Mr. Jenner.

You have read it?

Mr. Steele.

Yes.

Mr. Jenner.

Did you also read the documents that were enclosed with that letter?

Mr. Steele.

No, sir.

Mr. Jenner.

Well, those documents, Mr. Steele, consist of Senate Joint Resolution 137, authorizing the creation of the Commission to investigate the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy; the Executive Order No, 11130 of President Lyndon B. Johnson, appointing that Commission and fixing its powers and its duties, and a copy of the rules and regulations under which we take testimony before the Commission and also by deposition, as in this case.
The Commission is directed to investigate all the facts and circumstances surrounding or bearing upon the assassination of our late President Kennedy. I am Albert E. Jenner, Jr., one of the various members of the legal staff of the Commission, and we are here today taking depositions of witnesses who may have in some way touched the lives of the Oswald family during their residence here in New Orleans.
You have told us that you have some concern about your boy in this matter, and you have also told me of your position in this community both as a family man and a public official. I think it will be proper, due to the circumstances of your situation, to put a statement from you into the record of these proceedings before the Commission, and so, with your permission, I will ask you some questions at this time.

Mr. Steele.

All right.

Mr. Jenner.

Now, you are a native-born American here, and your wife is a native-born American, and all your children were born here, is that right?

Mr. Steele.

Correct.

Mr. Jenner.

In and around this area?

Mr. Steele.

Yes, sir.

Mr. Jenner.

You are how old now, sir?

Mr. Steele.

I am 44, but I will be 45 the 15th of August, this year--1964.

Mr. Jenner.

Do you have any children in addition to Charles Hall, Jr.?

Mr. Steele.

I have a daughter Jacqueline; she's a twin to Charles, and I have one boy Gerald, who is aged 13.

Mr. Jenner.

Jacqueline, what is she doing?

Mr. Steele.

She is at Mercy Hospital, a student nurse. She will graduate in August.

Mr. Jenner.

Now, tell me about yourself, Mr. Steele?

Mr. Steele.

I am a deputy sheriff, attached to the Civil District Court, and an officer of the court. I own a small business known as the Liberty Coffee and Household Co.

Mr. Jenner.

You are a service man, are you?

Mr. Steele.

23 years on active National Guard status, subject to 24 hours' notice.

Mr. Jenner.

Were you in World War II?

Mr. Steele.

I was.

Mr. Jenner.

What was the nature of that service?

Mr. Steele.

I was inducted right here in 1941, June or July; I don't remember exactly, and I went on duty with the AFRTC, at Fort Knox, Ky. That's the Air Force Replacement Training Center, at Fort Knox, and then I was transferred to the 5th Armored Division, and that division was sent to England, but I didn't go with them. I was in the cadre that was sent to the Tank Destroyer Battalion at Camp Forest, Tenn., and we pulled winter maneuvers, after which they found that our unit was not ready to go overseas, so we were disbanded and I was then sent to the 631st Tank Destroyer Battalion at Camp Shelby, where I was a sergeant, and then I was sent to the 773d Tank Destroyer Battalion, and I finally ended up after 2 years in Charleston, S.C., in charge of a G.U. ward, so I spent two lovely years living off of Uncle Sam, and I was discharged as a staff sergeant, and then I went to Fort Sill, Okla., in 1949, after being commissioned in the National Guard in 1948, and received my field commission in artillery,