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.[A13-365] He did not associate much with other marines and continued to read a great deal.[A13-366] Paul Murphy testified that Oswald could speak “a little Russian” while he was overseas.[A13-367] Powers believed that Oswald became more assertive in Japan and thought that he might have had a Japanese girl friend.[A13-368] He departed from Yokosuka on board the USNS Barrett on November 2, and arrived in San Francisco 13 days later.[A13-369] On November 19, he took 30 days’ leave.[A13-370]
On December 22, 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.[A13-371] He was one of about seven enlisted men and three officers who formed a “radar crew,” engaged primarily in aircraft surveillance.[A13-372] This work probably gave him access to certain kinds of classified material, some of which, such as aircraft call signs and radio frequencies, was changed after his defection to Russia.[A13-373] For part of his time at El Toro, Oswald may have been assigned to clerical or janitorial tasks on the base.[A13-374] Some of his associates believed rumors,[A13-375] incorrect according to official records,[A13-376] 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.”[A13-377]
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.[A13-378] 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.[A13-379] 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.[A13-380] 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.[A13-381] He was thought to be an intelligent person, somewhat better educated and more intellectually oriented than other men on the base.[A13-382] A few of the men thought it more accurate to describe him as someone who wanted to appear intelligent.[A13-383] 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.[A13-384]
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.[A13-385] Most of the marines who knew him were aware that he was studying Russian;[A13-386] 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.[A13-387] (Miss Quinn thought that Oswald spoke Russian well in view of his lack of formal training; she found the evening uninteresting.[A13-388] Donovan, with whom she had a date later, testified that she told him that Oswald was “kind of an oddball.”)[A13-389] He read, and perhaps subscribed to, a newspaper, possibly printed in Russian, which his associates connected with his Russian bent.[A13-390]
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.[A13-391] He is said to have had his name written in Russian on one of his jackets;[A13-392] to have played records of Russian songs “so loud that one could hear them outside the barracks”;[A13-393] frequently to have made remarks in Russian[A13-394] or used expressions like “da” or “nyet,”[A13-395] or addressed others (and been addressed) as “Comrade”;[A13-396] to have come over and said jokingly, “You called?” when one of the marines played a particular record of Russian music.[A13-397]
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,[A13-398] it nevertheless led him into serious discussions with some of them. Donovan, who was a graduate of the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University,[A13-399] thought Oswald was “truly interested in international affairs”[A13-400] and “very well versed, at least on the superficial facts of a given foreign situation.”[A13-401] He recalled that Oswald had a particular interest in Latin America[A13-402] and had a good deal of information about Cuba in particular.[A13-403] Oswald expressed sympathy for Castro but, according to Donovan, “what he said about Castro was not an unpopular belief at that time.”[A13-404] 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.”[A13-405] 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.”[A13-406]
Private Kerry Thornley described himself as a close acquaintance, but not a good friend, of Oswald, whom he met in the spring of 1959;[A13-407] he later wrote an unpublished novel in which he drew heavily on his impressions of Oswald.[A13-408] 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.”[A13-409] 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.”[A13-410] He recalled discussions about Marxism in which Oswald criticized capitalism and praised the Soviet economic system.[A13-411] 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, he said, looked at him “like a betrayed Caesar” and walked away.[A13-412] 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 would eventually prevail.[A13-413] He was surprised by the decision but expected Oswald to adjust to Russian life and remain in Russia permanently.[A13-414]
Another marine, Nelson Delgado, met Oswald soon after the latter arrived at El Toro.[A13-415] They were about the same age and had similar interests; Oswald enjoyed trying to speak Spanish with Delgado, who spoke it fluently.[A13-416] Delgado regarded him as a “complete believer that our way of government was not quite right,” but did not think he was a Communist.[A13-417] Their discussions were concerned more with Cuba than Russia.[A13-418] 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.”[A13-419] Oswald told Delgado that he was in touch with Cuban diplomatic officials in this country; which Delgado at first took to be “one of his * * * lies,”[A13-420] but later believed.[A13-421]
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.[A13-422] According to several of the witnesses, names like “Ozzie Rabbit” still clung to him;[A13-423] others recalled no nickname or only shortened versions of his real name.[A13-424] His reading acquired direction; books like “Das Kapital” and Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and “1984” are mentioned in the testimony concerning this period.[A13-425] He played chess;[A13-426] according to one of his opponents he chose the red pieces, expressing a preference for the “Red Army.”[A13-427] He listened to classical music.[A13-428] For a short time, he played on the squadron football team.[A13-429] 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.[A13-430] Delgado thought Oswald was a mediocre player.[A13-431] Donovan did not know whether Oswald quit or was thrown off the team.[A13-432] He spent most of his weekends alone, as he had at Keesler, and did not leave the post as often as the other men.[A13-433] Delgado once rode with him on the train to Los Angeles but separated from him there; Oswald returned to the base after one night.[A13-434] Delgado recalls that on another weekend Oswald accepted his invitation to go to Tijuana: they stayed there for one night.[A13-435]
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.[A13-436] (The July ratings were repeated in September, when he was transferred from MACS-9 in preparation for his discharge.)[A13-437] On March 9, he was promoted as of March 1, to the rank of private, first class, for the second time.[A13-438] 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.[A13-439]