Performed various clerical duties such as distributing mail, delivering messages & answering telephone. Helped file records & operated ditto, letter opening & sealing machines.285

Anticipating that Lee would join the Marines as soon as he was 17, Mrs. Oswald moved in July 1956 to Fort Worth,286 where she took an apartment at 4936 Collinswood for herself, Lee, and Robert.287 In September, Lee enrolled in the 10th grade at the Arlington Heights High School 288 but attended classes for only a few weeks. He dropped out of school on September 28 .289 A few days later, he wrote the following letter to the Socialist Party of America:

October 3, 1956
Dear Sirs;
I am sixteen years of age and would like more information about your youth League, I would like to know if there is a branch in my area, how to join, ect., I am a Marxist, and have been studying socialist principles for well over fifteen months I am very interested in your Y.P.S.L.
Sincerely
/s/ Lee Oswald 290

Accompanying the letter was an advertisement coupon, on which he had checked the box requesting information about the Socialist Party.291
Lee became 17 on October 18. He enlisted in the Marines on October 24.292

MARINES

On October 26, 1956, Lee Harvey Oswald reported for duty at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, Calif., where he was assigned to the Second Recruit Training Battalion.293 He Was 68 inches tall and weighed 135 pounds; he had no physical defects.294 On October 30, he took a series of aptitude tests, on which he scored significantly above the Marine Corps average in reading and vocabulary and significantly below the average in tests in arithmetic and pattern analysis. His composite general classification score was 105, 2 points below the Corps average. He scored near the bottom of the lowest group in a radio code test.295 His preference of duty was recorded as Aircraft Maintenance and Repair, the duty assignment for which he was recommended.296

While he was at San Diego, Oswald was trained in the use of the M-1 rifle.297 His practice scores were not very good,298 but when his company fired for record on December 21, he scored 212, 2 points above the score necessary to qualify as a "sharpshooter" on a marksman/sharpshooter/expert scale.299 He did not do nearly as well when