Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

There is a very interesting hornet's nest that Mike Morgan stirred up. We know that James Bookhout is in this ROTC photo from Woodrow Wilson High in Dallas from 1931. His name is listed at the bottom of the page. I say he is the short, young boy who is circled. That boy is definitely the shortest, and by a wide margin. But, I say he is also the youngest because he looks to be the youngest. Some of them look like young men, but he still looks like a boy.

So, it's a regiment that has 3 battalions: first, second, and third. The regiment has a commander, who is highest. And below him is the executive officer. And it's the same way for each battalion. The highest rank is battalion commander, followed by executive officer, followed by adjutant, who is an administrative assistant or secretary.

So, James Bookhout had the lowest rank as third battalion adjutant. But, this is high school ROTC, and it's very likely that the ranks were age-related, meaning the younger boys came in at low ranks, and over time, they climbed the ladder. So, it's likely that the commanders were the oldest boys- the seniors.

Knowing that James Bookhout was only a sophomore at Woodrow High in 1931, I wouldn't expect him to have a high rank. And he doesn't; he was an adjutant. But Owen McKenzie was a Battalion Commander- the highest rank. So, he must have been an older boy, who climbed the ladder. Through experience and performance, he was promoted to battalion commander.

So, we know that James Bookhout was young, just 16, and he was an adjutant. But, Owen McKenzie was a commander. So, he had to be one of the older boys. Can you imagine that baby-faced kid being the battalion commander? I can't. He was not Owen McKenzie, as Mike Morgan claims. He was James Bookhout.

And you can see that he was short. And the fact is that he does correlate very well with the later images of Bookhout, going all the way up to November 24, 1963.

So, does anyone else besides Mike Morgan want to claim that the short, pudgy kid was the battalion commander? This is JFK-land, so it wouldn't surprise me.