Military Career of L. Ron Hubbard - Medals

Medals

Hubbard's war medals have also been an issue of contention. Although the Church of Scientology has stated that Hubbard was "highly decorated for duties under fire," the actual number of decorations said to have been awarded to Hubbard has varied considerably over the years. In a 1968 interview with British journalists, Hubbard showed his visitors sixteen war medals that he claimed to have been awarded. A few months later, the Church of Scientology published a "Data Sheet on Lafayette Ron Hubbard" that stated that he had been awarded "Twenty-one medals and palms". In May 1974, the Church asked the Navy Department to supply seventeen medals that he was said to have been awarded, including the Purple Heart and Navy Commendation Medal, many of them with bronze service stars denoting participation in military campaigns or multiple bestowals of the same award. The Navy sent only four medals, noting, "The records in this Bureau fail to establish Mr. Hubbard's entitlement to the other medals and awards listed in your response." Hubbard responded by circulating to Scientologists a photograph of 21 medals and palms that he said he had been awarded and explained that he had actually won 28, but that the missing seven had been awarded to him in secret because the naval high command was embarrassed that he had sunk two Japanese submarines in the United States' "back yard". A 1994 biography published by the Church of Scientology states that he was awarded 29 medals and awards.

In 1990 the Church of Scientology released a document, said to be a copy of Hubbard's official record of service, to support its assertion that Hubbard had been awarded 21 medals and decorations. The Church asserts that Hubbard was awarded a "Unit Citation which is only awarded by the President to combat units that perform particularly meritorious service." Among the other awards listed on the record released by the Church is the British Victory Medal, an award issued for service in the British armed forces in the First World War and that was never awarded by itself. The Church's document also credits Hubbard with a Purple Heart with a Palm, implying two wounds received in action. However, the U.S. Navy uses gold and silver stars, not a palm, to indicate multiple wounds. The Church has distributed a photograph of medals said to have been won by Hubbard; two of the medals were not even created until after Hubbard left active service.

The Church's record lists Hubbard as commanding the "USS Mist". Although the USS YP-422 was originally named the Mist when it was in civilian service, it was never called the USS Mist; the only 20th century US Navy vessel of that name listed in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships left naval service in 1919, when Hubbard was six years old. It also lists the USS Howland, a vessel that is not listed at all in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. It is signed by "Howard D. Thompson, Lt. Cmdr.", who is not listed in the records of commissioned naval officers at that time. Archivist Eric Voelz of the National Personnel Records Center told The New Yorker that the document is a forgery.

The Los Angeles Times commented, and NPR later confirmed, that the US Navy's version of the same record – a DD Form 214 – "indicates Hubbard received four medals during his Navy career, as well as two marksmanship medals" and noted "discrepancies" with the Scientology version. The four medals that the US Navy's record credits to Hubbard were the American Defense Service Medal, which was awarded to all members of the military in service at the time of the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor; the American Campaign Medal, awarded to all service members who had performed duty in the American Theater of Operations during the war; the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, awarded to all who had served in the Pacific Theater; and the World War II Victory Medal, awarded to all who served during World War II. According to the Department of the Navy, there was "no record of the additional decorations the church says Hubbard received."

Church officials have argued the Navy's records were "not only grossly incomplete but perhaps were falsified to conceal Hubbard's secret activities as an intelligence officer." In the 1980s the Church turned to L. Fletcher Prouty, a former U.S. Army colonel, who said that Hubbard's records had been falsified to cover up his "intelligence background". Prouty, who died in 2001, was a prominent conspiracy theorist best known for advocating John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories who was also associated with the anti-semitic Liberty Lobby group and the Lyndon LaRouche organization.