Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

Harry Hubbard's relationship with his son had deteriorated over the years and they saw little of
each other. Any pleasure Hub might have experienced when he learned Ron was following him into
the Navy could not outweigh his overall disapproval of, and disappointment with, his son. Harry
Hubbard was a deeply conservative, utterly conventional plodder, a man ruled by routine and
conformity. He could never come to terms with what he viewed as his son's eccentricities - his
refusal to get a job, his habit of staying up all night and sleeping all day, his prolonged absences
from home, his lack of regard for his family. Hub was extremely fond of Polly and adored his two
grandchildren - Nibs, then seven years old, and Katie, who was five. Sometimes he felt he was
closer to them than their own father and he was saddened that this should be the case.
As far as Ron was concerned, he had nothing in common with his father who had spent virtually his
entire life pushing paper in the Navy with nothing in prospect but a pension. To Ron it was a grey
and unappealing existence compared to his own world, at least as it existed in his thoughts. Ron
still saw himself as an adventurer cast in the mould of his fictional heroes and never missed an
opportunity to promote himself as a fearless, devil-may-care, globetrotter. It was no wonder father
and son inexorably drifted apart - their characters were simply too different to be compatible.
Ron was still at HQ Third Naval District in New York when, a few minutes after three o'clock on the
afternoon of Sunday 7 December, an announcer broke into a New York Philharmonic concert being
broadcast on CBS: 'We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin. The Japanese
have attacked Pearl Harbor.' At that very moment, bombs were still falling on the ships in Pearl
Harbor and before the Japanese pilots headed for home, five US battleships had been sunk or
beached, three others damaged, ten smaller warships disabled and some 2400 men killed. Next
day, the President signed a declaration of war.
If Ron was chafing to get into action he was to be disappointed. On 18 December, he was posted
to the Philippines, but got no further than Brisbane, Australia, where while waiting for a ship to
Manila, he so antagonised his senior officers that in February 1942 he was on his way home again
on board the USS Chaumont. 'This officer is not satisfactory for independent duty assignment,' the
US Naval Attaché in Melbourne reported on 14 February. 'He is garrulous and tries to give
impressions of his importance. He also seems to think he has unusual ability in most lines. These
characteristics indicate that he will require close supervision for satisfactory performance of any
intelligence duty.' It was claimed that Ron assumed authority without bothering to obtain official
sanction and attempted to perform duties for which he had no qualifications, thus becoming 'the
source of much trouble'.[3]
At Headquarters Twelfth Naval District in San Francisco, it was decided that Ron's talents might be
more profitably employed in censoring cables. In a despatch dated 22 April, the Chief Cable