquarters we met a captain and a 1st sergeant (how the ranks go... sergeant, staff sergeant, gunnery sergeant and then it splits either the Marine can become a first sergeant or a master sergeant. The 1st sergeant is more political, more about the organization while the master sergeant is one of the best in his occupation.) We packed a small van and got on the road to Kadena Air Base. I got my notebook out where I had been compiling questions. He handled them with ease. Everything from when can we go to college (find out how the schedule is after a few months and then we'll figure it out) to laser eye surgery (a definite possibility). I think I had 20 or so questions. Lance Corporal Means didn't have much to say at all. She's pretty quiet to begin with. I also told him some truths about me. 1.) I need to work on pull ups 2.) I need to lose weight although I'm not over weight. Gunny's mantra is this: You're going to screw up. Don't lie or screw him over and he'll be with you 100%. He also said something that I've been saying for a long time "You don't get shit done being mean." We work with the public and we need favors, we need stories. "If you're an asshole, no one will help you." He also talked about the kind of work we do. A lot of it will be warm and fuzzy and sometimes the stories we do are simply favors. We do them because someone has helped us out in the past. It works like that in normal media, I'm sure. He just told us not to get in trouble and don't get into relationships with people you work with. He said he couldn't stop you but what he said I could see came from experience with the problem. Before he dropped us off he also took us on a tour of Kadena Air Base. We also left the base so he could show us Gate Two Street. This is the seedy area by the base where all the bars and massage parlors are. Everyone goes to Gate Two Street to get drunk. We went there during the middle of the day and it still looked depressing.
Gunny left a great impression and it seems like he's genuine. I hope I can go through the next few months without making too many mistakes... yeah right.
At least, I feel in good hands.