Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy (23 page)

However, slowly the men of Oswald's unit, Marine Air Control Squadron No. I (MACS-1), realized that they were overhearing conversations
from the strange-looking aircraft that they would soon see wheeled out of a
large nearby hangar and scream into the air. When asked about the craft,
the officers would only say it was a "utility plane." The men didn't know
this utility plane, or U-2, was being used to penetrate Soviet and Chinese
airspace for the purpose of photographing military and industrial targets.

Oswald seemed to show particular interest in the "secrets" of Atsugi.
One Marine recalled seeing Oswald taking photographs of the base and he
showed special interest during unit briefings on classified material.

Just as he had gone off alone to New Orleans, Oswald began making
two-day visits to Tokyo. Years later, Oswald is reported to have confided
that he made contact with a small group of Japanese Communists in Tokyo
while in the Marines. Even Warren Commission lawyers, W. David
Slawson, and William T. Coleman, Jr., stated in a report that was classified for a time: ". . . there is the possibility that Oswald came into contact
with Communist agents at that time . .. "

Oswald told a friend at the time that he was having an affair with a
Japanese girl who worked as a hostess in a Tokyo nightclub called the
Queen Bee.

This was an intriguing connection indeed, for the Queen Bee at that time
was one of the three most expensive nightspots in Tokyo. An evening at
the Queen Bee could cost up to a hundred dollars. It catered especially to
officers and pilots (including U-2 pilots, according to author Edward Jay
Epstein). It was believed that the hostesses of the Queen Bee, one hundred
of the most beautiful women in Tokyo, were using their charms to gain
information from American servicemen.

It was a decidedly odd meeting place for Oswald, who was making less
than eighty-five dollars a month with much of that being sent back to help
support his mother.

Was the poor Marine, Private Oswald, being used to gather intelligence
or was Oswald testing his intelligence abilities to infiltrate Communist
agents in the Queen Bee? The answer to this question may have come
when author/researcher Mark Lane interviewed one of Oswald's former
Marine pals from Atsugi.

David Bucknell, who was never interviewed by the Warren Commission, told of an incident in which he and Oswald went for beers at a bar
near Santa Ana, California, where they were both stationed in 1959. While
sitting there, the two Marines were approached by two women who
engaged them in conversation. Bucknell said later that day Oswald said
this incident reminded him of a similar experience at Atsugi. According to
Oswald's story, he was sitting alone in a Japanese bar when an attractive
woman joined him and began asking questions regarding his work at
Atsugi. Since his work involved the highly-secret U-2 plane, Oswald
reported this meeting to his superior officer. Soon this officer arranged a
meeting between Oswald and a man in civilian clothes. Oswald told
Bucknell the man explained that Oswald could do his country a great
service by giving false information to the woman, a known KGB agent.
Oswald agreed and thus became an intelligence operative. Oswald said he
had been encouraged to continue meeting the woman and was given
money to spend at the Queen Bee.

While no U.S. intelligence agency has admitted it, there is further
evidence to suggest that he was indeed used as an agent. Sgt. Gerry
Patrick Hemming, who served in Japan with Oswald and later went on to
join anti-Castro Cubans, said he was recruited into the CIA while in the
service and, while Oswald never said so, he believed the same thing
happened to Oswald-based on conversations between the two.

A former CIA finance officer, James Wilcott, testified to the House
Select Committee on Assassinations that colleagues told him that Oswald
was a secret operative for the spy agency in Japan. Wilcott, who served in
the CIA from 1957 through 1966, said after Kennedy's assassination he
had several conversations with CIA personnel involved in covert operations. He said, based on these conversations and his experience of paying
CIA funds to secret operations through the use of code names, or "cryptos," he became convinced that Oswald was brought into the CIA while
serving as a radar operator in Japan and later was sent to infiltrate Russia
as a spy.

When CIA officials denied these charges-one went so far as to suggest
that Oswald was actually recruited by the Soviet KGB while in Japan-the
Committee decided not to believe Wilcott.

