Lee Harvey Oswald, USMC activity 1957 - 1959 prior to defection (excerpts from Warren Commission report)

National Archives - JFK Assassination Records - Appendix 13: Biography of Lee Harvey Oswald

Detailing Lee Harvey Oswald's U.S. Marine Corps activities for the period of 1957 - 1959, prior to his defection to the U.S.S.R.

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On March 18 [1957], [Oswald] reported to the Naval Air Technical Training Center at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Fla. For the next 6 weeks he attended an Aviation Fundamental School, in which he received basic instruction in his specialty, including such subjects as basic radar theory, map reading, and air traffic control procedures.
This course, as well as his next training assignment at Keesler Air Force Base, required Oswald to deal with confidential material. He was granted final clearance up to the "confidential" level on May 3, "after [a] careful check of local records had disclosed no derogatory data."
He completed the course on the same day, ranking 46th in a class of 54 students. On the previous day, he had been promoted to private, first class, effective May 1.
At Jacksonville, he received ratings of 4.7 in conduct and 4.5 in proficiency, the highest ratings he ever attained.
Oswald left for Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss., on the day his course was completed; he traveled, probably by overnight train, in a group of six marines led by Pfc. Daniel P. Powers, the senior marine in charge.
At Keesler, he attended the Aircraft Control and Warning Operator Course, which included instruction in aircraft surveillance and the use of radar.

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On July 9 [1957], Oswald reported at the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro, Calif., near Santa Ana. He was classified as a replacement trainee and attached to the Fourth Replacement Battalion. Six weeks later, on August 22, he departed from San Diego for Yokosuka, Japan, on board the U.S.S. Bexar.
Powers testified that while on board, Oswald taught him to play chess, which they played frequently, sometimes for more than 4 hours a day. Like most of the men on board, Oswald read a lot from the books which were available. Powers thought he read "a good type of literature," remembering in particular Whitman's "Leaves of Grass."
The Bexar docked at Yokosuka on September 12. Oswald was assigned to Marine Air Control Squadron No. 1 (MACS-1), Marine Air Group 11, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, based at Atsugi, about 20 miles west of Tokyo.
Oswald was a radar operator in MACS-1, which had less than 100 men. Its function was to direct aircraft to their targets by radar, communicating with the pilots by radio.
The squadron had also the duty of scouting for incoming foreign aircraft, such as straying Russian or Chinese planes, which would be intercepted by American planes.
On October 27, when Oswald opened his locker to remove some gear, a derringer .22 caliber pistol fell to the floor and discharged; the bullet hit him in the left elbow.
Paul Edward Murphy, a fellow marine who was in the next cubicle, heard the shot, rushed in, and found Oswald sitting on the locker looking at his arm; without emotion, Oswald said to Murphy, "I believe I shot myself." He was in the naval hospital at Yokosuka until November 15.
The Judge Advocate General concluded that Oswald had "displayed a certain degree of carelessness or negligence" by storing a loaded revolver in his locker, but that his injury was incurred "in the line of duty" and was not the result of his own misconduct."
He was, however, charged with possession of an unregistered privately owned weapon in violation of general orders.
A court-martial followed on April 11, 1958, when Oswald's unit returned from maneuvers, and on April 29 he was sentenced to be confined at hard labor for 20 days, to forfeit $25 per month for 2 months, and to be reduced to the grade of private.
The confinement was suspended for 6 months, after which that portion of the sentence was to be remitted.
Five days after Oswald left the hospital, MACS-1 embarked aboard the Terrell County, LST 1157, for maneuvers in the Philippine Islands

