New River, NC Marine Air Station

[William Kelly]

Has anyone followed up on this?

Peter Dale Scott wrote:

…An even more informative source might be Oliver “Buck” Revell, the former Marine officer who after sharing information with the FBI about Oswald rose to be the number three man in the Bureau. Revell has set out his lengthy involvement with the JFK case in his own words:

I have been involved in the Kennedy assassination investigation since its inception. First as a Marine officer, I was assigned to assist the FBI while it was conducting a detailed inquiry into Lee Harvey Oswald’s military background at the Marine Corps Air Facility, New River, N.C.Many years later, as FBI assistant director in charge of criminal investigations, it was my responsibility to follow up and take appropriate action on the findings and recommendations of the House Select Committee on Assassinations…Since May 1991, I have been the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas division, nad it has been my responsibility to conduct any additional investigation warranted in the Kennedy case, as alleged evidence or new documents have been brought to light. 101

The Review Board should question Mr. Revell about whatever records he and the FBI may have consulted at the MCAF New River facility, a place whee (as far as we have been told) Oswald never served. 102.

[102 Note: Larry Haapanen has pointed out to me that, on December 11, 1963, the Secret Service reported that Captain Donovan had suggested the Secret Service tal to Sergeant Carnellias [sic] Brown, “presently stationed at New River, North Carolina,” who “should be able to furnish some information on Oswald’s background” [CD 87, p. 5]. This is presumably the Staff Sergeant “Cornelius Brown” whose name Donovan offered as a source to the Warren Commission (8 WH 297-99, 302).

It is certain that none of the Oswald Marine records we now have were stored there.

[Robert Howard]

A G-Man’s Journal - Oliver “Buck” Revell w/Dwight Williams - Pocket Books - 1998

page 18,

For the next few days we surveilled the activity of the Soviet ships and missile

sites, quietly watching on as they floated their devastating cargo back across the

Atlantic. The world had been brought back from the brink of thermonuclear war;

the nations frayed nerves, however wouldn’t quell so easy. For the next few weeks

we continued our surveillance of the island, but after a month and a half of being

on station, the USS Okinawa began to run short on fuel and supplies. That’s when

we received welcome news. We would be arriving at Mayport Naval Station just

outside Jacksonville, Florida, in three days. Everyone, the skipper promised, would get at least twenty-four hours of shore leave. As soon as I was ashore, I called Sharon where she was staying with her folks in Mars Hill, North Carolina, a small town in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. When she answered, my legs went weak.

She was utterly surprised to be hearing from me, thinking I was still off the coast of Cuba. I quickly asked her if she could come down and spend a day on the beach here in Jacksonville, as this could be the last time I would see her in months. She could leave our baby with her folks, and we could have just a few hours together.

If there was any way in the world to do it, she said, she would. And she did.

She took an eighteen-hour bus ride straight south, and we spent the next twenty-four hours together. What followed was the best second honeymoon a couple could ever want.

page 21,

Soon thereafter I returned to the New River Air Facility in North Carolina, and my

duties settled into more routine matters. But I would never forget what happened

that October of 1962. Nor would the country, as the armed services remained in constant readiness. The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of those events that defined the times like no other. Nearly every day I flew training missions while the country navigated itself through the height of the cold war. Though we lived with this invisible threat, the world seemed a quieter place in the aftermath of that October. At least it seemed that way until one cool November day. As I look back on it today, that afternoon has a strange clarity. In my minds eye the sky is clear and impossibly blue, the helicopter, the VIP aircraft of Marine Air Group Twenty-six, gleaming on the tarmac, its leather interior freshly polished. Once we took off and picked up our passenger, the Assistant Commanding General of the Second Division, I flew over the coast along the Eastern seaboard, the sea and sky fantastically clear below and beneath me. Then came a strangely urgent signal over the radio. It was news from Dallas. John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been hit by an assassin’s bullet..........

page 20,

Then a moment later there was a commotion and a single pop! "He's been shot!" I

shouted. Within a few seconds the commentator confirmed this with the same

exclamation..........

It was a surreal moment in American history. The country would never again

be quite the same. But we had to get on with our lives, and that meant taking care of our two-year-old, Russell, and our two-week-old infant, Jeffrey. For me it also meant flying and conducting judge advocate general (JAG) investigations for the Marine Corps.

It would be business as usual.Within a week of Oswald's death, however,

something unusual happened. Two FBI agents arrived unannounced at my office

in MCAF New River. One of the agents introduced himself as Bill Pierson, the

senior resident agent from Jacksonville, North Carolina, a town near the Marine base.