Another tantalizing piece of evidence that Oswald was involved in
intelligence work while stationed in Japan comes from his Marine Corps medical records. Those records show that on September 16, 1958, Oswald
was treated for "Urethritis, acute, due to gonococcus . . . " Gonorrhea is a
venereal disease preached against loudly by the military. For servicemen, a
case of gonorrhea often results in disciplinary measures. However, Oswald's
medical record goes on to state: "Origin: In line of duty, not due to own
misconduct." The fact that Oswald was absolved of any responsibility in
contracting gonorrhea astounds service veterans and is strong evidence that
his extracurricular activities had the blessings of the military, if not of the
CIA.

Another small but eye-opening revelation came from secret meetings of
the Warren Commission. General counsel J. Lee Rankin-armed with
initial reports from the military-told Commission members two months
after the assassination: ". . . we are trying to run that down, to find out
what he studied at the Monterey School of the Army in the way of
languages .. ." The Monterey School, now called the Defense Language
Institute, is one of the government schools for giving sophisticated and
rapid language courses. Rankin's remark, made public only after a Freedom of Information suit, seems to imply that the Commission had knowledge of Oswald attending courses at Monterey.

And it is certainly easier to believe that Oswald got a crash course in the
Russian language in the military than to believe that this high-school
dropout learned one of the world's hardest languages by reading books and
listening to records, as implied by the Warren Commission. (Incidentally,
fellow Marines testified they could not recall Oswald listening to any
language records.)

It is possible that undercover work was behind a strange shooting
incident that took place just as his unit was scheduled to be transferred to
the Philippines in late 1957. On October 27, Oswald was gathering gear
from his locker when reportedly a .22-caliber derringer fell onto the floor
and discharged, grazing his left elbow. As nearby Marines rushed into his
room, all Oswald would say was: "I believe I shot myself."

Before the incident, Oswald had told a friend, George Wilkins, that he
had ordered the derringer from a mail-order firm in the United States. At
least two of the Marines present, Thomas Bagshaw and Pete Connor, now
claim the bullet missed Oswald altogether. Others at the time had the
impression that Oswald shot himself in an attempt to prevent being transferred to the Philippines. If that was the case, it failed. Although absent
almost three weeks for medical treatment, he was returned to duty just in
time to ship out with his unit on November 20.

The maneuvers of Oswald's unit in the Philippines and South China Sea
were largely uneventful, although one companion recalled: "He did a little
growing up in that time ... he started acting like a man."

Interestingly, while the unit was on Corregidor, actor John Wayne
stopped in briefly and a photograph was taken of him. In a background doorway stands Marine Oswald, who was serving his third straight month
on mess duty.

His hospital stay following the derringer incident and the amount of time
he spent pulling KP (Kitchen Police) may be indicative of time away from
his regular unit spent in intelligence training. According to witnesses, his
elbow wound was very minor, yet Oswald spent nearly three weeks in a
hospital. More time gaps in his military career were to come.

Back at Atsugi, Oswald was court-martialed for possessing an unregistered weapon-the derringer. On April 11, 1958, he was found guilty and
sentenced to twenty days at hard labor, forfeiture of fifty dollars in pay,
and reduced back to the rank of private. His confinement was suspended
for six months on the condition that he stay out of trouble.

It was about this time that Oswald put in for a hardship discharge. As
this application was being processed there apparently was a need for more
time away from his unit for additional intelligence training. This may have
been accomplished by an incident that began in the Enlisted Men's Club at
Atsugi. Oswald, who heretofore had not been known as violent, tried to
pick a fight with Technical Sgt. Miguel Rodriguez, allegedly the man who
had assigned him to so much KP duty. Rodriguez failed to rise to the bait.

On June 20, Oswald sought out Rodriguez at the Bluebird Club in
Yamato and again tried to fight with the sergeant. After Oswald poured a
drink on Rodriguez, military police intervened, and the next day, Rodriguez
signed a complaint against Oswald. At the court martial, Oswald acted as
his own defense, claiming he was drunk and spilled the drink on Rodriguez
accidentally. Rodriguez said then-and after the assassination-that Oswald
had not been drunk and had poured the drink on him deliberately.

