Veterans Voices: Local commissioner attributes Marines for life success
NICHOLAS COUNTY, WV (WVNS) – If there is one word I had to choose to describe County Commissioner and veteran Gary Roberts Jr., that word would be "driven".
A county commissioner is a leader of the area they serve, and that leadership role is something that Roberts embraces every day in Nicholas County – something he learned from the Marines.
"I think people have a calling in their life and I think the Lord had set that out for me to put me in that direction – I attribute everything that I am today directly to my family and the Marine Corps. itself, so I think it was a calling and it's what the Lord called me to do," remarks Roberts.
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Originally from Craigsville, Roberts has been impelled since he was a kid building forts with friends and was motivated by another local Nicholas Countian, Mayor Robert Shafer.
"We were always out in the woods wearing camouflage and we were building forts and doing these things, so I think from a young age that was always a passion of mine. I had a Marine recruiter, who happens to be the Mayor of Summersville – he was my recruiter – come into the schoolhouse one day and said, 'Address Blues'".
From that day on, Roberts knew his calling.
"My dad had shaped a lot of things in my life and I say 'He forged me, the Marine Corps honed me.' So, at that point, my brain was still in my mind like clay. So they were able to build me and I think they determined the path that I went forward."
Roberts joined the Marines in 1990, finishing Marine school in late 1991, went into the Fleet in late 1991 and was active through 1996. He visited multiple countries and many states during his active duty and worked on helicopters as a Communications, Navigations and Weapons Systems Specialist on Hueys and Cobras along with a multitude of training.
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"We always said if it had a wire going to it, through it, or around it, we worked on it. So, all of your indicators, all your power systems, your generators, your little bit of weapons systems, navigations that would get you from place to place – any of that stuff," recollects Roberts.
Once finished with his tour in 1996, Roberts remained motivated. In 2005, he went back to school to obtain his Bachelor's Degree through the Post 9/11 GI Bill. He currently is working on his Master's degree in Public Administration and hopes to one day end up at a state level office as a department head or leader. In addition, in 2022, he was elected as County Commissioner for Nicholas County. He has met a lot of people along the way and that comrarderie from being in the Marines is something he experienced firsthand recently.
"We are doing some hurricane relief efforts here. And we were going to partner up with an organization in North Carolina. So I get a screenshot of a church down there called Little Ivy Baptist Church. And I started reading down through a little narrative about the church, and there was a pastor, Scott Dotson."
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Pastor Scott Dotson was in school with Roberts in 1990 up until 1992 in the Marine Corps.
"So we were able to reconnect 32 years later, and it's like we had never, ever spent any time apart. We started laughing and joking. We had some conversations, we started sharing some memories. And that insight, that bond instantly came back."
Roberts is no doubt a successful Nicholas Countian, and he attributes all of the things he's been able to accomplish to the Marines.
"It's inspired me in all aspects of life. I've been fairly successful, attributed directly to United States Marine Corps in most aspects of my life and all my employment. And I think that they created a mindset and an approach that you, you know, if you're going to do something, do it to your fullest extent, do it to the best of your abilities."
