 Hubbard and the Church of Scientology presented a number of different accounts of his time in the western Pacific . In 1963 , Hubbard told Australian journalists that he had been " the only anti @-@ aircraft battery in Australia in 1941 – 42 ... There was me and a Thompson submachine gun ... I was a mail officer and I was replaced , I think , by a Captain , a couple of commanders and about 15 junior officers . " Hubbard stated on another occasion that he had been " one of the first officers back from the upper battle areas " and that he had " sent on my own authority , four cargo ships loaded to the gunwales with machine gun ammunition , rifle ammunition and quinine up to MacArthur . " When " Melbourne found out ... there were enough troops in the area so the danger was over , so I went home . I wrote myself some orders and reported back to the US . " According to the Church of Scientology , Hubbard was landed on the island of Java " in the closing days of February 1942 " to search for " stockpiled weapons and fast , shallow @-@ draft vessels . " He was cut off by invading Japanese " and was only able to escape the island after scrambling into a rubber raft and paddling out to meet an Australian destroyer . " Another Church of Scientology account describes Hubbard as " Senior Officer Present Ashore in Brisbane , Australia " and asserts that " his duties included counter @-@ intelligence and the organization of relief for beleaguered American forces on Bataan . It was in this latter capacity that he eventually saw action on the island of Java , and only eluded capture through a daring escape on a raft . In a 1956 lecture to Scientologists , Hubbard said : 
