It’s Memorial Day here in the US, and once again we’re happy to post an excerpt from Chris Owen’s excellent book Ron the War Hero to commemorate L. Ron Hubbard’s war service. Make sure to pick up a copy of the book if you haven’t already.
Eighty years ago this June, L. Ron Hubbard took charge of his first command – the USS YP-422, in Neponset, Massachusetts. Having returned from “hard action in the South Pacific,” according to the Scientology publication “Ron: Humanitarian – Restoring Honor and Self-Respect”, he took command of “a hastily fitted subchaser” aboard which he “distinguished himself as an officer who cared more for the safety of his ship and men than for gilded braid.” The truth, as ever with Hubbard, was much more prosaic and his time aboard the YP-422 ended in ignominy.
When Hubbard arrived at George Lawley’s shipyard at Neponset on June 25, 1942, he was put to work as a Conversion Officer, overseeing the conversion of a heavy beam trawler called the Mist into the US Navy gunboat YP-422. She was modestly armed with a 3” .50 caliber dual purpose gun mounted on the forward deck and two .30 caliber machine guns.
Gunboats such as the YP-422 were intended for coastal defense against German U-boats, which had roamed virtually unopposed along the US Atlantic coast during the first months of the war. As the class name YP indicated, the YP-422 was to be assigned to yard patrol purposes – in this case, for the defense of Boston Harbor and its naval installations.
Hubbard would later claim that the YP-422 was a corvette, a much more formidable class of ship. In reality the US Navy was so desperate for anything that could reduce the German massacre of shipping along the Atlantic coast that it put guns on anything that could float and recruited anyone with a modest experience of sailing to command them.
Hubbard was also in charge of getting the ship’s crew ready for service. He later claimed in a 1961 Scientology lecture that he had “governed a ship of criminals” and turned them into superb sailors:
“They were on their way to Portsmouth Naval Prison and they took them off the prison train and shipped them to me. Combat vessel needed a crew. They didn’t have any crews. They had a lot of people in uniform, but didn’t have people they wanted to send out into the teeth of the North Atlantic in 1942. A hundred percent criminals these fellows were.
I governed them by throwing away their service record books. I just told them, “well, I’m not going to make any marks in your service records.” I saw them come aboard with their braid dirty and their hammocks black with grime and they stood there slouched, and that was the first intimation I had that this was the crew. There they were. More than a hundred men lined up on the deck.”
In fact, the YP-422 had only 35 crew (including Hubbard and his executive officer). There is no indication from the ship’s muster rolls that any of them were transferred from a prison.
Exactly one month after arriving, Hubbard was able to take YP- 422 out of her dock for a trial trip in the harbor which was recorded by a naval photographer. The following month, YP-422 put to sea for a short test cruise, for the first and only time that Hubbard was aboard her on the open ocean. During her shakedown cruise the vessel conducted 27 hours of training exercises. A few practice rounds were fired to test the deck gun.
There was no suggestion that any enemy vessels had been involved, despite later claims by the Church of Scientology that Hubbard had seen action in the North Atlantic. Church publications claim that Hubbard rose to command the “Fourth British Corvette Squadron” – a unit that never existed – and had commanded British and American anti-submarine vessels in desperate battles against Nazi U-boats, an event entirely unrecorded in his service record. In fact, according to a former crewman, Eugene LaMere, “the YP- 422 never saw combat.”
By September 9, Hubbard was confident enough about his vessel to send a message to the Commandant of the Boston Navy Yard reporting that YP-422 was in excellent condition, crew training was “approaching efficiency” and morale was high. “As soon as a few deficiencies are remedied,” he added, “this vessel will be in all respects ready for sea and is very eager to be on her way to her assigned station or task force.”
YP-422 embarked on her shakedown cruise in October 1942. Her prospective Commanding Officer, however, was not on board. Hubbard had become involved in a dispute with the Commandant of the Boston Navy Yard, Commander J. H. Keefe. Tense relations had developed between the officers in charge of the conversion work and those assigned to crew the ten YP vessels being converted at the Neponset shipyard. This culminated in an order from the Commandant prohibiting YP officers from approaching the conversion office or even speaking to any of the shipyard workers.
Hubbard fired off a memorandum to the Vice-Chief of Naval Operations (VC OPNAV) in Washington. He named the officer that he held responsible for the dispute and claimed that the prospective YP Commanding Officers were all “startled” by the order. Perhaps not surprisingly, this got Hubbard into trouble. On September 25, the Commandant requested that Hubbard be relieved of command:
LT L RON HUBBARD IS IN COMMAND OF YP 422 COMPLETING CONVERSION AND FITTING OUT AT BOSTON. IN THE OPINION OF THE COMMANDANT HE IS NOT TEMPERAMENTALLY FITTED FOR INDEPENDENT COMMAND. IT IS THEREFORE URGENTLY REQUESTED THAT HE BE DETACHED AND THAT ORDER FOR RELIEF BE EXPEDITED IN VIEW OF EXPECTED EARLY DEPARTURE OF VESSEL. BELIEVE HUBBARD CAPABLE OF USEFUL SERVICE IF ORDERED TO OTHER DUTY UNDER IMMEDIATE SUPERVISION OF A MORE SENIOR OFFICER.
Hubbard was determined not to go down fighting and sent a telegram to VC OPNAV protesting his removal:
BECAUSE OF MY REPRESENTATIONS MADE TO THE VICE CHIEF OPNAV 12 SEPT 1942 COMMANDANT NAVY YARD BOSTON RECOMMENDING MY REMOVAL FROM COMMAND TO BUPERS. RESPECTFULLY REQUEST INTERCESSION MY VESSEL IN CONDITION SUPERIOR TO ANY OTHER IN DIVISION.
His plea was ignored. On October 1, 1942, the Commandant of the First Naval District, Captain H. G. Copeland, sent Hubbard a memo detaching him from command of YP-422 and ordering him to report to the Commandant of the Third Naval District “for such duty as he may assign you.”
Hubbard’s departure under a cloud was an early sign of his unfitness for command. Unfortunately for the Navy, Commander Keefe’s advice that Hubbard should be put “under immediate supervision of a more senior officer” was not heeded. Six months later, Hubbard took charge of his second and final command, the USS PC-815, and sailed into even bigger disgrace.
— Chris Owen
More highlights of Ron’s military career…
Nov 4, 2020: L. Ron Hubbard’s stolen valor: A new breakdown of his bogus medals by a military veteran
Nov 7, 2020: Medal by medal, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s ‘stolen valor’ is laid bare
May 31, 2021: For Memorial Day: Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s bogus war injuries
Dec 9, 2021: Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in WW2: Notes from a prohibited war diary
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During WW2 4 of my uncles served in US armed forces. One was a medic in the famed 101st Airborne Division. He jumped for D day and Market Garden. . He ended the war with a 3 purple hearts and a Bronze and Silver Star.
His slightly younger brother served in an Armored unit that fought at Peleliu and the Philippines. He hated the Japanese until his dying day, but came through the war relatively unscathed.
Another Uncle was a Motor Man 2/c on the Plunkett. A US destroyer. While Lroon was pissing off everyone around him Uncle Larry and his ship were covering the landings in North Africa. They then covered the landings in Sicily and the Italian mainland. His ship caught a German bomb off Anizo and lost 55 sailors. After hasty repairs off Sicily they went back to England on one propeller. The other one had been blown off in the fight. After more fixes in England they went back to the US for more repairs. They were back in action in time to cover the landings in Normandy. After his ship was not needed in the ETO, the Plunkett went to San Diego and was 3 days out, heading for Japan when the Japanese surrendered. The ship was ordered to turn around and Uncle Larry and most of the crew were demobilized by the end of September. Larry was somewhat hard of hearing for the rest of his life. That German bomb blew Larry through an open hatchway and he was otherwise unharmed during the war. He is immortalized in a book called 'Unsinkable'. He was so drunk after a night out in Oran that he fell off the gangplank and went for an unscheduled swim in the harbor. He was not mentioned by name, but that swim was and is a part of family history.
For the CO$ and Lroon himself to claim all that 'stolen valor', well, that really pisses me off.
I DARE any current scienbollockist, especially one of you OSA wankers reading this blog, to call any of us here a "religious bigot" for merely stating the truth about his Supreme Rotten-Toothed Majesty, Flatulent Fabulist Flubbard.
In other news, today's entertainment at the FLAG Memorial Day barbeque is:
Little David and The Florida Fabian Fellatio Foundation
Joy Killa and The Skid Marks
Grunt Cardone's Remunerative Necromancy
Eric Berg and The Keto Kunt Koalition