# "Captain" L. Ron Hubbard tries to enter
the US Air Corps, Feb 1938

In 1938, L. Ron Hubbard tried to enter the US Air Corps on the back of his (largely mythical) reputation as a daredevil pilot and barnstormer. In fact, he had never even held a licence for powered aircraft. This did not stop him from persuading his friend H. Latane Lewis II, the editor of Sportsman Pilot, to make representations on his behalf. Lewis sent the following letter:

The Brigadier-General was misguided enough not to take up Ron's offer of "delivering his views in person", possibly because he discovered that Ron wasn't a Captain, wasn't a member of the Explorers Club (that came in 1940), wasn't a lecturer, held no records and had never addressed Harvard.

Ron had, it seems, been a little liberal with his claims to Lewis.

Last updated 10 Dec 1996