Mr. Jenner.

anything personal as to Sergeant Spar, but I am going to use him as a faceless Marine sergeant.

Mr. Thornley.

And a very good one.

Mr. Jenner.

You marines, at least some of you, I assume, as had GI's and others, you buttered up sergeants, too, didn't you, in order to avoid being assigned too often to disagreeable tasks?

Mr. Thornley.

No; you didn't have to. So long as you kept in line and obeyed orders, you didn't have to-- you weren't assigned any disagreeable task in the kind of outfit I was in because there weren't that many. When there was a disagreeable task to be done, it was assigned to somebody who had stepped out of line and there were always enough people who had stepped out of line and it was no problem to find them. In fact, the problem was to find enough disagreeable tasks to go around. The only exception to this would be overseas; a typhoon would hit sometimes and then everybody would have to go out and we would have to all, much to our dismay, wade around at 2 o'clock in the morning and tear down tents and so on and so forth.

Mr. Jenner.

That was a thing that was common to all of you.

Mr. Thornley.

Yes.

Mr. Jenner.

It was not a disagreeable task in the sense we are talking about.

Mr. Thornley.

Right; and that was never necessary to have to butter up that I can ever think of to a superior of any kind in order to get exempted from anything.

Mr. Jenner.

Well, do you think Oswald was aware that all he had to be was more tractable to the customs and practices of the Marine Corps in which he was then living and he would not be assigned disagreeable tasks more often than others?

Mr. Thornley.

Well, that is hard to say. I; don't know whether he was aware of that or not. I am not sure whether. he permitted himself to be aware of it. Maybe he was aware of it and maybe he couldn't help. He had compulsions to do these things. Maybe he thought it was worth it and maybe he didn't feel that he was being treated unjustly at all. Maybe he just wanted everybody to think he felt he was being treated unjustly, if you follow me.

Mr. Jenner.

I do.

Mr. Thornley.

It could have been any of these things. This--I think it would take a good psychiatrist to find out which.

Mr. Jenner.

You also used the expression that he strove to maintain the status or milieu in which he had brought himself.

Mr. Thornley.

Yes; I think this was possibly so. I think perhaps the feeling of being persecuted was necessary to his self-esteem. This is, I understand, a common thing, and it certainly fits in with everything else I know about him.

Mr. Jenner.

Did you have that impression that you have just expressed at the time that you were associated with him in the Marines?

Mr. Thornley.

At the time I was associated with him, I didn't have that impression because I was too busy wondering just what it was. I used I would see him doing something stupid, maybe a wisecrack to an officer, for example, and I would say, "Well, doesn't the idiot know that if he does that he is going to have to do this" and yet he would resent his punishment.

Mr. Jenner.

What would he do afterward?

Mr. Thornley.

As if it had been thrust upon him for no reason whatsoever, out of the blue.

Mr. Jenner.

Did you have a feeling that he was impulsive in that respect, in the sense that sometimes he did things?

Mr. Thornley.

He was definitely impulsive.

Mr. Jenner.

That he had no control?

Mr. Thornley.

Well, I don't know whether he had no control or whether he would just do things without thinking. I think maybe he just let, relaxed his controls once in a while, and why, I don't know.

Mr. Jenner.

Did you have the feeling he was impulsive?

Mr. Thornley.

Oh, definitely.

Mr. Jenner.

He acted on the spur of the moment?

Mr. Thornley.

He was spontaneous, very much so. This was--I had this impression the whole time I knew him.