Mr. JENNER. While you continued to have acquaintance and contact with
Oswald, did his rank change from private to private first class?
Mr. POWERS. I don't recall.
Mr. JENNER. Do you recall Oswald having received discipline as a result
of the court-martial involving the discharge of the .22 caliber pistol?
Mr. POWERS. I think this came after, if it did come, it probably came
after I left Japan.
Mr. JENNER. I see.
Mr. POWERS. I arrived home on the 4th of July, so I must have been en
route most of June.
Mr. JENNER. But you don't recall any punishment that was meted out to
him?
Mr. POWERS. I don't know; no, sir.
Mr. JENNER. Off the record.
(Whereupon, discussion was had off the record.)
Mr. JENNER. Back on the record. Now, in connection with your remarks
that he stated to you that he'd just as soon stay in Japan, do you
recall, was there any scuttlebutt in the squadron that he applied for
an extension of his stay in Japan?
Mr. POWERS. I don't know. I can't say that I recall anything because
a lot of people did make this kind of statement, and you never again
attached any significance to it.
Some individuals did extend--rather ask for an extension. Whether he
did or not, I don't know.
Mr. JENNER. What about Oswald's drinking habits or propensities?
Mr. POWERS. I think that he probably maybe experienced inebriation
maybe possibly for his first time while he was in Japan, extensively at
least; and other than that, I don't know. And a lot of the guys just
went out, and that's all they went out for, to get drunk, and that was
it. I don't know.
Mr. JENNER. But you have no impression of Oswald in that particular
connection?
Mr. POWERS. No; nothing. My actual association with him in Japan was
limited to other than just seeing him in the barracks and saying, "Hi,
Ozzie."
Mr. JENNER. Did he have any interest in the Russian language?
Mr. POWERS. Somewhere along the line he was reading a Russian book
or something. I'm not sure, again, whether it was written in Russian
or whether it was written in the American language. It pertained to
the Russian philosophy, but there is something in my mind that I
relate--associate, reading this type of literature. I think it was in
Japan, but I'm not sure, though.
Mr. JENNER. Do you have any impression of him studying the Russian
language as such?
Mr. POWERS. In actually sitting down and studying it; no.
Mr. JENNER. In seeking to become familiar with the language?
Mr. POWERS. I would say no; no, that I do not because I just don't have
any real concrete recollections for the individual other than just
brief glimpses.
Mr. JENNER. Were you still acquainted with him, still stationed with
him when there arose an incident where he had an altercation with a
noncommissioned officer?
Mr. POWERS. I'm not sure. It seems to me I was, but again I'm not sure.
It either came--I truthfully can't say, but there is something again,
maybe something that I read since then, or since when all of this came
out, something that I read, but there is something in my mind that he
had a fight with a noncommissioned officer or something of this nature.
Mr. JENNER. That wasn't extraordinary; that would occur once in a while?
Mr. POWERS. Yes. All of a sudden a guy blows up and swings at
somebody, and right away it's a fight. And if it could be blown out of
proportion, too, if the noncommissioned officer wanted to take it, any
time take a swing or strike a blow, it was supposed to be a serious
offense in the Marines; well, is it or not, I don't know.
Mr. JENNER. By this time, were you a sergeant?
Mr. POWERS. I believe I made sergeant right before I came home, or--I
think it was a week or two right before I came home. I was a sergeant
before I left to come home, I believe.
Mr. JENNER. Still at this time Oswald continued to have the reputation
that he was not an aggressive person?
Mr. POWERS. No; I don't think--I think he came out of his shell, to
coin a phrase; he was becoming older and more mature, and he stood a
little more for his personal rights; at least, this is an opinion that
you get from the incident that he did have there in the barracks, not
from close relationships with him.
Mr. JENNER. Did you have a recollection that in Japan he began to stand
up for his own rights?
Mr. POWERS. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. He was a little more aggressive than he was back in the
States?
Mr. POWERS. Yes. Again this might go back to the area that he was too
scared the first year or so or 9 months while he was in the Marine
Corps, after coming out of the initial indoctrination of coming out of
training, and then he becomes himself, so you can't make a subjective
appraisal during that first 9 months.
Mr. JENNER. Did he ever express any sympathy toward the Communist Party?
Mr. POWERS. None that I recall.
Mr. JENNER. Toward Communist principles?
Mr. POWERS. None that I recall.
Mr. JENNER. Or Marxist doctrines?
Mr. POWERS. None that I recall; no, sir.
Mr. JENNER. Or did he ever discuss those subjects with you or in your
presence?
Mr. POWERS. I'm not sure. He didn't discuss them to any great length or
to any issues that I would recall.
Mr. JENNER. Nothing to excite you?
Mr. POWERS. Nothing that I would attach any political significance to.
Mr. JENNER. And what was his attitude toward discipline in the Marine
Corps? Was it antagonistic? Was it different in any degree from other
marines?
Mr. POWERS. No; I don't think that it was. I think he was like any
other marine, that he made his bed and now he was going to have to lie
in it. He volunteered. A lot of complaining just as anyone else did.
But nothing that you could say that was any different than any other
individual. However, he, again going back to the incident that he did
have, he was somewhat, if you want to call it, hostile, so to speak, to
authority. He must have been--or he had something that would bother him
that he would flare up once in a while.
Mr. JENNER. He would?