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area. According to Powers' recollection, the squadron was expected to return to Atsugi after maneuvers were completed, but an international crisis developed; since another operation was scheduled for a few months later, the squadron debarked at Cubi Point (Subic Bay) in the Philippines and set up a temporary installation.
While he was in the Philippines, Oswald passed a test of eligibility for the rank of corporal; in a semiannual evaluation, however, he was given his lowest ratings thus far: 4.0 in conduct and 3.9 in proficiency.
The unit participated in exercises at Corregidor, from which it sailed for Atsugi on March 7, 1958, aboard the U.S.S. Wexford County, LST 1168. The Wexford County reached Atsugi 11 days later.
Oswald was court-martialed a second time on June 27 [1958], for using "provoking words" to a noncommissioned officer (a sergeant) on June 20, at the Bluebird Cafe in Yamato, and assaulting the officer by pouring a drink on him.
The findings were that Oswald spilled the drink accidentally, but when the sergeant shoved him away, Oswald invited the sergeant outside in insulting language.
Oswald admitted that he was rather drunk and had invited the sergeant outside but did not recall insulting him. He was sentenced to be confined at hard labor for 28 days and to forfeit $55; in addition, suspension of the previous sentence of confinement was withdrawn.
He was in confinement until August 13. Meanwhile, a previously granted extension of oversea duty was canceled, and he was given ratings of 1.9 in conduct and 3.4 in proficiency.
On September 14, Oswald sailed with his unit for the South China Sea area; the unit was at Ping Tung, North Taiwan on September 30, and returned to Atsugi on October 5. On October 6, he was transferred out of MACS-1 and put on general duty, in anticipation of his return to the United States.
He spent several days thereafter in the Atsugi Station Hospital. On October 31, he received his last oversea ratings: 4.0 in both conduct and proficiency.
Oswald appears generally to have been regarded by his fellows overseas as an intelligent person who followed orders and did his work well, but who complained frequently.
He did not associate much with other marines and continued to read a great deal. Paul Murphy testified that Oswald could speak "a little Russian" while he was overseas.
Powers believed that Oswald became more assertive in Japan and thought that he might have had a Japanese girl friend.
He departed from Yokosuka on board the USNS Barbet on November 2, and arrived in San Francisco 13 days later. On November 19, he took 30 days' leave.
On December 22 [1958], Oswald was assigned to Marine Air Control Squadron No. 9 (MACS-9) at the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro, where he had been briefly before he went overseas. He was one of about seven enlisted men and three officers who formed a "radar crew," engaged primarily in aircraft surveillance.
This work probably gave him access to certain kinds of classified material, some of which, such as aircraft call signs and radio frequencies, was

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changed after his defection to Russia.
For part of his time at El Toro, Oswald may have been assigned to clerical or janitorial tasks on the base. Some of his associates believed rumors, incorrect according to official records, that he had lost his clearance to work on radar crews; one recalled hearing that Oswald had once had clearance above the "confidential" level and had lost it because he "had poured beer over a staff NCO's head in an enlisted club in Japan, and had been put in the brig."
The officer in command of the radar crew, Lt. John E. Donovan, found him "competent in all functions," and observed that he handled himself calmly and well in emergency situations. Donovan thought Oswald was not a leader but that he performed competently on occasions when, as the senior man present, he served as crew chief.
This estimate was generally shared by his fellows, most of whom thought that he performed his assigned duties adequately but was deficient in disciplinary matters and such things as barracks inspection.
One of them recalled that after a number of bad inspections, the other members of Oswald's quonset hut complained about him and secured his transfer to another hut.
He was thought to be an intelligent person, somewhat better educated and more intellectually oriented than other men on the base. A few of the men thought it more accurate to describe him as someone who wanted to appear intelligent.
He had a pronounced interest in world affairs, in which he appears to have been better informed than some of the officers, whose lack of knowledge amused and sometimes irritated him; he evidently enjoyed drawing others, especially officers, into conversations in which he could display his own superior knowledge.
It seems clear from the various recollections of those who knew him at El Toro that by the time Oswald returned to the United States, he no longer had any spirit for the Marines; the attitudes which had prompted his enlistment as soon as he was eligible were entirely gone, and his attention had turned away from the Marines to what he might do after his discharge.
While no one was able to predict his attempt to defect to Russia within a month after he left the Marines, the testimony of those who knew him at El Toro in contrast to that of his associates in Japan, leaves no doubt that his thoughts were occupied increasingly with Russia and the Russian way of life.
He had studied the Russian language enough by February 25, 1959, to request that he be given a foreign language qualification test; his rating was "poor" in all parts of the test.
Most of the marines who knew him were aware that he was studying Russian; one of them, Henry J. Roussel, Jr., arranged a date between Lee and his aunt, Rosaleen Quinn, an airline stewardess who was also studying Russian.
(Miss Quinn thought that Oswald spoke Russian well in view of his lack of formal training; she found the evening uninteresting. [Lt. John E.] Donovan, with whom she had a date later, testified that she told him that Oswald was "kind of an oddball.")
He read, and perhaps subscribed to, a newspaper, possibly printed in Russian, which his associates connected with his Russian bent.

