Richard Nott Antrim was born on 17 December 1907 in Peru, Indiana. Following a year of enlisted Naval Reserve service, he entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1927. Graduated in June 1931 and receiving a commission in the rank of Ensign, he briefly served in the Eleventh Naval District offices at San Diego, California, then reported for sea duty in the battleship New York. In April 1932, he began instruction at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, after which he returned to sea in the oiler Salinas, ammunition ship Nitro, and light cruiser Trenton. Antrim then helped to fit out and subsequently served on board the heavy cruiser Portland. In June 1934, while assigned to the latter ship, he was promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade. Following a brief tour on board the destroyer Crowninshield, in July 1936 he was assigned to Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey for training and duty with lighter-than-air-aircraft (dirigibles and balloons). In May 1938, he became Executive Officer of the minesweeper Bittern. Antrim was promoted to Lieutenant in July 1939 and in December transferred to the destroyer Pope as her the Executive Officer. While serving in that Asiatic Fleet ship in September 1940, he received his designation as a Naval Aviator (LTA).
During the first months of World War II, Pope participated in the desperate struggle to defend the Philippines and Netherlands East Indies. On 1 March 1942, following the Battle of the Java Sea, she attempted to escort the damaged British heavy cruiser Exeter out of the combat zone, but was sunk by aircraft bombs when the little force was intercepted by the enemy.
One hundred and fifty anxious faces looked back at the USS Pope, slowly sinking into a watery grave. The ship "that was old enough to vote", an old four-stack destroyer, had served well during its short combat career. The Battle of the Java Sea was its third major engagement. It was only three months after Pearl Harbor and the Japanese ruled the seas. A massive force of enemy cruisers and destroyers sought to encircle Java, a small island of the Malay Archipelago. As darkness fell on the eve of February 28, 1942 three ships slipped out of Surabaya in a desperate attempt to escape the snare the enemy was creating. Two of the ships were British, the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter and the destroyer HMS Encounter. The third was the USS Pope. Through the night they had quietly tried to elude the enemy, but with daylight they were spotted by enemy aircraft and quickly engaged by nearby enemy cruisers and destroyers. All three ships fought valiantly, but in vain. The Exeter and Encounter quickly sank and the badly damaged Pope was spared the same fate only by being hidden in a passing rain squall. The reprieve was only temporary. Damaged by enemy shells and bombs from Japanese carrier-launched aircraft, the Pope had slowly begun to sink.
As the sun set across the ocean, it would have been a night for panic and terror, were it not for the courage of the Pope's Executive Officer, Lieutenant Richard Nott Antrim. As the ship had begun its slow descent to the ocean floor, he had organized life rafts and a single whaleboat to bear the 151 man crew to safety. Despite wounds from the earlier engagement, he struggled through the pain to lead and encourage his men. With great foresight he had attempted to insure provisions for an ordeal at sea, then distributed the meager rations among the men. All but one of the Pope's crew survived the sinking, a tribute to Antrim's cool, effective leadership. But for them all, the greatest ordeal lay ahead.
For three days the sailors remained together in a tight group, enduring the heat of the tropical sun, a merciless ocean, and a shortage of food and water. Richard Antrim's calm voice, effective leadership, and valiant example held them together. Then, on March 5th they were plucked from the sea....by a Japanese war ship. They became prisoners of war, taken to Makassar in the Celebes, one of the larger islands that was firmly under the control of the Japanese army. It was there that not only allegiances, but customs, collided.
"BUSHIDO" is a Japanese word meaning "the way of the warrior". It was an ancient code with roots in feudal Japan, a code that demanded endurance, courage, and other warrior-like traits. It also demanded that any warrior who forfeited his honor in any way, should take his own life rather than live in dis-honor. To the Japanese soldiers of World War II, a prisoner was a warrior who had forfeited his honor and should have taken his own life. For this reason their hatred of Americans as enemies at war, turned to absolute disdain towards prisoners of war. Bushido justified, for the Japanese captor, sub-human treatment of prisoners, men the Japanese considered to be cowards and unworthy of respect. Torture was common, arbitrary, and deadly. This was the fate that awaited the crew of the Pope when they joined more than 2,500 other prisoners at the POW camp at Makassar.
For weeks the prisoners had lived in fear, watched fellow prisoners broken and abused by sadistic guards who viewed their lives as something lower than the most basic animal life forms. Cries of pain and anguish filled the long nights, and the sights of death were quickly seen with the dawn of each heart-rending day. Hope quickly vanished as prisoners did their best to avoid eye-contact with the enemy and struggled to obey each order to the ultimate degree. They had seen time and again how quickly, how cruelly, and how deadly, the slightest infraction could be.
