Longtime Bunker reader PickAnotherID revealed to us recently that he's actually a 20-year military veteran with an expertise in military records and decorations. He told us that he's been frustrated at L. Ron Hubbard's "stolen valor" that was promoted by the Church of Scientology, and he says that some of the critics of Hubbard's military record have also failed to give an accurate telling of just what he was entitled to. We think you'll be impressed by his thorough examination of Hubbard's war documents as he attempts to set the record straight, finally.
For his
2011 New Yorker story about
Paul Haggis, "The
Apostate,"
Lawrence Wright requested clarification from Scientology regarding claims made by L. Ron Hubbard regarding his military service that were not supported by his actual Naval records. In response, church spokesman
Tommy Davis sent Wright documentation and pictures of Hubbard's awards that were supposed to support those claims.
Davis later sent me a copy of what he said was a document that confirmed Hubbard's heroism: a "Notice of Separation from the U.S. Naval Service," dated December 6,
1945. The document specifies medals won by Hubbard, including a
Purple Heart with a Palm, implying that he was wounded in action twice. But John E. Bircher, the spokesman for the Military Order of the Purple Heart, wrote to me that the Navy uses gold and silver stars, "N
OT a palm," to indicate multiple wounds. Davis included a photograph of medals that Hubbard supposedly won. Two of the medals in the photograph weren't even created until after Hubbard left active service.