Sold For $7,854
*Includes Buyers Premium
ALS in pencil, signed "Love, Lee, XX," on the reverse of a 5.5 x 3.5 postcard with a front image of Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head, postmarked August 31, 1957. Addressed from Honolulu, Hawaii, a handwritten letter from Oswald to his mother, Marguerite Oswald, in Fort Worth, in full: “Well only 1 day here but I have been having alot of fun, 12 more days at sea to Japan.” In fine condition, with some surface loss to the image side. At the time of writing, Oswald was in his first year of enlistment in the Marines and was en route to his assignment at Atsugi Naval Air Station in Japan.
In June 1957, the Marine Corps gave Oswald the occupational specialty of Aviation Electronics Operator. The next month, he reported for duty to the Marine Corps Air Station in El Toro, California, and was attached to the 4th Replacement Battalion. His unit departed for Japan on August 22nd, and nine days later, during a stop in the Hawaiian Islands, he mailed this postcard home.
One wonders what type of “fun” Oswald was having during his brief stay in Hawaii, as most of his short-lived military career revealed evidence of a troubled man. He was court-martialed twice, including once for shooting himself in the elbow with an unauthorized handgun. In a separate incident in the Philippines, Oswald inexplicably began firing his rifle into the jungle while on guard duty. After falsely claiming that he had to care for his mother, the Marines granted him a hardship discharge in 1959. Four years later, he would alter the course of history.
Provenance: Charles Hamilton Galleries auction, New York, September 30, 1965.
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