Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

Chapter 3
Explorer Manqué
'The following years, from 1925 to 1929, saw the young Mr Hubbard, between the ages of 14 and
18, as a budding and enthusiastic world traveller and adventurer. His father was sent to the Far
East and having the financial support of his wealthy grandfather, L. Ron Hubbard, spent these
years journeying through Asia . . .
'With the death of his grandfather, the Hubbard family returned to the United States and [Ron]
enrolled at the George Washington University in the fall of 1930. At George Washington L. Ron
Hubbard became associate editor of the University newspaper, "The Hatchet", and was a member
of many of the University's clubs and societies . . . Here, also, he was enrolled in one of the first
nuclear physics courses ever taught in an American university.
'As a student, barely 20 years old, he supported himself by writing and within a very few years he
had established himself as an essayist in the literary world . . . He made the time during these
same busy college years to act as a director with the Caribbean Motion Picture Expedition of 1931.
The underwater films made on that journey provided the Hydrographic Office and the University of
Michigan with invaluable data for the furtherance of their research.
'Then in 1932, the true mark of an exceptional explorer was demonstrated. In that year L. Ron
Hubbard, aged 21, achieved an ambitious "first". Conducting the West Indies Minerals Survey, he
made the first complete mineralogical survey of Puerto Rico. This was pioneer exploration in the
great tradition, opening up a predictable, accurate body of data for the benefit of others . . .' (Mission
Into Time, published by the Church of Scientology, 1973)
• • • • •
The USS Henderson arrived off Guam on 25 July 1928 in heavy squalls and lay to on the lee side of
the island for five days, waiting for an opportunity to enter the harbour. The weather did not seem to
bother Ron. 'That trip was the best I ever took,' he wrote in his journal, 'and the best I ever hope to
take. The Navy gave me a kangaroo court martial, there were nine young grass widows aboard, we
danced every other night, the movies were good.'
Ron omitted from his journal any mention of how his parents reacted to his return. After more than
a year apart, Harry and May were no doubt happy to see their seventeen-year-old son again, but
they could not have been too pleased by his impetuous decision to drop out of High School. Since
there was no possibility of getting him back to the United States in time for the start of the senior
year - even if he would agree to go - it was decided that he should stay on Guam and be tutored by
his mother in preparation for the entrance examination to the Naval Academy.
In spite of the limitations of her teaching experience, May seemed undaunted by the task of bringing
her wayward son up to a sufficiently high educational standard to get him through the reputedly
tough and highly competitive exam. And with servants padding softly about the house, attending
unbidden to every household chore, she had plenty of time to devote to her son's studies.
For his part, Ron could not have been happier to substitute the authoritarian regime of old A.J.
Roberts at Helena High for what he considered to be the exotic tropical allure of Guam and the