Mr. JENNER. By way of protest against the Marine Corps?
Mr. THORNLEY. Yes; humorously, satirically. One day we were unloading,
moving a radarscope off the truck and it slipped, and he said, "Be
careful with Big Brother's equipment."
It was things like this. He did a lot of that.
I remember one day he--I was walking along with my hands in my pocket,
which is something you don't do in the service if you are--certainly
if you are in an infantry outfit you don't dare. Things were a little
lax in our outfit, so we could get away with it once in a while, so I
happened to be walking along with my hands in my pockets and suddenly I
heard a voice: "Hey, Smith, Winston," and rattle off a serial number,
"get your hands out of your pockets," which was a direct quote from the
book "1984."
These are the only examples of Oswald's, that particular aspect of
Oswald's character that I recall.
Mr. JENNER. I am stimulated to ask you this question by something you
just said. Did he have a good memory?
Mr. THORNLEY. I think he must have had a good memory; yes. If he wanted
to remember something, he could. I think he also had good ability to
blot out unpleasant thoughts in his mind.
Mr. JENNER. What about his powers of assimilation of what he read, and
his powers of critique?
Mr. THORNLEY. I certainly think he understood much more than many
people in the press have seemed to feel. I don't think he was a man who
was grasping onto his particular beliefs because he didn't understand
them. I don't think he was just trying to know something over his head,
by any means. I think he understood what he was talking about.
Sometimes I think there were gaps in his knowledge. I think there were
many things he didn't know, and this came from a haphazard education.
Mr. JENNER. You became acquainted with the fact that he had had a
somewhat haphazard education?
Mr. THORNLEY. It was obvious. I didn't become acquainted with it
specifically until recently in the news. But----
Mr. JENNER. You had that impression at the time?
Mr. THORNLEY. I had that impression; yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. How did that impression arise? Because of the lack of
analysis or real critique on his part of that which he was reading?
Inability to assimilate the thrust of a work?
Mr. THORNLEY. No; I wouldn't say that. I would say he could analyze
what he read very well, but it was a very subjective impression, and
the idea I got was that there were a lot of things he didn't know, and
just a lot of facts that he wasn't familiar with. I guess sometimes,
probably in discussions, I would run into something. I would mention
something and he would say, "What is that?"
I know we did have a couple of very hot arguments and I am sure we were
throwing facts at one another, and he was certainly able to belt them
out when he wanted to, facts that suited his purpose in arguing.
Mr. JENNER. What was your impression of his--the extent of his formal
education and the extent of any private education of his; that is,
reading--self-education.
Mr. THORNLEY. Self-education. I was certainly surprised that--when I
read in the papers that he had not graduated, I think they said he had
not graduated from high school.
Mr. JENNER. That is correct.
Mr. THORNLEY. I thought he had graduated from high school. I assumed
that. I would say that his self-education certainly must have
been--perhaps, in fact, he took USAFI courses, U.S. Armed Forces
Institute courses, or something along that line, because he was one who
gave the impression of having some education, certainly.
Mr. JENNER. Do you have an impression of his intellect?