Thank you for your inquiry. For what it’s worth, there was an L. Ron Hubbard [Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986] who was a science fiction author and more notably famous, or infamous, as the founder of the controversial Church of Scientology. Hubbard was an officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II, where he briefly commanded two ships but was removed from command both times. The last few months of his active service were spent in a hospital, being treated for a variety of complaints. His career as a naval officer seems to have been marked primarily by ineptitude. He was commissioned as a lieutenant (junior grade) in the U.S. Navy Reserve on July 19, 1941. He was discharged from the Navy on December 5, 1945, possibly as a full lieutenant.
His naval career is recounted in some detail at https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/miller/bfm06.htm (with brief entries at the end of https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/miller/bfm05.htm and the beginning of https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/miller/bfm07.htm). From what I can see, the period July-November 1943 is not described in as much detail as other periods. According to the source, Hubbard was relieved of his command of a small vessel, PC-815, a submarine-chaser, on July 7, 1943, after just 80 days in that role. Thereafter “[Hubbard] was posted to temporary duty in the Issuing Office at Headquarters, Eleventh Naval District in San Diego, where he almost immediately reported sick with a variety of ailments ... He was admitted to the local naval hospital for observation and remained there as an in-patient for nearly three months.”
Then “… in October 1943 [Hubbard] was sent on a six-week course at the Naval Small Craft Training Center on Terminal Island, San Pedro, California.” Subsequently he was given a sea-going assignment as navigation officer of an amphibious attack cargo ship then under construction in Portland, Oregon.
It appears that Hubbard was assigned to naval facilities in California from July into or through November 1943. There is no mention of an assignment at any point in his career to Lido Beach, Long Island, New York.
The reference you make to the “Sea Guard” should probably be the U.S. Navy Armed Guard. The Navy Armed Guard placed detachments of U.S. Navy sailors, primarily as gunners, aboard civilian merchant ships during World War II. Lido Beach was the site of a Naval Training Center, specifically for anti-aircraft gunnery. The Navy Armed Guard used that site for advanced gunnery training for its personnel. I don’t know what rank the commanding officer of the “[Armed] Guard operation” at Lido Beach would have had but it likely would not have been a Lt(j.g.) or even a full lieutenant, particularly one who did not have prior service in the Armed Guard or experience in gunnery, neither of which was true of L. Ron Hubbard as noted in the source above.
Whether there was another World War II naval officer with the exact same name of L. Ron Hubbard I do not know although, I would guess, that is unlikely. The information above of the quite famous person of that name seems more than coincidental.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster
Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website
www.armed-guard.com
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