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Most of those who knew him were able to recount anecdotes which suggest that he was anxious to publicize his liking for things Russian, sometimes in good humor and sometimes seriously. Some of his fellows called him "Oswaldskovich," apparently to his pleasure.
He is said to have had his name written in Russian on one of his jackets; to have played records of Russian songs "so loud that one could hear them outside the barracks"; frequently to have made remarks in Russian or used expressions like "da" or "nyet," or addressed others (and been addressed) as "Comrade"; to have come over and said jokingly, "You called?" when one of the marines played a particular record of Russian music.
Connected with this Russophilia was an interest in and acceptance of Russian political views and, to a lesser extent, Communist ideology. Less obvious to his fellows generally, it nevertheless led him into serious discussions with some of them.
[Lt. John E.] Donovan, who was a graduate of the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University, thought Oswald was "truly interested in international [af]fairs" and "very well versed, at least on the superficial facts of a given foreign situation."
He recalled that Oswald had a particular interest in Latin America and had a good deal of information about Cuba in particular.
Oswald expressed sympathy for Castro but, according to Donovan, "what he said about Castro was not an unpopular belief at that time."
Donovan believed that Oswald subscribed to the Russian newspaper - which Donovan thought was a Communist newspaper - not only in order to read Russian but also because he thought it "presented a very different and perhaps equally just side of the international affairs in comparison with the United States newspapers."
Donovan was clear, on the other hand, that he never heard Oswald "in any way, shape or form confess that he was a Communist, or that he ever thought about being a Communist."
Private Kerry Thornley described himself as a close acquaintance, but not a good friend, of Oswald, whom he met in the spring of 1959; he later wrote an unpublished novel in which he drew heavily on his impressions of Oswald.
Thornley generally corroborates Donovan's testimony but thought Oswald definitely believed that "the Marxist morality was the most rational morality to follow" and communism, "the best system in the world."
Thornley thought this belief was "theoretical," a "dispassionate appraisal" which did not indicate "any active commitment to the Communist ends"; he described Oswald as "idle in his admiration for communism." He recalled discussions about Marxism in which Oswald criticized capitalism and praised the Soviet economic system.
Thornley testified that his association with Oswald ended when, in response to Oswald's criticism of a parade in which they both had to march, he said "Well, comes the revolution you will change all that."
Oswald, [Thornley] said, looked at him "like a betrayed Caesar" and walked away. Thornley attributed Oswald's decision to go to Russia to a growing disillusionment with the United States, especially its role in the Far East, and a conviction that communism

