Mr. Donovan.

he might have been talented in that field. He was coordinated to normal degree.

Mr. Ely.

Did you notice any special lack of team spirit on his part?

Mr. Donovan.

Yes; like the other experiences I had with him, he thought he should be boss, and when he was not immediately accepted as such, there was discontent on his part, which, of course, is lack of team spirit.

Mr. Ely.

You mentioned earlier that you at times inspected Oswald's quarters. Did you have occasion to inspect his rifle?

Mr. Donovan.

Yes; I did. And I don't recall anything out of order.

Mr. Ely.

Are you saying that you don't recall the results of this inspection, or that you do recall the results of the inspection and that you don't remember that his rifle was extraordinarily sloppy?

Mr. Donovan.

I don't recall that his rifle was extraordinarily sloppy. I do recall, after having talked with you about it, the barracks incident, in which there was some discontent on the part of his contemporaries that the hut was being punished for his lack of order.

Mr. Ely.

But your impression is that he kept his rifle as neat as anybody else?

Mr. Donovan.

I don't recall to the contrary.

Mr. Ely.

Would you have any reason to have an impression as to Oswald's proficiency in firing the rifle?

Mr. Donovan.

No; I would not. I saw his record book, and I believe at that time he was qualified as a sharpshooter--or maybe a marksman. If he had not been qualified as a marksman, which is the minimum standard, I am sure I would have been aware of it, because I was training officer, and that is one of the things that you must try to train men in.

Mr. Ely.

But you never had occasion to be with him when he fired a rifle?

Mr. Donovan.

That is correct.

Mr. Ely.

The marksmanship scores which are recorded in the Marine Corps--are they reliable, or is there an opportunity to falsify a score?

Mr. Donovan.

I would say that in a vast majority of the cases they are reliable. Some people have what is called an M-1 pencil--namely, you can punch holes in the target the size of an M-1 shell to improve the score. This is a court-martial offense. I am sure it does happen.
I don't personally know of it ever having happened, but it might. If he had a score of 210, which would make him sharpshooter, I would assume that from the standing position he could hit a 10-inch bullseye 8 times out of 10.

Mr. Ely.

Do you know how the score was recorded? Did the firer of the weapon ever go down personally to inspect the target?

Mr. Donovan.

Never. That is one of the things that makes this quite difficult. The men are on a firing range, a minimum of 200 yards distance, a maximum of 500 yards distance. When you are put into what is called the butts, or the target area, you do not know whose target you are pulling, because they switch you around every day. A staff NCO or an officer comes around and verities each given shot. And it is not impossible to cheat, but it would be most difficult to. And I have no reason to suspect that he did.

Mr. Ely.

In order that a friend could cheat for you, he would have to know ahead of time which point you were firing on, get to that point, and punch the target before the NCO got there?

Mr. Donovan.

That is correct, You fired from a given position every day. For instance, if you fired on target 17 during the week or two of qualification, you always fired on target 17. However, in the target area, where you pulled the targets up and down to repair them, you were switched from spot to spot every day, and it was not a matter of choice. The sergeant just said, "You men take target 1", "target 2," and so on. So it would be most unusual. But I suppose it does happen.

Mr. Ely.

Earlier in your deposition you stated, I believe, that you never heard Oswald wise off to any NCO. When speaking to the FBI, did you characterize him as a wise guy, or is that the agent's characterization?

Mr. Donovan.

He was a wise guy in the sense that he could be disrespectful in a way that you would accept. He would in a very respectful manner argue with someone and in most cases it was obvious to people listening that he knew