In May of 1942, a young L. Ron Hubbard commanded the USS PC-815 submarine chaser patrolling the
Northern Oregon waters when suddenly the sonar gear detected a bizarre return echo.
Japanese submarines had triggered alarms three months prior on the coast of California,
and the US Navy was already on high alert. For over 68 hours, PC-815, several other vessels,
and air support vehicles engaged in a desperate hunt for intruders.
Officer Hubbard would go on to drop dozens of depth charges and then dramatically claim
that his crew sank an enemy submarine and damaged another one.
The heroic story may have inspired an entire religion. Hubbard’s tale would become a creed
of an irrefutable doctrine of heroism and honor within his Church of Scientology.
There was just one problem, however.
The vanquished Japanese submarines may have never existed at all…
First Contact
It was 3:40am on May 19, 1942,
when, about ten miles off Cape Lookout in Northern Oregon, USS PC-815 detected a
return echo on its sonar gear. In command of the ship was 31-year-old Lafayette Ronald Hubbard.
In a secret Action Report that the officer submitted to the Commander in Chief of the
Pacific Fleet, he eloquently told how his ship was proceeding southward when they spotted a potential
target amidst the calm waters and looked for smoke signals which never came. He then concluded
it must have been a friendly submarine, adding: (QUOTE) “No one, including the Commanding Officer,
could readily credit the existence of an enemy submarine here on the steamer
track and all soundmen, now on the bridge, were attempting to argue
the echo-ranging equipment and chemical recorder out of such a fantastic idea…”
The Commander Northwest Sea Frontier later reprimanded Hubbard for his use of
non-military jargon. Moreover, the text felt more like an extract from one of his novels.
About an hour later, a target was spotted on the surface, and Hubbard gave the order to open fire.
While his crew responded with alleged astonishing accuracy,
the target was nothing more than a floating log.
Regardless, the skipper believed it was good for the crew’s morale to ensure that the guns worked.
PC-815 kept launching attacks at the elusive submarine,
but it just wouldn’t come to the surface. Not long after, the ship’s supply depth
charges were exhausted, and urgent signals requesting more ammunition were sent out.
Shortly past 9:00am, two US Navy blimps, K-39 and K-33,
arrived to help with the search. As the hours passed, Hubbard estimated that the submarine
must have been somehow disabled, as he was surprised she hadn’t attacked his own ship.
By the afternoon, the USS SC-536 submarine chaser
arrived to provide support but never made contact with the enemy.
Both ships engaged in an attack run with encouraging results,
and it is claimed that the observation blimps and some of the ships’ crew members
reported sighting air bubbles and oil, even a periscope.
In addition, the soundman supposedly reported detecting the sound of blowing tanks.
All gunners were now in position, waiting for the enemy submarine to emerge and,
as Hubbard put it: (QUOTE) “Joking about who would get in the first shot.”
Doing The Job
The tale goes that the startled sailors soon discovered that
there was not just one enemy submarine, but two.
The second one appeared 420 yards away, traveling at four knots. Thus, a Coast Guard arrived at
4:45pm with more supplies, including 27 depth charges. The Bonham, a second Coast Guard Patrol,
eventually joined the search, followed by the USS SC-537 submarine chaser.
By that point, five ships were now scanning the waters for the submarines, along with two blimps.
However, not all the ships shared Hubbard’s determination to find the enemy. The officer
bitterly complained in his report that: (QUOTE) “Neither the SC537 nor the USSCG Bonham showed
any understanding [sic] whatever and refused by their actions to cooperate. [...] The SC537 left
the scene with her racks full of charges although the SC536 and the PC815 had exhausted all theirs.”
Still, the improvised fleet continued the search all through the night and well into the morning.
But although the attacks persisted, no evidence of a damaged or destroyed submarine was found.
A report about a submarine coming to the surface then prompted the vessels to head north,
but they turned around when they realized it was merely a fishing boat.
At 7:00am on May 21, PC-815 allegedly found the enemy submarine in the area of the first attacks.
Hubbard reported spotting oil emerging to the surface, while the soundman reported hearing
tanks being blown. The skipper also testified that every man on the bridge had seen the periscope
rising amidst the oil boil, asserting in his report that the instrument was unmistakable.
Immediately, the gunners opened fire on the target, which vanished in an explosion.
