Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

Chapter 6
The Hero Who Never Was
'Commissioned before the war in 1941, by the US Navy, he [Hubbard] was ordered to the
Philippines at the outbreak of war in the US and was flown home in the late spring of 1942 in the
Secretary of the Navy's private plane as the first US returned casualty from the Far East.'
(A Brief Biography of L. Ron Hubbard)
'He served in the South Pacific, and in 1942 was relieved by fifteen officers of rank and was rushed
home to take part in the 1942 battle against German submarines as Commanding Officer of a
corvette serving in the North Atlantic. In 1943 he was made Commodore of Corvette Squadrons,
and in 1944 he worked with amphibious forces. After serving in all five theaters of World War II and
receiving 21 medals and palms, in 1944 he was severely wounded and was taken crippled and
blinded to Oak Knoll Naval Hospital.' (Facts About L. Ron Hubbard)
• • • • •
By July 1941, the United States was effectively, although unofficially, at war. US marines had taken
over the British garrison in Iceland and US warships were already escorting convoys of lend-lease
supplies across the North Atlantic. The isolationist lobby bitterly accused President Roosevelt of
needlessly leading the nation into the conflict, but the momentum was irreversible. When Germany
invaded Russia, Roosevelt immediately promised US aid, declaring the defence of Russia to be
'vital to the defence of the United States'.
In August, as the apparently invincible Nazi Panzer divisions pushed the Red Army back towards
the outskirts of Leningrad, Roosevelt met the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, off the coast
of Newfoundland and signed the Atlantic Charter, confirming US-Anglo co-operation and calling for
'the right of all peoples to choose the form of Government under which they will live'. A few days
later, a German U-Boat unsuccessfully attacked an American destroyer, the USS Greer, south of
Iceland and Roosevelt issued orders to 'shoot on sight'. In October, the US Navy suffered its first
casualty when another destroyer, the USS Kearney, was sunk by a submarine in the North Atlantic.
After the loss of the Kearney, the United States embarked on an undeclared naval war against
Germany.
Lieutenant L.R. Hubbard, US Naval Reserve, did not exactly play a central role in these events. In
moments of fantasy he could no doubt picture himself on the bridge of the Kearney, heroically
choosing to go down with his ship, a wry smile playing on his lips as the last of his crew was
rescued; in reality, he was being shunted from one desk job to another in public relations.
In the light of his success as a writer, it was not surprising that the US Navy assigned Lieutenant
Hubbard to a job in publicity, even though the fledgling officer's literary talent was largely confined to
the abstruse field of science fiction, far divorced from the sober requirements of military public
relations.
But Ron naturally considered himself supremely well qualified and he had barely been in uniform
five minutes before he was offering the benefit of his advice to his senior officers. On 21 July, with
two full days' service completed, he wrote to Congressman Magnuson thanking him for his help in
obtaining a commission and mentioning that he had already submitted three ideas to accelerate