Hubbard, L. Ron Read Free

not it's possible to do business with Hitler, the anti-FINAL BLACKOUTISTS (many of whom, I fear, were Communists, whatever those are) were particularly irked by some of the premises of the tale.
    . Russia was, obviously, a peace-loving nation with no more thought than America of entering the war. England was a fine, going concern without a thought, beyond a contemptuous aside, for the Socialist who, of course, could never come to power. One must understand this to see why he slashed about and wounded people.
    True enough, some of its premises were far off the mark. It supposed, for instance, that the politicians of the great countries, particularly the United States, would push rather than hinder the entrance of the whole world into the war. In fact, it supposed, for its author was very young, that politicians were entirely incompetent and would not prevent for one instant the bloodiest conflict the country had ever known.
    Further, for the author was no military critic, it supposed that the general staffs of most great nations were composed of stupid bunglers who would be looking at their mirrors when they should be looking to their posts and that the general worldwide strategy of war would go off in a manner utterly unadroit to the sacrifice of quite a few lives. It surmised that if general staff; went right on bungling along, nations would cease to exist, and it further-and more to the point-advanced the thought that the junior officer, the noncom and, primarily the enlisted man would have to prosecute the war. These, it believed, would finally be boiled down, by staff stupidity, to a handful of unkillables who would thereafter shift for themselves.
    FINAL BLACKOUT dealt rather summarily and very harshly, for the author was inexperienced in international affairs-that the anarchy of nations was an unhealthy arrangement maintained by the greed of a few for the privileges of a few and that the "common people" (which is to say those uncommon people who wish only to be let go about their affairs of getting enough to eat and begetting their next generation) would be knocked flat, silly and completely out of existence by these brand-new "defensive" weapons which would, of course, be turned only against soldiers. Bombs, atomics, germs and, in short, science, it maintained, were being used unhealthily and that, soon enough, a person here and there who was no party to the front line sortie was liable to get injured or dusty; it also spoke of populations being affected boomerang fashion by weapons devised for their own governments to use.
    Certainly all this was heresy enough in that quiet world of 1939, and since that time, it is only fair to state, the author has served here and there and has gained enough experience to see the error of his judgment.
    Everything, it can be said with Pangloss, so far has been for the best in this best of all possible worlds.
    There have been two or three stories modeled on FINAL BLACKOUT. I am flattered. It is just a story. And as the past few years proved, it cannot possibly happen.
     
    L.RON HUBBARD Hollywood, 1948
     
    The Lieutenant
     
    He was born in an air-raid shelter-and his first wail was drowned by the shriek of bombs, the thunder of falling Walls and the coughing chatter of machine guns raking the sky.
    He was taught in a countryside where A was for Antiaircraft and V was for Victory. He knew that Vickers Wellington bombers had flown non-stop clear to China. But nobody thought to tell him about a man who had sailed a carrack as far in the opposite direction-a chap called Columbus.
    War-shattered officers had taught him the arts of battle on the relief maps of Rugby. Limping sergeants had made him expert with rifle and pistol, light and heavy artillery. And although he could not conjugate a single Latin verb, he was graduated as wholly educated at fourteen and commissioned the same year.
    His father was killed on the Mole at Kiel. His uncle rode a flamer in at Hamburg. His mother, long