We’ve been assigned to investigate the background of Lee Harvey Oswald," he said.

“Apparently several Marines who worked with Oswald are assigned here to

the air group or the

page 21

air station, and we'd like the support of the Marine Corps in finding

and interviewing these fellows.” Of course I was amazed. As a young Marine

I was also ecstatic at the prospect of being of any assistance at all. Once the

effort was approved at Marine headquarters, I learned that I would be the liason

to facilitate the investigation at New River. I would not participate directly

in the effort; I would not sit in on interviews or research any of the records.

But I would one day view my job as a cathartic experience.

Little enough could be found on Lee Harvey Oswald, yet it felt good being

involved in addressing the mystery of just who this man was.

The Marines who had worked with or knew Oswald couldn’t add much to

the Bureau’s knowledge of his short and tortured life. But at least a few people

at New River could recall Oswald from his days in the Corps.

What they had to say seemed to fit the profile of a surly and mentally unbalanced

young man. The investigation lasted for only three or four weeks, and the information that spoke most poignantly of Lee Harvey Oswald was that after two courts-martial he had been released from the Marines on a request for a hardship discharge.

end

Robert: I am not positive but the person who was picked up on November 22, 1963

might have been Brigadier General Paul G. Graham.

see

General Graham completed the Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., in June 1958; subsequently he was assigned as Officer in Charge, Officer Selection office in New York City until 1961.

Promoted to lieutenant colonel in July 1961, he joined the 2d Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, N. C., and served as the Commanding Officer, 2d Reconnaissance Battalion. In June 1962, he was reassigned as the Commanding Officer, 1st Battalion, 2d Marines, which deployed as the Landing Force, 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. Upon his return to the United States in the early part of 1963, he was assigned as the Assistant G-3, 2d Marine Division.

see

https://slsp.manpower.usmc.mil/gosa/biographies/rptBiography.asp?PERSON_ID=705&PERSON_TYPE=General

[William Kelly]

A G-Man's Journal - Oliver "Buck" Revell w/Dwight Williams - Pocket Books - 1998

page 18,

For the next few days we surveilled the activity of the Soviet ships and missile

sites, quietly watching on as they floated their devastating cargo back across the

Atlantic. The world had been brought back from the brink of thermonuclear war;

the nations frayed nerves, however wouldn't quell so easy. For the next few weeks

we continued our surveillance of the island, but after a month and a half of being

on station, the USS Okinawa began to run short on fuel and supplies. That's when

we received welcome news. We would be arriving at Mayport Naval Station just

outside Jacksonville, Florida, in three days. Everyone, the skipper promised, would get at least twenty-four hours of shore leave. As soon as I was ashore, I called Sharon where she was staying with her folks in Mars Hill, North Carolina, a small town in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. When she answered, my legs went weak.

She was utterly surprised to be hearing from me, thinking I was still off the coast of Cuba. I quickly asked her if she could come down and spend a day on the beach here in Jacksonville, as this could be the last time I would see her in months. She could leave our baby with her folks, and we could have just a few hours together.

If there was any way in the world to do it, she said, she would. And she did.

She took an eighteen-hour bus ride straight south, and we spent the next twenty-four hours together. What followed was the best second honeymoon a couple could ever want.

page 21,

Soon thereafter I returned to the New River Air Facility in North Carolina, and my

duties settled into more routine matters. But I would never forget what happened

that October of 1962. Nor would the country, as the armed services remained in constant readiness. The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of those events that defined the times like no other. Nearly every day I flew training missions while the country navigated itself through the height of the cold war. Though we lived with this invisible threat, the world seemed a quieter place in the aftermath of that October. At least it seemed that way until one cool November day. As I look back on it today, that afternoon has a strange clarity. In my minds eye the sky is clear and impossibly blue, the helicopter, the VIP aircraft of Marine Air Group Twenty-six, gleaming on the tarmac, its leather interior freshly polished. Once we took off and picked up our passenger, the Assistant Commanding General of the Second Division, I flew over the coast along the Eastern seaboard, the sea and sky fantastically clear below and beneath me. Then came a strangely urgent signal over the radio. It was news from Dallas. John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been hit by an assassin's bullet..........

page 20,

Then a moment later there was a commotion and a single pop! "He's been shot!" I

shouted. Within a few seconds the commentator confirmed this with the same

exclamation..........

It was a surreal moment in American history. The country would never again

be quite the same. But we had to get on with our lives, and that meant taking care of our two-year-old, Russell, and our two-week-old infant, Jeffrey. For me it also meant flying and conducting judge advocate general (JAG) investigations for the Marine Corps.

