L. Ron Hubbard - Military Career

Military Career

After returning from Alaska, Hubbard applied to join the United States Navy. His Congressman, Warren G. Magnuson, wrote to President Roosevelt to recommend Hubbard as "a gentleman of reputation" who was "a respected explorer" and had "marine masters papers for more types of vessels than any other man in the United States". Hubbard was described as "a key figure" in writing organizations, "making him politically potent nationally". The Congressman concluded: "Anything you can do for Mr Hubbard will be appreciated." His friend Robert MacDonald Ford, by now a State Representative for Washington, sent a letter of recommendation describing Hubbard as "one of the most brilliant men I have ever known". Hubbard was said by Scientologists to be "a powerful influence" in the Northwest and to be "well known in many parts of the world and has considerable influence in the Caribbean and Alaska." The letter declared that "for courage and ability I cannot too strongly recommend him." Ford later said that Hubbard had written the letter himself: "I don't know why Ron wanted a letter. I just gave him a letter-head and said, 'Hell, you're the writer, you write it!'"

Hubbard was commissioned as a Lieutenant (junior grade) in the U.S. Naval Reserve on July 19, 1941. His military service forms a major element of his public persona as portrayed by Scientologists. The Church of Scientology presents him as a "much-decorated war hero who commanded a corvette and during hostilities was crippled and wounded." Scientology publications say he served as a "Commodore of Corvette squadrons" in "all five theaters of World War II" and was awarded "twenty-one medals and palms" for his service. He was "severely wounded and was taken crippled and blinded" to a military hospital, where he "worked his way back to fitness, strength and full perception in less than two years, using only what he knew and could determine about Man and his relationship to the universe." He claimed to have seen combat repeatedly, telling A. E. van Vogt that he had once sailed his ship "right into the harbor of a Japanese occupied island in the Dutch East Indies. His attitude was that if you took your flag down the Japanese would not know one boat from another, so he tied up at the dock, went ashore and wandered around by himself for three days."

Hubbard's official Navy service records indicate that "his military performance was, at times, substandard" and he received only four campaign medals rather than twenty-one. He was never recorded as being injured or wounded in combat and so never received a Purple Heart. Most of his military service was spent ashore in the continental United States on administrative or training duties. He served for a short time in Australia but was sent home after quarreling with his superiors. He briefly commanded two anti-submarine vessels, the USS YP-422 and USS PC-815, in coastal waters off Massachusetts, Oregon and California in 1942 and 1943 respectively.

After Hubbard reported that the PC-815 had attacked and crippled or sunk two Japanese submarines off Oregon in May 1943, his claim was rejected by the commander of the Northwest Sea Frontier. Hubbard and Thomas Moulton, his second in command on the PC-815, later said the Navy wanted to avoid panic on the mainland. A month later Hubbard unwittingly sailed the PC-815 into Mexican territorial waters and conducted gunnery practice off the Coronado Islands, in the belief that they were uninhabited and belonged to the United States. The Mexican government complained and Hubbard was relieved of command. A fitness report written after the incident rated Hubbard as unsuitable for independent duties and "lacking in the essential qualities of judgment, leadership and cooperation." He served for a while as the Navigation and Training Officer for the USS Algol while it was based at Portland. A fitness report from this period recommended promotion, describing him as "a capable and energetic officer, very temperamental", and an "above average navigator". However, he never held another command and did not serve aboard another ship after the Algol.

Hubbard's war service has great significance in the history and mythology of the Church of Scientology, as he is said to have cured himself through techniques that would later underpin Scientology and Dianetics. According to Moulton, Hubbard told him that he had been machine-gunned in the back near the Dutch East Indies. Hubbard asserted that his eyes had been damaged as well, either "by the flash of a large-caliber gun" or when he had "a bomb go off in my face". Scientology texts say that he returned from the war "linded with injured optic nerves, and lame with physical injuries to hip and back" and was twice pronounced dead.

His medical records state that he was hospitalized with an acute duodenal ulcer rather than a war injury. He told his doctors that he was suffering from lameness caused by a hip infection and he told Look magazine in December 1950 that he had suffered from "ulcers, conjunctivitis, deteriorating eyesight, bursitis and something wrong with my feet." He was still complaining in 1951 of eye problems and stomach pains, which had given him "continuous trouble" for eight years, especially when "under nervous stress." This came well after Hubbard had promised that Dianetics would provide "a cure for the very ailments that plagued the author himself then and throughout his life, including allergies, arthritis, ulcers and heart problems."

The Church of Scientology says that Hubbard's key breakthrough in the development of Dianetics was made at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, California. According to the Church,

In early 1945, while recovering from war injuries at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital, Mr. Hubbard conducts a series of tests and experiments dealing with the endocrine system. He discovers that, contrary to long-standing beliefs, function monitors structure. With this revolutionary advance, he begins to apply his theories to the field of the mind and thereby to improve the conditions of others.

An October 1945 Naval Board found that Hubbard was "considered physically qualified to perform duty ashore, preferably within the continental United States". He was discharged from hospital on December 4, 1945, and transferred to inactive duty on February 17, 1946. He resigned his commission with effect from October 30, 1950. The Church of Scientology says he quit because the U.S. Navy "attempted to monopolize all his researches and force him to work on a project 'to make man more suggestible' and when he was unwilling, tried to blackmail him by ordering him back to active duty to perform this function. Having many friends he was able to instantly resign from the Navy and escape this trap." The Navy said in a statement in 1980: "There is no evidence on record of an attempt to recall him to active duty."

The Church disputes the official record of Hubbard's naval career. It asserts that the records are incomplete and perhaps falsified "to conceal Hubbard's secret activities as an intelligence officer." In 1990 the Church provided the Los Angeles Times with a document that was said to be a copy of Hubbard's official record of service. The U.S. Navy told the Times that "its contents are not supported by Hubbard's personnel record." The New Yorker reported in February 2011 that the Scientology document was considered to be a forgery.