Time lost meaning, all that the prisoners could do was hope to survive each night, then pray for the end of each day. Tension mounted on both sides, and the situation was extremely volatile. It could erupt into mass murder at any moment, for the slightest, or even for no, reason at all. It was in this climate that the 2,700 prisoners watched in pained agony as one lieutenant failed to bow too low to a Japanese guard one horrible day in April. As was expected, and all too common, the reaction was swift and violent.
The Japanese guard flew into a rage, venting all of his anger in a swift series of abusing blows from his swagger stick. It was an insane, violent flurry of blows that broke the skin and crushed the body of the lieutenant. Those Japanese guards who witnessed it felt no compassion, content to believe the battered lieutenant was receiving all he deserved and perhaps not enough. The frightened prisoners could not but look on helplessly, knowing that the slightest movement might draw attention to them and result in a similar or worse fate. But Lieutenant Richard Nott Antrim had had enough. His heart breaking for the lieutenant he stepped forward, calling attention to himself to plead for mercy. It was an act that could have been perceived as insane as the wrath the guard vented on his victim, a hopeless gesture that could only result in two deaths instead of one. But it was an act the Naval lieutenant believed had to be done, regardless of the cost.
With the broken body of the lieutenant laying at their feet the lieutenant faced the enraged guard to plead the case of his brother. Struggling with broken English and gestures, he tried to convince the guard that enough had been done, that the lieutenant had meant no insult. His sincere effort drew the attention of the entire force of enemy guards. Fellow prisoners looked on in amazement and fear, certain bad was about to turn worse. It also attracted the attention of the Japanese commander. Antrim continued to appeal the lieutenant's case, begging for mercy. In the center of the prison compound with trigger happy guards on one side and the abused and demoralized prison population on the other, a "kangaroo court" was held. There would be no mercy. Antrim was ordered to step back while the nearly unconscious lieutenant received his "just sentence".... fifty lashes with a thick, raw hawser.
The helpless lieutenant was already near death from his earlier beating as the first lash of the hawser landed across his body, only to be followed by another, and another, and another. Large welts broke open to spill his blood on the ground and, like a swarm of hungry sharks, the frenzy of the guard administering the punishment created a bloodlust. Fifteen lashes had left the man unconscious, unable to move or flinch from the repeated beating. Three more guards rushed into the scene, brutally kicking at the prostrate form. Further lashes would fall upon a body that could feel no more pain unless something happened. It did! "Enough!" Spoke the voice of Lieutenant Richard Nott Antrim as a stunned silence fell over the camp at his unprecedented action. "I'll take the rest!" Lieutenant Antrim said. Prisoners could only stare in incredulity. The Japanese were stunned. They had never expected to see such an act of unselfish, personal sacrifice by any of the prisoners they despised as sub-human. So stunning was the proclamation, no one on either side of the camp could believe what their ears had heard. Lieutenant Antrim had to repeat his offer.
"If there is to be 50 lashes, I will take the rest of them for him."
This time his stunning pronouncement sunk in. From the ranks of the battered, broken prisoners there erupted a roar of acclaim. Among the Japanese guards there was nothing but silence, amazement, and a slow dawning of what had just occurred before their eyes. It was a defining moment, one of those rare experiences that is so magnificent and powerful, none can deny it. The punishment ended, and a young Naval officer's broken body gently restored, because Richard Nott Antrim cared enough to show the highest degree of brotherhood....unconditional love.
In the years that followed, torture and abuse continued. But the actions of Lieutenant Antrim that day in April gave the Japanese guards a new appreciation for their prisoners and the torture and beatings lessened for a time. For the hopeless men who struggled to find reason to continue, to survive in the living hell to which they had been cast, there was a new inspiration
While a Prisoner of War, he continued his leadership role and devised a clever method of communicating the identity of the prison camp to Allied forces. He was temporarily promoted to Commander in November 1942, which rank was made permanent in 1949. Following liberation in September 1945, Antrim returned to the United States and attended the Repatriated Prisoner of War Refresher Course. He then received training at Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey, the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, and the Fleet Sonar School, San Diego, California. He was commanding officer of the destroyer Turner in 1947 and 1948, followed by a Lighter Than Air Planning and Programs assignment at the Office of Chief of Naval Operations in Washington, D.C. While in this post, he was promoted in July 1950 to Captain. Remaining in the National Capital during the early 1950s, Antrim served with the Policy Advisory Staff at the Department of State and on the Psychological Strategy Board. Beginning in August 1952, he commanded the attack transport Montrose. Returning to Washington D.C. in June 1953, Captain Antrim became the Head of the Naval Amphibious Warfare Matters Section in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. Due to health problems, he retired in June 1954 and was promoted at that time to the rank of Rear Admiral on the retired list. Richard N. Antrim died on 8 March 1969 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia.
USS Antrim (FFG-20), 1981-1998, was named in honor of Rear Admiral Richard N. Antrim.
