Mr. LIEBELER. Carbine or rifle?
Mr. DELGADO. The M-1 rifle.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you have them in your quonset hut at all times?
Mr. DELGADO. No, sir; we had them in the armory, in the quonset hut
designated as the armory. And we went there periodically to clean them
up. And at the time in Santa Ana, he was with me at one time----
Mr. LIEBELER. Each man was assigned a particular rifle; is that correct?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you have to use the rifles to stand inspection?
Mr. DELGADO. That's right.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you remember whether or not Oswald kept his rifle in
good shape, clean?
Mr. DELGADO. He kept it mediocre. He always got gigged for his rifle.
Mr. LIEBELER. He did?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes; very seldom did he pass an inspection without getting
gigged for one thing or another.
Mr. LIEBELER. With respect to his rifle?
Mr. DELGADO. With respect to his rifle. He didn't spend as much time as
the rest of us did in the armory cleaning it up. He would, when he was
told to. Otherwise, he wouldn't come out by himself to clean it. He was
basically a man that complained quite frequently.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you think he complained more than the other Marines?
Mr. DELGADO. Well, yes; a little bit more. Anything, anything that they
told him to do, he found a way to argue it to a point where both him
and the man giving him the order both got disgusted and mad at each
other, and while the rest of us were working, he's arguing with the man
in charge. For him there was always another way of doing things, an
easier way for him to get something done.
Mr. LIEBELER. He didn't take too well to orders that were given to him?
Mr. DELGADO. No; he didn't.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you ever notice that he responded better if he were
asked to do something instead of ordered to do something?
Mr. DELGADO. Right.
Mr. LIEBELER. Would you say that?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes; well, that's what I worked with him. I never called
him Lee or Harvey or Oswald. It was always Oz.
Mr. LIEBELER. Oz?
Mr. DELGADO. Ozzie. I would say, "Oz, how about taking care of the
bathroom today?" Fine, he would do it. But as far as somebody from the
outside saying, "All right, Oswald, I want you to take and police up
that area"--"Why? Why do I have to do it? Why are you always telling
me to do it?" Well, it was an order, he actually had to do it, but he
didn't understand it like that.
Mr. LIEBELER. How long were you and Oswald stationed together at Santa
Ana?
Mr. DELGADO. Basically there were 11 months, from January to the date
of my discharge or the date that he took off. He got discharged before
I did.
Mr. LIEBELER. August or September 1959, approximately?
Mr. DELGADO. 1959, right.
Mr. LIEBELER. And when were you discharged?
Mr. DELGADO. I was discharged November 2, 1960--1959.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did Oswald tell you that he had been overseas prior to
the time he came to Santa Ana?
Mr. DELGADO. No; he didn't tell me has was overseas. I got that from
the fellows who knew him overseas, Atsugi, Japan, and he was with the
Marine Air Control Squadron, I believe it was, at Atsugi. There was a
couple of guys stationed with him.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you remember their names?
Mr. DELGADO. No; I don't. I think one of them was Dijonovich. There was
two of them stationed with him overseas.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you ever learn whether Oswald had been any place else
overseas other than Atsugi?
Mr. DELGADO. No.
Mr. LIEBELER. You never heard that he was stationed in the Philippines
for a while?
Mr. DELGADO. No; not that.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you know whether any of these other men that had been
stationed overseas with Oswald had been to the Philippines?
Mr. DELGADO. No; if they went on a problem from there and got aboard a
small carrier, they probably may have taken him, say, to Hawaii or the
Philippines or Guam, something like that, for maneuvers, or Okinawa.
Mr. LIEBELER. But you had no knowledge of it at the time?
Mr. DELGADO. No.
Mr. LIEBELER. You were about to tell us, before I went into this
question of how long you and Oswald were together, about the rifle
practice that you engaged in. Would you tell us about that in as much
detail as you can remember?
Mr. DELGADO. We went out to the field, to the rifle range, and before
we set out we had set up a pot. High score would get this money; second
highest, and so forth down to about the fifth man that was high.
Mr. LIEBELER. How many men were there?
Mr. DELGADO. Oh, in our company there was about roughly 80 men, 80
to 100 men, and I would say about 40 of us were in the pot. All low
ranking EM's, though. By that I mean corporal or below. None of the
sergeants were asked to join. Nine times out of ten they weren't
firing, just watching you. They mostly watched to see who was the best
firer on the line.
Mr. LIEBELER. You say there were about 40 men involved in this pot?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. And you say that Oswald finished fifth from the highest?
Mr. DELGADO. No; he didn't even place there. He didn't get no money at
all. He just barely got his score, which I think was about 170, I think
it was, just barely sharpshooter.