Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

sister, according to Ron, was a member of the Gestapo. Ron accused him of being anti-American,
an illegal immigrant and 'definitely fifth column'. 'My interest in this is impersonal,' he added,
'though possibly shaded by the feeling of dislike which he always inspires in me.'
J. Edgar Hoover replied promptly, thanked Ron for the information and promised an investigation.
But when an FBI agent called at Ron's apartment on Riverside Drive, he discovered that Ron had
moved out on 1 June. The agent reported that Ron had told neighbours he was moving to
Washington DC, but as he left no forwarding address, the case was closed.[16]
Ron had not gone to Washington DC but to Washington State, back to The Hilltop and to Polly and
the children. There was perhaps little time for a lengthy family reunion, however, for he was deeply
involved in the planning of his next great adventure - the Alaskan Radio-Experimental Expedition.
He was, of course, the leader and would be carrying with him, for the first time, the flag of the
Explorers Club.
The signal honour of carrying the club flag was jealously guarded and only granted to members
taking part in expeditions with proven serious scientific objectives. Every application was obviously
subjected to rigorous scrutiny by the Flag and Honors Committee, lest the significance of its award
be devalued. Thus Captain Hubbard proposed eminently laudable aims for his Alaskan Radio-
Experimental Expedition, notably to rewrite an important navigation guide - the US Coast Pilot,
Alaska, Part 1 - and to investigate methods of radio position-finding with experimental equipment
and a new system of mathematical computation. In a committee room at the Explorers Club, these
creditable aspirations clearly met with unhesitant approval.
In and around Bremerton, members of the Waterbury family had a rather more prosaic perspective
on the Alaskan Radio-Experimental Expedition, referring to it simply as 'Ron and Polly's trip'. As far
as the family was concerned, Ron was going to take Polly on a cruise up to Alaska. Aunt Marnie
viewed the venture as a wangle entirely typical of her nephew. 'Ron dreamed up the trip as a way of
outfitting the Maggie,' she said. 'His brain was always working and when he was trying to figure out
how he could afford to outfit the boat he wrote letters to all these different manufacturers of
instruments and equipment offering to test them out.'
The letters were written on crisply designed notepaper headed 'ALASKAN RADIO-EXPERIMENTAL
EXPEDITION', with a sub-heading 'Checking data for the US Coast and Geodetic Survey and the US
Navy Hydrographic Office'. The expedition's base was given as Yukon Harbor, Colby, and its
address, inevitably, was the Explorers Club of New York. With such impressive credentials, it was
no surprise that manufacturers responded positively to letters from 'Captain L. Ron Hubbard,
Director AREE '40' asking for equipment to be submitted for scientific testing.