Mr. Jenner. By this time, were you a sergeant?
Mr. Powers. I believe I made sergeant right before I came home, or—I think it was a week or two right before I came home. I was a sergeant before I left to come home, I believe.
Mr. Jenner. Still at this time Oswald continued to have the reputation that he was not an aggressive person?
Mr. Powers. No; I don't think—I think he came out of his shell, to coin a phrase; he was becoming older and more mature, and he stood a little more for his personal rights; at least, this is an opinion that you get from the incident that he did have there in the barracks, not from close relationships with him.
Mr. Jenner. Did you have a recollection that in Japan he began to stand up for his own rights?
Mr. Powers. Yes.
Mr. Jenner. He was a little more aggressive than he was back in the States?
Mr. Powers. Yes. Again this might go back to the area that he was too scared the first year or so or 9 months while he was in the Marine Corps, after coming out of the initial indoctrination of coming out of training, and then he becomes himself, so you can't make a subjective appraisal during that first 9 months.
Mr. Jenner. Did he ever express any sympathy toward the Communist Party?
Mr. Powers. None that I recall.