It would be business as usual.Within a week of Oswald's death, however,

something unusual happened. Two FBI agents arrived unannounced at my office

in MCAF New River. One of the agents introduced himself as Bill Pierson, the

senior resident agent from Jacksonville, North Carolina, a town near the Marine base.

We've been assigned to investigate the background of Lee Harvey Oswald," he said.

"Apparently several Marines who worked with Oswald are assigned here to

the air group or the

page 21

air station, and we'd like the support of the Marine Corps in finding

and interviewing these fellows." Of course I was amazed. As a young Marine

I was also ecstatic at the prospect of being of any assistance at all. Once the

effort was approved at Marine headquarters, I learned that I would be the liason

to facilitate the investigation at New River. I would not participate directly

in the effort; I would not sit in on interviews or research any of the records.

But I would one day view my job as a cathartic experience.

Little enough could be found on Lee Harvey Oswald, yet it felt good being

involved in addressing the mystery of just who this man was.

The Marines who had worked with or knew Oswald couldn't add much to

the Bureau's knowledge of his short and tortured life. But at least a few people

at New River could recall Oswald from his days in the Corps.

What they had to say seemed to fit the profile of a surly and mentally unbalanced

young man. The investigation lasted for only three or four weeks, and the information that spoke most poignantly of Lee Harvey Oswald was that after two courts-martial he had been released from the Marines on a request for a hardship discharge.

end

Robert: I am not positive but the person who was picked up on November 22, 1963

might have been Brigadier General Paul G. Graham.

see

General Graham completed the Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., in June 1958; subsequently he was assigned as Officer in Charge, Officer Selection office in New York City until 1961.

Promoted to lieutenant colonel in July 1961, he joined the 2d Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, N. C., and served as the Commanding Officer, 2d Reconnaissance Battalion. In June 1962, he was reassigned as the Commanding Officer, 1st Battalion, 2d Marines, which deployed as the Landing Force, 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. Upon his return to the United States in the early part of 1963, he was assigned as the Assistant G-3, 2d Marine Division.

see

https://slsp.manpowe...ON_TYPE=General

Thanks for that Robert.

BK

[Len Colby]

Since Revell made his comments over 30 years after the facts in question and there is no other evidence LHO ever served at the bases isn't the most reasonable assumption he simply made a mistake? Note that he even got the base's name wrong. Perhaps the ARRB should have asked him about this but that ship has sailed. You can do the next best thing and ask him yourself.

http://revellgroup.com/

[William Kelly]

Since Revell made his comments over 30 years after the facts in question and there is no other evidence LHO ever served at the bases isn't the most reasonable assumption he simply made a mistake? Note that he even got the base's name wrong. Perhaps the ARRB should have asked him about this but that ship has sailed. You can do the next best thing and ask him yourself.

http://revellgroup.com/

Cool your jets LC, as if you bother to actually read what Revell said, he was stationed at New River at the time of the assassination and that some of the Marines there had served with Oswald in the past and were questioned by an official group of JAGS, which confirms what other military officers have said - that the USMC/ONI conducted an official investigation of Oswald after the assassination, which would certainly make sense, yes?

The only problem is there is no official record of any such investigation, though we have the sworn testimony of officers who participated in this investigation, including Revell, and an AF officer (Huff) who read their report, "for USMC Eyes Only" that concluded Oswald could not have committed the assassination alone.

Nobody claimed Oswald ever served there - in North Carolina, and no one has made any connection, so far, between this base and the phone call Oswald is said to have made to Hurt in Raleigh, NC., or the base that Victor Marcetti refers to.

BK

JFKcountercoup: New River, NC USMC Air Facility

JFKcountercoup

[Len Colby]

Since Revell made his comments over 30 years after the facts in question and there is no other evidence LHO ever served at the bases isn't the most reasonable assumption he simply made a mistake? Note that he even got the base's name wrong. Perhaps the ARRB should have asked him about this but that ship has sailed. You can do the next best thing and ask him yourself.

http://revellgroup.com/

Cool your jets LC, as if you bother to actually read what Revell said, he was stationed at New River at the time of the assassination and that some of the Marines there had served with Oswald in the past and were questioned by an official group of JAGS, which confirms what other military officers have said - that the USMC/ONI conducted an official investigation of Oswald after the assassination, which would certainly make sense, yes?

The only problem is there is no official record of any such investigation, though we have the sworn testimony of officers who participated in this investigation, including Revell, and an AF officer (Huff) who read their report, "for USMC Eyes Only" that concluded Oswald could not have committed the assassination alone.

