Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

When he was not working, Ron spent a lot of time, as before, with his friend Mac Ford, who had
recently been elected to the state legislature. During the hours they spent playing chess they talked
at length about the war in Europe and the likelihood of the United States becoming involved. Ron
seemed somewhat subdued after his return from Alaska; he was convinced that the Japanese
were planning to attack the West coast mainland and gloomily prophesied that US forces would be
driven back to the Rockies before they could stem the tide of the invasion.
Unbeknown to Ford, Ron had made up his mind to join the Navy and was making painstaking
preparations to ensure he was offered a commission, tenaciously cultivating useful contacts and
soliciting letters of recommendation wherever he could. Jimmy Britton of KGBU Radio was naturally
happy to oblige and despatched a two-page eulogy to the Secretary of the Navy on 15 March 1941,
listing Ron's abundance of accomplishments. Among them he mentioned that Ron was a 'good
professional photographer' whose work he had seen in National Geographic Magazine. No one
else had, for National Geographic had never published any of Ron's pictures.[18] 'I do not hesitate',
Britton enthused, 'to recommend him without reserve as a man of intelligence, courage and good
breeding as well as one of the most versatile personalities I have ever known.'
Ten days later, Commander W. E. McCain of US Naval Powder Factory at Indian Head, Maryland,
added his support: 'This is to certify that I have personally known Mr L. Ron Hubbard for the past
twenty years. I have been associated with him as a boy growing up and observed him closely. I
have found him to be of excellent character, honest, ambitious and always very anxious to improve
himself to better enable him to become a more useful citizen . . . I do not hesitate to recommend
him to anyone needing the services of a man of his qualifications.' (McCain was the Lieutenant who
had shown Ron and his mother around Manila in 1927 and whom Ron mentioned in his journal.)
Meanwhile, Ron was in touch with his Congressman, Warren G. Magnuson, who was a member of
the Committee on Naval Affairs. Ron had suggested to Magnuson that the US Navy should set up
its own Bureau of Information, both to improve the Navy's public relations and to counter the
'defeatist propaganda' about naval affairs which Ron claimed was 'flooding the press'. At
Magnuson's request, he produced a nine-page report which the Congressman submitted with an
introduction which cannot have displeased the author: 'This plan of organization has been
prepared by Captain L. Ron Hubbard, a writer who is well-known under each of five different pen
names. His leadership in the Authors' League and the American Fiction Guild, his political and
professional connections and the respect in which he is held by writers and newsmen make his
aid in this organization valuable. His participation in this organization will give to it an instantaneous
standing in the writing profession, and bring to it a standard of high ideals . . .'
As if this was not enough, the Congressman also took it upon himself to write to no less a person
than President Roosevelt to extol the virtues of 'Captain' Hubbard. The letter, dated 8 April, added
yet another laurel to Ron's crown with the improbable claim that he held more marine licences than
anyone else in the country. It also introduced an aspect of his personality that was certainly not
obvious to other people who knew Ron Hubbard - his 'distaste for personal publicity'.
'Dear Mr President,' Magnuson wrote. 'May I recommend to you a gentleman of reputation? L. Ron
Hubbard is a well-known writer under five different names. He is a respected explorer as Captain
Bryan, Navy Hydrographer, will confirm. [Bryan acknowledged the sailing directions and films that
Ron sent to the Hydrographic Office from his Alaskan trip.]
'Mr Hubbard was born into the Navy. He has marine masters papers for more types of vessels than
any other man in the United States.