Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

Gentlemen;
This is a request for treatment . . .
After trying and failing for two years to regain my equilibrium in civil life, I am utterly unable to approach anything like
my own competence. My last physician informed me that it might be very helpful if I were to be examined and
perhaps treated psychiatrically or even by a psychoanalyst. Toward the end of my service I avoided out of pride any
mental examinations, hoping that time would balance a mind which I had every reason to suppose was seriously
affected. I cannot account for nor rise above long periods of moroseness and suicidal inclinations, and have newly
come to realize that I must first triumph above this before I can hope to rehabilitate myself at all.
I cannot leave school or what little work I am doing for hospitalization due to many obligations, but I feel I might be
treated outside, possibly with success. I cannot, myself, afford such treatment.
Would you please help me?
Sincerely, L. Ron Hubbard[9]
To its credit, the VA responded to this dramatic cry for help with commendable speed and
arrangements were made for Hubbard to attend Birmingham VA Hospital in Van Nuys for another
examination. By this time, his medical records were hopelessly confused as he had given so many
different versions of his service career, his injuries and ailments. He took the opportunity of
thisconsultation to add another injury to the record, claiming that he had fallen from a ladder on a
ship called the USS Pennant in 1942, injuring his back, hip, left knee and right heel.
While he was waiting for the results to come through, Ron was greatly discomforted to receive a
demand from the VA for $51 which he had been overpaid in subsistence - he had dropped out of
college on 14 November, claiming he was too ill to continue studying, but had collected
subsistence until the end of the month.
'I cannot imagine how to repay this $51', he whined in a letter to the VA dated 27 January 1948, 'as I
am nearly penniless and have but $28.50 to last me for nearly a month to come. Since leaving
school in mid-November I have made $115 from various sources - about $40 from the sale of two
bits to magazines in late November and the repayment of a bad debt for $75. These comprise my
income to date except for the sale of a typewriter tonight for the above $28.50. My expenditures
consist of $27 a month trailer rent and $80 a month loud for my wife and self, which includes gas,
cigarettes and all incidentals. I am very much in debt and have not been able to get a job but am
trying to resume my pre-war profession of professional writing. My health has been bad and I feel
that if I could just get caught up financially I could write a novel which has been requested of me
and so remedy my finances. It would take me three months and even then I would not be able to
guarantee solvency. Is there any provision in the Veteran's Administration for grants or loans or
financing so that I could get back on my feet?'
Nothing came of this hopeful inquiry. A few days later the results of Ron's medical examination
arrived, but offered little encouragement that he would he awarded a higher pension. As before,
nothing too serious was diagnosed, other than arthritis and myositis, an inflammation of the
muscle tissue. There was not even, any longer, any evidence of a duodenal ulcer and no evidence
at all of the injuries he said he had sustained when he fell from a ladder.
However, bureaucracy works in strange and unfathomable ways. Despite the findings of his most
recent medical, Ron's bewildering portfolio of infirmities and his dogged determination to be
disabled finally paid off. On 27 February he received a letter from the VA regional office with the
good news that his combined disability rating had been re-assessed at forty per cent and his
pension increased to $55.20 a month.[10] With that, Lieutenant Hubbard USNR had to be satisfied.