The judge ruled that Oswald was guilty of using "provoking words" to
a noncommissioned officer and sentenced him to twenty-eight days in the
brig and forfeiture of fifty-five dollars. Furthermore, his previous suspension of sentence was revoked and Oswald supposedly went to the brig until
August 13, a period of more than forty-five days.

Only one Marine who was in the Atsugi brig during this time recalled
seeing Oswald and he said during this brief encounter Oswald was wearing
civilian clothes.

After his release, several Marines commented that Oswald seemed
different. Joseph D. Macedo said he found him "a completely changed
person .. . " Others said that where "Ozzie Rabbit" had been extroverted
and fun-filled, this new Oswald was cold and withdrawn.

It may well be right here that a new Oswald-an entirely different
man-was substituted for the New Orleans-born Marine (see "Was Oswald
Really Oswald?").

Meanwhile, a previously granted extension of overseas duty was canceled and it appeared that Oswald would soon be on his way home.
However, on September 14, the Chinese Communists began making moves
against the Nationalist islands of Quemoy and Matsu and there was a general mobilization. Oswald accompanied his unit to Formosa (now
Taiwan). Not long after their arrival on the island, Oswald was assigned
guard duty. About midnight, the officer of the guard, Lt. Charles R.
Rhodes, heard several shots. Running to the scene, Rhodes found Oswald
slumped against a tree holding his M-1 rifle in his lap. Rhodes recalled:
"When I got to him, he was shaking and crying. He said he had seen men
in the woods and that he challenged them and then started shooting . . .
He kept saying he couldn't bear being on guard duty."

Almost immediately, Oswald was shipped back to Atsugi, arriving on
October 5, 1958, according to official reports. Years later, Rhodes said he
still believed that Oswald planned the shooting incident as a ploy to get
himself transferred back to Japan. Rhodes was never given any explanation
for the willingness of the Marine Corps to go along with this "ploy"
except that Oswald was being returned for "medical treatment."

Recall the medical records concerning Oswald's gonorrhea contacted
"in line of duty." However, this record is dated September 16, 1958, two
days after Oswald officially left with his unit for Formosa.

There has been no explanation for this, as well as several other discrepancies in Oswald's military service records. This has caused some assassination researchers to believe that more than one man was using the name
Oswald during this time.

Or could it be that even more time was needed to prepare Oswald for
upcoming intelligence missions?

Back at Atsugi and with his unit gone, Oswald was temporarily assigned
to a Marine squadron at Iwakuni, an air base about 430 miles southwest of
Tokyo. Here, quite by accident, he came into contact with Owen Dejanovich,
a Marine who had attended radar school with him. Dejanovich tried to
renew the acquaintanceship but was rebuffed by Oswald, who made efforts
to avoid the one man around who had known him previously. Dejanovich
also found Oswald changed. He said Oswald kept referring to the Marines
as "you Americans" and raving about "American imperialism" and
"exploitation." He also noticed that Oswald was keeping company with
locals again, this time with a ". . . round-eyed Russian girlfriend."

On November 2, 1958, Oswald boarded the U.S.S. Barrett for the
two-week trip to San Francisco. On November 19, he took a thirty-day
leave, traveling by bus to Fort Worth where he stayed with his mother, but he
spent most of his time with his brother Robert hunting squirrels and rabbits.

On December 22, he was assigned to Marine Air Control Squadron
No. 9 (MACS-9) at El Toro, California. Here he was one of seven enlisted
men and three officers who formed a radar crew. According to the Warren
Report:

This work probably gave him access to certain kinds of classified
material, some of which, such as aircraft call signs and radio frequencies, was changed after his [attempted] defection to Russia.

It was here that Oswald's public embracing of communism reached new
heights. He would answer questions with "da" or "nyet" and address
fellow Marines as "Comrade." When playing chess, he always wanted the
red pieces, which he referred to as the "victorious Red Army." His
Marine companions began calling him "Oswaldskovich."

One of his fellow Marines, Kerry Thornley, was so impressed by this
"eightball" that he later wrote a novel using a character based on Oswald.
Here are some of his recollections: