Mr. DELGADO. It's hard to say, because we were together so long. It was
one of the weekends I was going into Los Angeles.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you remember whether it was before or after your rifle
practice?
Mr. DELGADO. No; It was after, because prior to our rifle practice I
don't think we had any political discussions at all.
Mr. LIEBELER. Most of those were after the rifle qualifications?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes; you see, this all happened, oh, between when I
say, May to September or May to August, of going on leave, all these
incidents, you know.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you remember how long you were back at Santa Ana after
your leave before you were discharged?
Mr. DELGADO. About 2 months, I guess.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did the FBI agents ask you about that?
Mr. DELGADO. No.
Mr. LIEBELER. You mentioned this fellow by the name of Call.
Mr. DELGADO. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. Richard Call?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. Was he in your quonset hut?
Mr. DELGADO. No; he was in our company. He was in a different quonset
hut.
Mr. LIEBELER. Was he a friend of Oswald?
Mr. DELGADO. Semifriendly. I know personally that he used to call
Oswald Oswaldovich or Comrade. We all called him Comrade, which is
German for friend. We didn't put no communistic influence whatsoever.
But then he made the statement saying, no, he never called Oswald
"Comrade," or anything like that, you know.
Mr. LIEBELER. Who said that?
Mr. DELGADO. Call.
Mr. LIEBELER. How do you know?
Mr. DELGADO. The FBI agent told me.
Mr. LIEBELER. The FBI agent told you that?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. You just mentioned the term "Oswaldovich"; is that right?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes; he asked me if anyone had called him Oswaldovich. No.
Comrade commissar; yes. We all used to kid around that language. He
used to like it, and he would come out, we would call him "comrade,"
and he would go straight, jack up and give a big impression. But Call
said he didn't. Well, that's his prerogative. He didn't want to get
mixed up in it.
Mr. LIEBELER. But you are pretty sure you never heard him call him
Oswaldovich?
Mr. DELGADO. That's right.
Mr. LIEBELER. Who is Private, First Class Wald? Was he in your hut, too?
Mr. DELGADO. He was in our outfit.
Mr. LIEBELER. And was he a friend of Oswald?
Mr. DELGADO. Just speaking acquaintances. That's all. He didn't have
too many close friends.
Mr. LIEBELER. Who didn't?
Mr. DELGADO. Oswald. And these guys were all different, like Wald was a
good example. He was a sportsman. So was Osborne. He was going strictly
for sports. And Call was the closest you would come to Oswald, because
he liked classical music and good books, now.
Mr. LIEBELER. But Wald and Osborne, they were more interested in sports
and that sort of thing?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. What about Sergeant Funk? Did you mention him to the FBI?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes; Sergeant Funk wasn't in our outfit too long to know
Oswald. Oswald and him didn't hit it off at all.
Mr. LIEBELER. How did that come about?
Mr. DELGADO. Well, one instance was when we were all standing
formation, waiting for work call. We were off this day. And Call and
some other fellows were all around there, you know, making like they
were, you know, shooting their guns off, you know, just playing around.
So it just happens, when Funk came out Oswald was the only one doing
it. So they grabbed Oswald and made him march with a full field pack
around the football field in the area. And he bitched when he pulled
that tour of duty, and it stuck in my mind, because it's the first time
since basic that I seen that happen. But it happened when Funk stepped
out, Oswald the first one he seen.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did Oswald complain about Funk after that?
Mr. DELGADO. He had nothing to do with him. Always tried to find fault.
The man had a lot of faults. He was very sloppy.
Mr. LIEBELER. Who?
Mr. DELGADO. Funk. And he had a tendency to--he was very--very bad
leader, in my opinion, because NCO's in the Marine Corps, you carry a
sword, and we loved to see him carry a sword, because when you salute
him, he brings the sword up to here (indicating) like this, and one of
these days it's going to happen, because the blade would be swinging
next to his ear, and we're all waiting for that thing to happen. That's
what I remember about Funk. He wasn't there too long.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you know any of the other fellows in the outfit who
might have known Oswald?
Mr. DELGADO. No. There was one sergeant I was trying to think of, but
I couldn't think of his name. I think I gave a name to the FBI agents,
Holbrook or--something like that.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you remember a Corporal Botelho?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes. Botelho. He was from upstate California, a potato
rancher.
Mr. LIEBELER. What was his relationship with Oswald?
Mr. DELGADO. The same as the rest of the fellows: Not too close.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did Oswald ever have any arguments with any of these
people?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes. Quite frequently he had arguments, but Botelho
usually would have arguments about, well, Botelho was pretty proud
about his car, you know, and Oswald would find some fault in it, not
the right make--he had a Chevy, a 1956 Chevy, and one time I walked
in on the discussion. I didn't know what it was about. And they were
pretty mad at each other. And, as I said, Oswald just took off. But
Botelho was a pretty quiet fellow.
Mr. LIEBELER. What about Private, First Class Roussel? Do you remember
mentioning him to the FBI agents?
Mr. DELGADO. Roussel? Yes. He was a sports enthusiast. A little, short
fellow from Louisiana. In fact, I took him home when I got discharged
from the Marine Corps.
Mr. LIEBELER. What rank was Call?
Mr. DELGADO. At the time--at the time when Oswald was in the outfit, he
was corporal. But then later on he got promoted to a sergeant.
Mr. LIEBELER. What was your rank when you were discharged?
Mr. DELGADO. Corporal.
Mr. LIEBELER. Oswald was what?
Mr. DELGADO. Private.
Mr. LIEBELER. Just a straight private?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did Oswald ever complain about the fact that he hadn't
been promoted?
Mr. DELGADO. No, never. Never. I don't guess he expected it. I knew he
was court-martialed.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did he tell you that?
Mr. DELGADO. No. I got that from the scuttlebutt, one of the guys who
knew him from overseas.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you hear what he was court-martialed for?
Mr. DELGADO. No. After all this came out later, I read about it.
Mr. LIEBELER. What is the silent area?
Mr. DELGADO. That's what I referred to. He put silent area. That's the
war room.
Mr. LIEBELER. He, you mean the FBI agent?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes.