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Ron The War Hero

RandomCat

Patron with Honors
I'm a Veteran and I can say that lying about one's service record and accomplishments is looked down upon by other Vets, it's dishonest and not seen in any way honorable and it's a sure fire way to earn the disdain of other Vets not to mention the public in general.
ah... But Ron was an Old Salt ​though. :p
 

Udarnik

Gold Meritorious Patron
At the time of Pearl Harbour, the U.S. military attaché to Australia was Colonel Van S. Merle-Smith. While Merle-Smith would have had his offices in Melbourne, he had an extensive staff and I find it extremely difficult to believe that Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Laughable Ron Hubbard would have been the senior naval officer in the country at any time.

Not long after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbour, eight ships (the American Pensacola Convoy) arrived in Brisbane with approximately 2,400 United States Army Air Corps Troops, 2 Field Artillery Regiments, and over 70 aircraft. This was the first major influx of American personnel into Australia - on 23 December 1941. Are we to believe that they needed Laughable Ron Hubbard to tell them what to do and where to go when they arrived? I think not. Even in the military, you don't send materiel of that magnitude halfway around the world without orders.

On 28th December 1941, Lt. Gen. George H. Brett arrived in Australia to take command of all United States forces. Thus, in the same month that hostilities opened between Japan and the US, there was a heck of a lot more brass in Australia than Hubbard appears to have known about. But then, he never was very thorough in his research, was he? (For example, the whole Narconon approach is based upon one chat he had with a Scientology victim who had taken LSD once...)

One small grain of truth, there may be: that Hubbard was in Australia, at the end of December 1941. According to Russell Miller's book:


It may be that LRH might have reached Australia before Lt. Gen. Brett arrived... although I doubt it. This is in the days before long-range air travel. Being posted to the Philippines on December 18th does not indicate that he left on the same day. Nor does a disrupted, wartime route necessarily get him there in just ten days. In fact, five, if we assume that somebody senior to Blubbard must have been on one of the eight ships of the Pensacola Convoy.

I can't imagine that a junior officer - a very green junior officer at that, without orders and while lost in transit - would have done anything of value in Northern Australia. And certainly not a windbag like Hubbard.

So I'm calling bullshit on his 'Welcome Address' of November 7th, 1959.

Ron the bogus war hero.

Technically, he was claiming he was Senior Officer Ashore in Northern Australia. Except that the US did not divide up responsibilities that. He was never in the Navy Chain of Command once he was diverted to Brisbane. See Ron the War Hero:

Hubbard seems to have somewhat exceeded his brief by taking orders from the senior US Army officer in Brisbane, presumably the Col Johnson quoted above. This evidently caused some tension. In Hubbard's report of February 5 he quotes Commander L. D. Causey, the US Naval Attaché to Australia, as saying
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Swiss]I have sent a message to the CinC Asiatic as of this morning stating that I wish you to be removed from Brisbane, stating that you are making a nuisance of yourself. You have never been under my orders and I consider you as having nothing to do with me. If you wish to serve with Johnson, that is up to you.[/FONT]​

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AnonKat posted my search up here. TY AnonKat

Here is an updated account of my search

This has been my personal rabbit hole for the last few days.

The first two photos that piqued my interest
http://www.skepsis.nl/hubbard1...
clip_image002.jpg

http://www.imagick.com.br/wp-c...
clip_image004.jpg

and a third, I am not sure it will load
http://a.disquscdn.com/uploads...

I have been very curious about the ribbons, and the possible date of the photos
I believe the photos were all taken at the same time.
I used this source for the ribbons
http://www.officialmilitaryrib...

According to unbiased researchers (Miller, Atack, Owen, Wright) Ron earned 4 medals and no battle stars.
The American Defense Service Medal
The American Campaign Medal
The Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal
The WWII Victory Medal

The ribbons associated with these medals are in the 7th and 8th row from the top from the link I posted.
According to Thomas Moulton who went to sub chaser training school with Ron, and then served as is second in command off the shores of Oregon, he and Ron always wore two battle star on that ribbon (The American Campaign). Moulton testified to this during one of the Gerry Armstrong cases, in 1984.
I think Ron is wearing 8 ribbons, a top row of 2 ribbons, a middle row of three ribbons and a bottom row of three ribbons.
If the date is accurate (and I do not think it is) there would be no WW II victory medal.

Here is an image of medals and the ribbons that Ron and Scientology claimed
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/7081/hubbardstolenmedals2b.jpg

http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/31765/l-ron-hubbards-life.pdf
go to page 11. There is a photo of the medals and ribbons without text on them
I needed to have the plain image to do my checking.
I also suspect that the image of the ribbons is actually upside down. The row of two ribbons should be displayed on top.

Left and right are when looking at the photographs.
Top row, left
This appears to have a battle star. The ribbon itself is covered by the lapel and hard to see. I cannot see a vertical stripe on the ribbon, at all. Perhaps it is the American Defense Service ribbon, but there should be a noticeable white vertical stripe, in my opinion. My decision was highly influenced by the single battle star.

Top row, right
This ribbon also appears to have one battle star.
Because of the white vertical stripes and the light color of the ribbon, I think that may be the Asiatic Pacific Campaign ribbon, and the battle star is obscuring the center (middle) vertical stripes.
Ron later claimed two battle stars for this ribbon.

Middle row, left
This is a guess on my part. There are visible vertical white stripes.
The only ribbon that comes close to matching it, in my opinion, is the Eastern African Middle Eastern Campaign Ribbon. I am not happy with that choice, but it is my best guess.
If I am correct, this is clearly a fraudulent ribbon.
In the photo, Ron has no battle stars, but later he or scientology claimed two battle stars for this fraudulent ribbon

Middle row, middle
This ribbon is obscured by two battle stars. The ribbon is light in color, and I can not distinguish the vertical stripes.
Perhaps it is the American Campaign ribbon, but I would like to see some evidence of dark vertical stripes in the center.
That is what I think the ribbon is because of Moulton's testimony.

Middle row, right
I have no idea what this ribbon was. It is not in the Naval ribbon link, in my opinion.
I think this ribbon corresponds with the ribbon 5[SUP]th[/SUP] row from the top, and in the middle in the scientology display

Bottom, left
I am not sure. I want to find a ribbon in dark blue, or brown with green stripes. I can’t seem to find it the image in the claims of scientology. It is NOT an official Naval Ribbon

Bottom, middle
A dark blue ribbon with 3 green stripes displayed on the top, middle of the image.
I do not know what the ribbon represents. It is NOT an official Naval Ribbon.

Bottom, right
A dark blue ribbon, with two thin green stripes displayed on the top, left on the image
I do not know what the ribbon represents. It is NOT an official Naval Ribbon.

If someone has done this work previously (and I suspect that someone might have done it) could you please provide me a link?
This dates the photo to before the end of the war, but after the time on USS Algol where Ron would have earned the Asiatic Pacific campaign, but no battle stars. Ron left the USS Algol in Sept 1944.

I date this photo from the end of Sept 1944 – Sept 1945 due to the lack of a WW II Victory medal

What I would like to find is a link to the claims of scientology.
What do they think each ribbon / medal stood for.
 
Very interesting.

It would be a bold move to wear ribbons to which one was not entitled while still serving in the Navy. Quite a few senior officers are fussy about such things, and you never know when one of them might see you, or see your photograph.

Is it possible that there were minor ribbons of some sort, recognizing training courses or something, that Hubbard would have been supposed to wear while in uniform but that were not actual decorations that he would have been entitled to wear later as a civilian? I wonder about this only because the US armed forces have always seemed inclined to give out an awful lot of ribbons for things that most countries don't recognize that way. The major American medals are as significant as anyone's, but you can get some sort of American ribbon for an awful lot of little things.

For instance, at least at some point, there were ribbons for the expert rifle and pistol qualifications. Those weren't medals, and I'm guessing that you would cease to be entitled to wear the ribbon as soon as you failed to pass the annual shooting test to that level, so no-one would keep wearing them after leaving the service. But they did have ribbons, at least at some point.

EDIT: I found an old discussion of this on the OCMB board. Somebody apparently identified some good guesses for some of the ribbons in these pictures, but the bottom row of three still seemed to be totally obscure. The lack of color in the photos doesn't help. One other suggestion there, though, was that these photos might have been staged after the war, as recreations of 'how I looked then', with fantasy decorations assembled from who knows where. The photos do look like a young L. Ron Hubbard, so they can't have been too long after. But if Hubbard was actually out of the Navy at that point, he might well have felt freer to re-imagine his medal rack.

I have been through this damn rabbit hole.
I would appreciate any and all links if you got them.
TY for your help
 
I'm a Veteran and I can say that lying about one's service record and accomplishments is looked down upon by other Vets, it's dishonest and not seen in any way honorable and it's a sure fire way to earn the disdain of other Vets not to mention the public in general.

I am the daughter of a WWI Infantry vet and WWII Army vet.
I share your feelings
That was why I looked into it.
 

Udarnik

Gold Meritorious Patron
Very interesting.

It would be a bold move to wear ribbons to which one was not entitled while still serving in the Navy. Quite a few senior officers are fussy about such things, and you never know when one of them might see you, or see your photograph.

Is it possible that there were minor ribbons of some sort, recognizing training courses or something, that Hubbard would have been supposed to wear while in uniform but that were not actual decorations that he would have been entitled to wear later as a civilian? I wonder about this only because the US armed forces have always seemed inclined to give out an awful lot of ribbons for things that most countries don't recognize that way. The major American medals are as significant as anyone's, but you can get some sort of American ribbon for an awful lot of little things.

For instance, at least at some point, there were ribbons for the expert rifle and pistol qualifications. Those weren't medals, and I'm guessing that you would cease to be entitled to wear the ribbon as soon as you failed to pass the annual shooting test to that level, so no-one would keep wearing them after leaving the service. But they did have ribbons, at least at some point.

EDIT: I found an old discussion of this on the OCMB board. Somebody apparently identified some good guesses for some of the ribbons in these pictures, but the bottom row of three still seemed to be totally obscure. The lack of color in the photos doesn't help. One other suggestion there, though, was that these photos might have been staged after the war, as recreations of 'how I looked then', with fantasy decorations assembled from who knows where. The photos do look like a young L. Ron Hubbard, so they can't have been too long after. But if Hubbard was actually out of the Navy at that point, he might well have felt freer to re-imagine his medal rack.

AFAIK, the US military does not award ribbons for marksmanship. Those are little metal badges pinned below the last row of fruit salad. Same for the CIB, the pin you get for having been in combat as a ground pounder.
 

DeeAnna

Patron Meritorious
Eclipse Girl: Here is a link to a chart of Navy ribbons in order of preference. Meaning when having them mounted on bars, this is the preferred order for each ribbon from top to bottom. If the idiot Hubbard mounted his stolen valor ribbons in the proper order, this chart may help with identification.

http://www.precisionmedals.com/navy-ribbon-chart

-------------

Letter I sent to the Military Times "Stolen Valor" website:

Please have a look at this link which shows the faked DD-214 of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology.

http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/31765/l-ron-hubbards-life.pdf

This scam artist, dead since 1986, claimed a Purple Heart and various other awards to which he was NOT entitled when he served with the U.S. Navy during World War II. It sure looks like his signature at the bottom of the faked DD-214. His followers to this day claim that he was a “War Hero”.

I am the widow of a U.S.M.C. Vietnam combat vet who earned his medals the hard way. Needless to say, this kind of thing makes me sick.

So, even though he is long dead, I ask that you please correct history by adding L. Ron Hubbard to your roster of despicable stealers of valor.
--------------------

Here is the Military Times "Stolen Valor" website:
http://projects.militarytimes.com/hallofstolenvalor/

 
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Lohan2008

Gold Meritorious Patron
What medals was LRH entitled to ?

Found it: the Navy observed that Hubbard's service record showed that he had only been awarded four decorations - the American Defense Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and World War 2 Victory Medal.
 
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randomx

Patron with Honors
Local researcher seeks funds to help find submarine sunk off the coast of Oregon

.....On May 19, 1943 the Astoria-based subchaser crew got a call from USS PC-815. The ship had made contact with at least one enemy submarine. USS PC-815 was a newly commissioned ship, built in Portland, which was under the command of L. Ron Hubbard—the same L. Ron Hubbard who later founded the Church of Scientology.....

http://www.alamogordonews.com/alamo...urce=rss/RK=0/RS=lsDSRyiZ1C9kd7GQzcLITgwijvM-
 
I know a guy who was in the Red Army.

He was in the Battle of Moscow.

And he was in the Battle of Kursk.

He was decorated and promoted for his actions at Kursk by Konev personally.

He was seriously wounded around Donetsk on the drive to Kiev.

That ended the war for him with a mental plate in his head.

Can you imagine anyone who would steal that kind of valor?

The Anabaptist Jacques
 

looker

Patron Meritorious
Netflix has a video called “Off Limits collection”. Episode #2, Season 1, 20 minutes into the video, shows the now run down Oak Knoll Naval hospital officers club in the Oakland hills of California where in 1944-45 L. Ron Hubbard was hospitalized, and developed ideas about Dianetics through visiting with other patients.

Interesting and erie there are 2 bars and large rooms where officers could socialize. Apparently Hubbard was being treated for an ulcer and depression.
 
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