Mr. POWERS. Yes; that's correct.
Mr. JENNER. Leave before you had to return? You had to be at El Toro?
Mr. POWERS. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. I gathered that you had the impression that he--during this
period of time that, this leave period--that he visited New Orleans?
Mr. POWERS. Now that you brought New Orleans up, he used to--he used to
go home to New Orleans from Biloxi there, as I recall again. This was
only a short distance, between 50 and 71 miles, and he would go home
on weekend passes; and once we were through classes on Friday, we were
free as long as we were in class again on Monday morning, as I recall.
And it seems to me that he mentioned, or he did go home, that he wasn't
in Mississippi or the Biloxi area on weekends.
I might be wrong in this, but it seems to me that he did go all
weekend, and I think that you did mention New Orleans, that this
possibly sticks in my mind as associated with New Orleans and him at
Biloxi, Miss.
Mr. JENNER. When you boys had liberty, did you tend to stick together
on your liberties or on occasion take your liberties together, one or
more of you?
Mr. POWERS. As I recall now, as soon as school was over every day, we
had our liberty cards, we could leave, and then we could come back as
long as we were back on base in the morning to attend classes, and at
this particular period of time, I was married and my interests were
somewhat different than the other fellows.
Mr. JENNER. Was your wife on the base?
Mr. POWERS. No; she was not. She was living with my parents back home
in Minnesota, Owatonna. And my liberty usually consisted of going to
the beach and lying around suntanning or fooling or swimming, and lots
of times maybe three or four of us would go down--in my mind, we used
to eat all the spaghetti that we could get down there, and we would go
downtown once in a while; but as far as particularly going together,
I would possibly say that the boys from the east coast, Bandoni and
Brereton, they were quite close, and Camarata, that particular group,
they were quite close, and--but if we were just going down to lie
around the beach, we would usually go over, and I don't recall Oswald
going with us, and I don't recall in my mind that he was on liberty.
And this would possibly bear out the fact that it's in my mind that he
went to New Orleans on weekends because it seems that he wasn't ever
around there.
Mr. JENNER. But even at night when you were excused from class, did he
have a tendency to join the group or not join the group on your leave
card periods?
Mr. POWERS. Well, there were so many things. Normally, as I recall, it
wasn't a general practice that we left the base during the week. Now,
we usually stayed around the barracks and either studied or go over to
the gym and work out or something of this nature, and I can't recall
him in the barracks except when we would have inspection on Saturdays
or something in the Air Force doing the inspection, and all the marines
were complaining that we shouldn't have to stay for an Air Force
inspection, and again this substantiates the idea that he went home
to New Orleans because I think it came once a month or something, and
we happened to get in the period that we had two of them, and he was
anxious to go because inspection was Saturday morning, and he wanted to
get out early out of the base to leave, and he had to stand inspection.
Mr. JENNER. Was this a fair statement, Mr. Powers, whether or not he
went to New Orleans on his weekend leave, he did not remain in the
Biloxi area, is your impression?
Mr. POWERS. I couldn't say truthfully because I don't know what you
mean by the "Biloxi area." At least he did not remain on the Air Force
base. He left the Air Force base. Now, if he remained in Biloxi proper,
the town, the community, I'm not sure.
But it was my opinion that he was not in the close proximity. He would
be traveling over a period of time, then he would return to the base.
Mr. JENNER. Our records show that at the time he left Keesler to travel
to El Toro, he was rated 4.2 in conduct and 4.5 in proficiency. What is
that? What do those grades mean in terms of the maximum or the minimum?
Mr. POWERS. I'm not sure what the scale--I cannot recollect what the
scale is. I think it was 5.0 is the top.
Mr. JENNER. You're right. And would 4.2 in conduct and 4.5 in
proficiency be a pretty fair rating?
Mr. POWERS. Well, going back to what you said, he graduated seventh out
of 30, it would be 4.5, which would be pretty good in the upper third
of his class, so to speak. 4.2 couldn't be too far behind. So I would
imagine on a five scale, 3.0 would be average. So 4.2 would be B plus.
Mr. JENNER. How did that compare with yours, by the way?
Mr. POWERS. I don't know what mine was.
Mr. JENNER. You don't?
Mr. POWERS. No; I don't have any idea what my proficiency report was.
Mr. JENNER. I see. I take it that none of you boys traveled together to
El Toro, you went by your own respective routes?
Mr. POWERS. Camarata and myself, seems to me we flew into Chicago
together, and from there on, he went to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And I
continued on to Minneapolis in the plane there; there was another
marine that went with us from, I think now, from Mississippi--from
Biloxi into New Orleans. We went on the bus together.
Mr. JENNER. Was it one of your group?
Mr. POWERS. Yes; I think so. It was one of our group that was leaving.
And I want to say, it was Bandoni----
Mr. JENNER. That's your best recollection?
Mr. POWERS. But once into New Orleans, it seems that Camarata and
I--this is going through my mind of the limousine and on to the
airport, and we continued on. Maybe there was three of us, I'm not
sure. But it seems to me there was two of us, and I think we were at
a movie theater, as my mind goes on. And we did run into some of the
other fellows there.
Mr. JENNER. But not Oswald?
Mr. POWERS. I can't say truthfully if we ran into him or not.