Long before Michael Greco became the U.S. marshal in the judicial district that includes Manhattan, he dreamed of becoming a police officer, a cowboy, an astronaut and the pope. Decades later, his wish list dwindled.

“I’m not getting a call from the Vatican anytime soon. And the whole astronaut thing didn’t work out. I’m not too crazy about heights anyway,” Greco said recently in an interview in his office in a Manhattan federal courthouse.