Nobody claimed Oswald ever served there - in North Carolina, and no one has made any connection, so far, between this base and the phone call Oswald is said to have made to Hurt in Raleigh, NC., or the base that Victor Marcetti refers to.

BK

JFKcountercoup: New River, NC USMC Air Facility

JFKcountercoup

You're right Bill it's not clear he was saying that in 1994 but his wording was ambiguous and even PD Scott seems to have interpreted it the same way I did. In this context the matter doesn't seem especially interesting to me. Have you tried contacting Revell?

It should be noted that although in the same state the various locations in NC are a few hours drive from each other. NYC is closer to Philly.

Who is Huff? Why would a USAF officer be involved in a USMC investigation?

Edited February 14, 2013 by Len Colby

[William Kelly]

Since Revell made his comments over 30 years after the facts in question and there is no other evidence LHO ever served at the bases isn't the most reasonable assumption he simply made a mistake? Note that he even got the base's name wrong. Perhaps the ARRB should have asked him about this but that ship has sailed. You can do the next best thing and ask him yourself.

http://revellgroup.com/

Cool your jets LC, as if you bother to actually read what Revell said, he was stationed at New River at the time of the assassination and that some of the Marines there had served with Oswald in the past and were questioned by an official group of JAGS, which confirms what other military officers have said - that the USMC/ONI conducted an official investigation of Oswald after the assassination, which would certainly make sense, yes?

The only problem is there is no official record of any such investigation, though we have the sworn testimony of officers who participated in this investigation, including Revell, and an AF officer (Huff) who read their report, "for USMC Eyes Only" that concluded Oswald could not have committed the assassination alone.

Nobody claimed Oswald ever served there - in North Carolina, and no one has made any connection, so far, between this base and the phone call Oswald is said to have made to Hurt in Raleigh, NC., or the base that Victor Marcetti refers to.

BK

JFKcountercoup: New River, NC USMC Air Facility

JFKcountercoup

You're right Bill it's not clear he was saying that in 1994 but his wording was ambiguous and even PD Scott seems to have interpreted it the same way I did. In this context the matter doesn't seem especially interesting to me. Have you tried contacting Revell?

It should be noted that although in the same state the various locations in NC are a few hours drive from each other. NYC is closer to Philly.

Who is Huff? Why would a USAF officer be involved in a USMC investigation?

Larry Huff, who I believe was a USAF navigator, told the HSCA that he flew a team of USMC investigators to San Diego and Japan, two places where Oswald was stationed, to conduct a post assassination investigation. He said held Top Secret status and was permitted to read their report on the return flight, and that this "USMC EYES ONLY" document concluded that Oswald was not capable of committing the assassination alone.

From the quote in Revell's book that Robert cited it is clear that Revell, while a USMC officer stationed at the North Carolina USMC base, worked with the FBI investigators who conducted the investigation there, and it was not the same USMC team that Huff referred to.

BK

[Len Colby]

Larry Huff, who I believe was a USAF navigator, told the HSCA that he flew a team of USMC investigators to San Diego and Japan, two places where Oswald was stationed, to conduct a post assassination investigation. He said held Top Secret status and was permitted to read their report on the return flight, and that this "USMC EYES ONLY" document concluded that Oswald was not capable of committing the assassination alone.

From the quote in Revell's book that Robert cited it is clear that Revell, while a USMC officer stationed at the North Carolina USMC base, worked with the FBI investigators who conducted the investigation there, and it was not the same USMC team that Huff referred to.

BK

Hmm, the story reeks, why would a pilot have the top security clearance to read such a report? A report that no one else reported seeing regarding an investigation no one else reported taking place either.

[William Kelly]

Larry Huff, who I believe was a USAF navigator, told the HSCA that he flew a team of USMC investigators to San Diego and Japan, two places where Oswald was stationed, to conduct a post assassination investigation. He said held Top Secret status and was permitted to read their report on the return flight, and that this "USMC EYES ONLY" document concluded that Oswald was not capable of committing the assassination alone.

From the quote in Revell's book that Robert cited it is clear that Revell, while a USMC officer stationed at the North Carolina USMC base, worked with the FBI investigators who conducted the investigation there, and it was not the same USMC team that Huff referred to.

BK

Hmm, the story reeks, why would a pilot have the top security clearance to read such a report? A report that no one else reported seeing regarding an investigation no one else reported taking place either.

Yea, why would the Marine Corps investigate the background of a former Marine who is accused of killing the President?

[Len Colby]

Yea, why would the Marine Corps investigate the background of a former Marine who is accused of killing the President?

