Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Youth House Psychiatric Evaluation

In 1952, 12-year-old Oswald moved with his mother to New York City, where he became a chronic truant and exhibited serious emotional and psychological issues. He was placed at Youth House, a New York juvenile psychiatric observation facility, where a social worker described him as “seriously detached”, withdrawn, and emotionally starved, noting he felt his mother saw him as a burden and had violent fantasies. The chief psychiatrist diagnosed him with a “personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features and passive-aggressive tendencies” and recommended psychiatric treatment. He returned to school in May 1953 with temporary improvement, but behavioral issues resurfaced by fall, and his mother refused further psychiatric care. In January 1954, he and his mother moved back to New Orleans.

Marine Corps Service

After dropping out of 10th grade in New Orleans in 1955 at age 16, Oswald attempted to enlist in the Marine Corps but was rejected due to his age. He worked office messenger and clerk jobs in New Orleans for 10 months, during which he began reading communist literature, praised communism to coworkers, and wrote to the Socialist Party of America professing his belief in Marxism. He and his mother moved back to Fort Worth in July 1956, and he enlisted in the Marine Corps on October 24, 1956, 6 days after his 17th birthday. He scored 212 on his initial M-1 rifle qualification, earning a sharpshooter rating, and later received training in aviation fundamentals and radar scanning. Described as a loner who resented authority, he was court-martialed twice: once for possessing an unregistered weapon and once for provocative language toward a noncommissioned officer. He served 15 months overseas, mostly in Japan, before being stationed in Santa Ana, California for his final year of service. During this time he expressed admiration for Fidel Castro and interest in joining the Cuban army, and scored 191 on a follow-up M-1 rifle qualification, earning a marksman rating. He requested early discharge from the Marine Corps on September 11, 1959, citing his mother’s ill health and financial struggles, and left for New Orleans shortly after.