Medals and Ribbons
Medal of Honor, Navy Cross, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Prisoner of War Medal, American Defense Service Medal, Asiatic/Pacific Campaign Medal, Asiatic/Pacific Campaign Medal, Asiatic/Pacific Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Korea Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal (Korea), and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal
Bronze Star with Combat "V" Citation
The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Bronze Star Medal with Combat "V" to Commander [then Lieutenant] Richard Nott Antrim (NSN: 0-70111), United States Navy, for heroic service while a Japanese Prisoner-of-War. Commander Antrim was forced to take charge of a labor party and assigned the task of constructing slit trenches for bomb protection. Through self-effacing courage and sheer audacity of purpose, he caused to be constructed under the very eyes and alert surveillance of Japanese guards, a huge sign "U.S." This was done by rearranging the construction work of the slit trenches from the Japanese approved plan to one of his own devising, after causing the Japanese to concur in the changes suggested. The sign, if recognized by the Japanese, would have resulted in Antrim's immediate beheading, but Antrim's well-thought plan would result in Allied photographs indicating the occupants of the trenches and thus save hundreds of prisoners' lives.
Navy Cross Citation
The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Commander [then Lieutenant] Richard Nott Antrim (NSN: 0-70111), United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism and distinguished service in the line of this profession as Executive Officer of the Destroyer U.S.S. POPE (DD-225), in combat with the enemy in the Java Sea on 1 March 1942, when his ship engaged an overwhelming number of Japanese surface and aircraft. An experienced destroyer officer, tried in two previous battles, Commander Antrim for a period of over five hours, under intense hostile fire and bombings, coolly, calmly, efficiently, with contempt for danger and with remarkable judgment carried out his vital battle tasks of navigation, fire direction, and damage control with a preciseness that left nothing to be desired, and in such a manner as to be highly instrumental in causing the enemy extensive damage. He was exact and sound in his advising his Commanding Officer regarding maneuvering, target selection, and the use of smoke. Finally, with his ship sinking as a result of enemy bombing, although bruised and shaken and painfully injured by an explosion within the ship, he continued with extraordinary heroism and perseverance in his immediate task of supervising the abandoning of the ship. Courageously exposing himself to low-flying enemy bombers, he directed the men over the side in such a manner that group targets would not be offered the enemy from the air, at the same time supervising the removal of the wounded from the ship and the launching of the one available boat. Later events indicated the soundness of his judgment and showed him to be a prime factor in the ultimate survival of not only the wounded men in the boat but also the entire ship's compliment still alive after the actual sinking. No deaths resulted from repeated enemy strafing attacks on the crew in the water. The boat, directed by Commander Antrim, after his being picked from the water, rounded up three life rafts and one hundred and fifty-one survivors into a controllable group, and for a period of almost three days until their capture by a Japanese destroyer, this boat served to supply personnel in the sea with the necessary minimum life-sustaining requirements of water, food, and rest. There was no loss of life in the water. Commander Antrim's performance of duty in battle contributed immeasurably to the damage inflicted on the Japanese force and to his sound judgment are owed the lives of many who might otherwise have perished. His meritorious performance of duty and heroic conduct were at all times in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
Medal Of Honor Citation
Rank and organization: Commander, U.S. Navy. Place and date: Makassar, Celebes, Netherlands East Indies, April 1942. Entered service at: Indiana. Born: 17 December 1907, Peru, Ind. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while interned as a prisoner of war of the enemy Japanese in the city of Makassar, Celebes, Netherlands East Indies, in April 1942. Acting instantly on behalf of a naval officer who was subjected to a vicious clubbing by a frenzied Japanese guard venting his insane wrath upon the helpless prisoner, Comdr. (then Lt.) Antrim boldly intervened, attempting to quiet the guard and finally persuading him to discuss the charges against the officer. With the entire Japanese force assembled and making extraordinary preparations for the threatened beating, and with the tension heightened by 2,700 Allied prisoners rapidly closing in, Comdr. Antrim courageously appealed to the fanatic enemy, risking his own life in a desperate effort to mitigate the punishment. When the other had been beaten unconscious by 15 blows of a hawser and was repeatedly kicked by 3 soldiers to a point beyond which he could not survive, Comdr. Antrim gallantly stepped forward and indicated to the perplexed guards that he would take the remainder of the punishment, throwing the Japanese completely off balance in their amazement and eliciting a roar of acclaim from the suddenly inspired Allied prisoners. By his fearless leadership and valiant concern for the welfare of another, he not only saved the life of a fellow officer and stunned the Japanese into sparing his own life but also brought about a new respect for American officers and men and a great improvement in camp living conditions. His heroic conduct throughout reflects the highest credit upon Comdr. Antrim and the U.S. Naval Service.
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