Mr. PIC. Yes, sir; this was weather patrol duty.
Mr. JENNER. You did come ashore when you got home?
Mr. PIC. We pulled weather patrol, sir. We would be out 5 or 6 weeks
and we would be in 5 or 6 weeks; and this I tolerated for 21 months.
On 1 February 1956, I joined the Air Force. I joined the Air Force on
Staten Island, N.Y. My address at this time was 80 St. Marks Place,
Staten Island, N.Y.
Mr. JENNER. In a few words, what was that transition. Had you
appeared----
Mr. PIC. My enlistment from the Coast Guard was complete, sir, and I
decided that staying in the Coast Guard for 20 or some odd years I
wouldn't see much of my family and I understood the Air Force was a
family man's outfit and I figured that was for me. So the day after I
got out of the Coast Guard I joined the Air Force--no broken service. I
was stationed at Mitchel Air Force Base, Hempstead, Long Island, N.Y.,
until October, end of September, October 1958, and received orders to
Japan, APO 323, Tachikawa, Japan.
Mr. JENNER. What year were you in?
Mr. PIC. 1958 when I received my orders.
Mr. JENNER. At this time when you were assigned to Japan, that was the
period of time also when your brother Lee Oswald, then in the Marines,
was also stationed in Japan?
Mr. PIC. To the best of my knowledge; yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. Were you aware of that fact when you were stationed in
Japan?
Mr. PIC. When I received my orders, I was under the impression he was
in Korea, sir. I knew he was overseas in the Japanese-Korean area.
Mr. JENNER. Had you had any communication from him prior to your going
to Japan?
Mr. PIC. To the best of my knowledge, sir, sometime after he entered
the service and went overseas I received a letter from him, very short
note. He wrote a very short note. I no longer have this.
Mr. JENNER. He entered the service in October of 1956?
Mr. PIC. I was in the Air Force at Mitchel Air Force Base at the time.
Do you want me to finish with my military dates, and then I can go back?
Mr. JENNER. Yes.
Mr. PIC. November 1958, 10 November 1958 until 17 July, 1962, I was
stationed in Japan. In August 1962 until the present date assigned to
Lackland, Wilford Hall Air Force Hospital, Lackland Air Force Base.
Now, in the time period from--my mother paid us a Christmas visit, sir,
during the Christmas holidays of 1957, I believe, after Lee had joined
the Marine Corps.
Mr. JENNER. Yes; that would be a little over a year, that would be a
year and 2 months after he had joined the Marine Corps.
Mr. PIC. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Where were you at that time?
Mr. PIC. I was stationed at Mitchel Air Force Base, sir, and I believe
my address was 105 Avenue C, East Meadow, Long Island. I was living
right next to the Air Force base.
Mr. JENNER. Had you known prior to that time, which presumably you did,
that Lee had entered the service?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir; I knew this.
Mr. JENNER. Had enlisted in the Marines?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. And how had you learned that, through your mother?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir; through my mother.
Mr. JENNER. Had you learned that at or about the time he actually
enlisted? What were the circumstances?
Mr. PIC. Concerning what, sir?
Mr. JENNER. His enlistment, when you learned about it, and how. He
enlisted in October 1956. He was then 17 years old.
Mr. PIC. My mother told me some way or another, I don't remember, sir.
This is how I learned about it, either by phone call or by letter or
some way. Of course, I knew he would do it as soon as he reached the
age.
Mr. JENNER. All right. Why did you know he would do it and tell us
the circumstances upon which you, the facts upon which you base that
observation?
Mr. PIC. He did it for the same reasons that I did it and Robert did
it, I assume, to get from out and under.
Mr. JENNER. Out and under what?
Mr. PIC. The yoke of oppression from my mother.
Mr. JENNER. Had that been a matter of discussion between you and for
example, between you and your brother Robert?
Mr. PIC. No, sir; it was just something we understood about and never
discussed.
Mr. JENNER. And that would include Lee as well as your brother Robert;
that is, you were all aware of it?
Mr. PIC. I know this includes my brother Robert. Of course, when I was
18 years old I didn't discuss things like this with Lee, who was much
younger.