After the last attack run, PC-815 and SC-536 exhausted their ammunition,
as they had dropped about a hundred depth charges between the two. Interestingly,
the sonar contact remained unaffected and static on the sea bottom even with the heavy attacks.
After 68 hours of action, PC-815 was ordered to return to the Astoria naval station,
facing significant skepticism. The skipper later complained
that his ship’s records were not examined, nor was his crew questioned.
Moreover, Hubbard grumbled that no qualified report was written about the events.
There were three minor casualties during the time
that Hubbard’s crew maintained contact with the enemy submarine.
Furthermore, his executive officer, Thomas Multon, was nearly shot when a gun accidentally
fired off an entire magazine with no one at the trigger, but this incident was never reported.
Still, Hubbard considered the mission a resounding success, stating that: (QUOTE)
“It is specifically claimed that one submarine, presumably Japanese,
possibly a mine-layer, was damaged beyond ability to leave the scene and that one submarine,
presumably Japanese, possibly a mine layer, was damaged beyond ability to return to its base…
This vessel wishes no credit for itself. It was built to hunt submarines. Its people were
trained to hunt submarines. Although exceeding its orders in originally attacking the first contact,
this vessel feels only that it has done the
job for which it was intended and stands ready to do that job again.”
Hubbard
In his book ‘Ron, the War Hero,’ Chris Owen dived deep into the Church’s and Hubbard's
claims of his alleged heroics, narrating in detail every step of Hubbard’s service.
He also disputed the assertion that Hubbard served with the National Guard and the Marine Corps,
and was even responsible for the creation of the US Army Air Force before enlisting in the Navy.
Hubbard claimed that he wrote such compelling publications on navigation that the Navy was eager
to enlist him. And several sources allege that Hubbard started his service in the Philippines,
Australia, or the Dutch East Indies.
The former officer maintained to have once floated adrift through
the Timor Sea in a rubber raft to the Australian coast before being rescued,
surviving thanks to the skills he had learned with the Boy Scouts.
He also asserted that while escaping the Japanese in Java, he was either injured in the back from
machine-gun fire, broke an ankle, or wounded in the thigh. In any case, he was supposedly flown
home in the Secretary of the Navy’s private plane, the first US casualty returned from the Far East.
Hubbard also insisted that after recuperating from his injuries, he commanded the USS Mist submarine
chaser -manned by hardened criminals- and turned them into the: (QUOTE) “Finest crew in the fleet.”
The former officer also claimed to have served as an instructor in San Pedro, California,
where he trained 15,000 naval personnel.
By the end of his career in either 1944 or 1945,
he was supposedly a revered officer sprinkled with medals. Besides, he was said to have
also endured flash burn injuries to his eyes and even been pronounced dead twice.
He then declared to have used his own revolutionary mental therapies to heal
and miraculously recover, only to be reclassified for full combat duty.
Furthermore, he allegedly healed 11 patients from severe war-related conditions.
Ultimately, the Church promoted the idea that Hubbard had served
in all five theaters of World War 2, receiving either 21, 27, or 29 awards.
Investigation
Hubbard’s claims about the Oregon incident were seriously considered,
given that only three months prior, an enemy submarine had reached the vicinity
of Santa Barbara, California, and assaulted an oil refinery.
Vice Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, Commander of the Northwest Sea Frontier, investigated the matter,
and taking into account the 100-page report Hubbard submitted, in addition to all other
reports from the other ships, he concluded there was never a submarine in the area.
The implication was obvious. As Fletcher pointed out, there was a well-known magnetic
deposit somewhere in the area, a site where depth charges were usually dropped.
PC-815 had chased and engaged a magnetic deposit for two entire days.
The future founder of the Church of Scientology never accepted this conclusion.
Moreover, his reputed military service became dogma for all his followers.
Ultimately, several Navy documents describe Hubbard as not being temperamentally fitted
for independent command and to be lacking in judgement, leadership, and cooperation qualities.
A Superior Court judge presiding over a Church of Scientology lawsuit in 1984
even expressed that Hubbard was basically a pathological liar.
During one of his lectures, Hubbard alleged that a submarine was causing trouble to fishermen on the
coast of Oregon, adding that: (QUOTE) “The moment I heard about this I felt contrite.
I like fishermen; they’re friends of mine. And the next thing you know I was asking for the
address of the fishermen’s association up there to write them a letter of apology.”
To this day, no Japanese submarine wrecks have been reported on the US West Coast.
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