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would eventually prevail. He was surprised by the decision but expected Oswald to adjust to Russian life and remain in Russia permanently
Another marine, Nelson Delgado, met Oswald soon after the latter arrived at El Toro. They were about the same age and had similar interests; Oswald enjoyed trying to speak Spanish with Delgado, who spoke it fluently.
Delgado regarded him as a "complete believer that our way of government was not quite right," but did not think he was a Communist.
Their discussions were concerned more with Cuba than Russia. They both favored the Castro government and talked - "dreaming," Delgado said - about joining the Cuban Army or Government and perhaps leading expeditions to other Caribbean islands to "free them too."
Oswald told Delgado that he was in touch with Cuban diplomatic officials in this count; which Delgado at first, took to be "one of his ... lies," but later believed.
Oswald's interest in Russia and developing ideological attachment to theoretical communism apparently dominated his stay at El Toro. He was still withdrawn from most of his fellows, although his special interests appear to have made him stand out more there than he had at other posts and to have given him a source for conversation which he had hitherto lacked.
According to several of the witnesses, names like "Ozzie Rabbit" still clung to him; others recalled no nickname or only shortened versions of his real name.
His reading acquired direction; books like "Das Kapital" and Orwell's "Animal Farm" and "1984" are mentioned in the testimony concerning this period. He played chess; according to one of his opponents he chose the red pieces, expressing a preference for the "Red Army."
He listened to classical music. For a short time, he played on the squadron football team. According to Donovan, who coached the team, Oswald was not very good; he lacked team spirit and often tried to call the plays, which was not his job.
Delgado thought Oswald was a mediocre player. Donovan did not know whether Oswald quit or was thrown off the team.
He spent most of his weekends alone, as he had at Keesler, and did not leave the post as often as the other men.
Delgado once rode with him on the train to Los Angeles but separated from him there; Oswald returned to the base after one night. Delgado recalls that on another weekend Oswald accepted his invitation to go to Tijuana; they stayed there for one night.
At the end of January 1959 and at the end of July, Oswald was given his semiannual ratings, scoring 4.0 in conduct both times, and 4.0 and 4.2 in proficiency.
(The July ratings were repeated in September, when he was transferred from MACS-9 in preparation for his discharge.)
On March 9, he was promoted as of March 1, to the rank of private, first class, for the second time. He took a series of high school level general educational development tests on March 23 and received an overall rating of "satisfactory." His best scores, in the 76th and 79th U.S. percentiles, were in English composition and physical sciences; his worst was English literature, in which he placed in the 34th percentile.

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In the spring [1959], Oswald applied to Albert Schweitzer College in Churwalden, Switzerland, for admission to the spring term in 1960; the application is dated March 19. Schweitzer is a small school, which specializes in courses in religion, ethics, science, and literature.
He claimed a proficiency in Russian equal to 1 year of schooling and that he had completed high school by correspondence with an average grade of 85 percent. He listed philosophy, psychology, ideology, football, baseball, tennis and stamp-collecting as special interests, and writing short stories "on contemporary American life" as his vocational interest.
Jack London, Charles Darwin, and Norman Vincent Peale were listed as favorite authors. He claimed membership in the YMCA and the "A.Y.H. Association," and said that he had participated in a "student body movement in school" for the control of juvenile delinquency.
Asked to give a general statement of his reasons for wanting to attend the college, he wrote:
"In order to aquire a fuller understanding of that subject which interest me most, Philosophy. To meet with Europeans who can broaden my scope of understanding. To receive formal Education by Instructers of high standing and character. To broaden my knowlege of German and to live in a healty climate and Good moral atmosphere."
On the basis of these representations, Oswald's application was approved by the college. He enclosed a registration fee of $25 in a letter dated June 19 [1959], in which he said that he was "looking forward to a fine stay."
Few of the other marines seem to have known about this application. He told Delgado, however, that he planned to attend a Swiss school to study psychology, and Delgado knew that some application had been made. Another marine, Richard Call, also knew something of his plans.
Oswald was obligated to serve on active duty until December 7, 1959 (the date having been adjusted to compensate for the period of confinement). On August 17, he submitted a request for a dependency discharge, on the ground that his mother needed his support.
The request was accompanied by an affidavit of Mrs. Oswald and corroborating affidavits from an attorney, a doctor, and two friends, attesting that she had been injured at work in December 1958, and was unable to support herself.
Oswald had previously made a voluntary allotment of part of his salary to his mother, under which arrangement she received $40 in August, and had submitted an application for a "Q" allotment (dependency allowance) in her behalf of $91.30; one payment of the "Q" allotment, for the month of August, was made in September.
On August 28, the Wing Hardship or Dependency Discharge Board recommended that Oswald's request for a discharge be approved; approval followed shortly.
On September 4 [1959], he was transferred from MACS-9 to the H. & H. Squadron, and on September 11, he was released from active duty and transferred to the Marine Corps Reserve, in which he was expected to