Com'on Bill you are above engaging in straw men I never questioned the notion that “the Marine Corps [might] investigate the background of a former Marine who is accused of killing the President.” But 50 years after the assassination the only evidence we have they did so are contradictory accounts from 2 witnesses one of whom seems to have credibility issues. Revell's account is more plausible he didn't even claim they made a formal report. Huff's account is suspect for reasons stated.

[Robert Howard]

I started to post this on the Clay Shaw thread, but felt pointing out the importance of North Carolina in the context of the JFK assassination was a bit more appropriate. Would like to know the source for mary ferrell's chronologies stating that Clay Shaw was linked to North Carolina in the early 1920's. The obvious question is who were his acquaintances there, and were these relationships active or dormant in 1963.

Mary Ferrell Chronologies, Volume 1 - Prior to 1959 pg 13

circa 1922

Albert Osborne aka John Howard Bowen works as an intenerant gardener, primarily in North Carolina

and in the Stanton, Virgina areas.

WC 25: 35, 45;

Paul Rowland Jones lives in Charlotte, North Carolina in the 1950’s.

William Burley's parents live in North Carolina in 1963

Clay Shaw visits North Carolina regularly 1922-1927

https://www.maryferr...89&relPageId=13

Reflections on JFK’s Assassination: 250 Famous Americans Remember November 22, 1963 - Edited by John B. Jovich - Woodbine House - 1988

page 102,

Charles S. Robb

I was a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, serving as an aide-de-camp to the Commanding General of the Second Marine Division.

The General and I were just boarding his helicopter at the rifle range for a flight back to Division Headquarters when the pilots informed us that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas and was being rushed to the hospital. We both had the same shock and disbelief shared by all American’s when we first heard the news. I asked the pilots to patch us in to a civilian radio frequency on the headsets and we listened quietly on the flight back. When we got back to our offices, I obtained a portable radio to try to find out how the President was doing and when it was reported that President Kennedy was dead, I walked in to the General’s office and gave him the sad news. Neither of us said a word thereafter. Like most American’s we then spent the next few days glued to our television sets trying to make sense or come to grips with the tremendous loss all of us felt.

I’m not sure that I tried immediately to assess the impact President Kennedy’s death would have on the nation. I did think about our potential vulnerability in terms of national defense, but for the most part Ithought about and prayed for the Kennedy family as well as the man I had no way of knowing would one day become my father-in-law.

Sincerely,

Charles S. Robb

Note: Charles Robb married Lynda Bird Johnson, in December 1967

Robert: And in case your thinking, well that was 40 odd years before the JFK assassination so what, in the period of 1961-1963 the Fair Play For Cuba Committee was definitely active in North Carolina.

See

Annual report for the year ... (Volume 1963) - eBooksRead.com

www.ebooksread.com/...1963.../page-6-annual-report-for-the-year--volume-1963-tin.shtml - Cached

The first witness before the subcommittee on May 6 was Fred Jerome, 24, an ....

member of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in 1961 and 1962 and severed

relations with .... connection with a racial disturbance which occurred in Monroe, N.C.

more

Mr. Jerome. I decline to answer the question for the reasons stated

before.

Mr. Willis. Proceed.

Mr. Nittle. I hand you a copy, Mr. Jerome, of an International

News Service dispatch, under the by-line of Jack Lotto, entitled "Pro-

Reds Recruit U.S. Youths To Attend 'Festival' in Moscow." This dis-

patch was published, among other newspapers, in the Washington

Post of July 19, 1957, at page A-6, which I have just handed you,

marked for identification as "Jerome Exhibit No. 2."

I quote from the dispatch :

International News Service learned today that the East Coast recruiting agent

for the Festival Committee operated under the alias of "Walter Hirsch." His

"office" was a post office box.

Actually "Hirsch" is Fred Jerome, 19, student-editor at City College of New

York, and son of V. J. Jerome, "cultural commissar" of the U.S. Communist

Party, just released from prison.

END

Somewhere on the Forum, I had posted a link to the Subcommittee

Investigating the Fair Play for Cuba committee ie, racial disturbance

which occurred in Monroe, N.C., but there wasn't much of a reaction.

For those who still believe that everything regarding the prelude of activity

to the JFK assassination hasn't been determined, ignoring the

various activity in North Carolina would be illogical, unless one is satisfied

with a minimalist understanding of the event.

Edited April 20, 2013 by Robert Howard

[Bernice Moore]

This information is from David Lifton fyi...i am hoping this is the correct thread to post it in......best..b