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serve until December 8, 1962. He was assigned to the Marine Air Reserve Training Command at the Naval Air Station in Glenview, Ill.
Almost exactly 1 year later, on September 13, 1960, Oswald was given an "undesirable discharge" from the Marine Corps Reserve, based on:
"reliable information which indicated that he had renounced his U.S. citizenship with the intentions of becoming a permanent citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics."
"Further, that petitioner brought discredit to the Marine Corps through adverse newspaper publicity, which was generated by the foregoing action, and had thereby, in the opinion of his commanding officer, proved himself unfit for retention in the naval service."

SOVIET UNION
On September 4 [1959], the day on which he was transferred out of MACS-9 in preparation for his discharge, Oswald had applied for a passport at the Superior Court of Santa Ana, Calif.
His application stated that he planned to leave the United States on September 21 to attend the Albert Schweitzer College and the University of Turku in Finland, and to travel in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, England, France Germany, and Russia. The passport was routinely issued 6 days later.
Oswald went directly home after his discharge, and arrived in Fort Worth by September 14. He told his mother that he intended to get a job on a ship or possibly in the "export-import business."
If he stayed in Fort Worth, he said, he would be able to earn only about $30 per week; on a ship, he would earn "big money" and be able to send substantial amounts home. Three days after he arrived in Fort Worth, he left for New Orleans.
While he was in Fort Worth he had registered his dependency discharge and entry into the Marine Reserve at the Fort Worth Selective Service Board, and visited his brother Robert and his family. He also gave his mother $100.
On September 17, Oswald spoke with a representative of Travel Consultants, Inc., a New Orleans travel bureau; he filled out a "Passenger Immigration Questionnaire," on which he gave his occupation as "shipping export agent" and said that he would be abroad for 2 months on a pleasure trip.
He booked passage from New Orleans to Le Havre, France, on a freighter, the SS Marion Lykes, scheduled to sail on September 18, for which he paid $220.75. On the evening of September 17, he registered at the Liberty Hotel.
The Marion Lykes did not sail until the early morning of September 20. Before its departure, Oswald wrote his mother a letter, which was her last news of him until she read stories of his defection in Fort Worth newspapers:

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Dear Mother:
Well, I have booked passage on a ship to Europe, I would of had to sooner or later and I think it's best I go now. Just remember above all else that my values are very different from Robert's or your's. It is difficult to tell you how I feel, Just remember this is what I must do. I did not tell you about my plans because you could harly be expected to understand.
I did not see aunt Lilian while I was here. I will write again as soon as I land.
Lee
The Marion Lykes carried only four passengers. Oswald shared his cabin with Billy Joe Lord, a young man who had just graduated from high school and was going to France to continue his education.
Lord testified that he and Oswald did not discuss politics but did have a few amicable religious arguments, in which Oswald defended atheism. Oswald was "standoffish," but told Lord generally about his background, mentioning that his mother worked in a drugstore in Fort Worth and that he was bitter about the low wages which she received.
He told Lord that he intended to travel in Europe and possibly to attend school in Sweden or Switzerland if he had sufficient funds.
The other two passengers were Lt. Col. and Mrs. George B. Church, Jr., who also found Oswald unfriendly and had little contact with him. Oswald told them that he had not liked the Marine Corps and that he planned to study in Switzerland; they observed some "bitterness" about his mother's difficulties, but did not discuss this with him.
No one on board suspected that he intended to defect to Russia.

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