Search the Site with

General Characteristics

Crew List

Memorabilia

About the Ship's Coat of Arms

Accidents aboard the Ship

About the Ship's Name

History

Image Gallery

to end of page

USS Antrim (FFG 20)

USS ANTRIM was one of the OLIVER HAZARD PERRY class guided missile frigates and was homeported in Mayport, Fla. After decommissioning the ship was given to the Turkish Navy on August 27, 1997, and was recommissiond as TCG GIRESUN (F 491).

back to top

go to the end of the page

back to top

go to the end of the page

Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS ANTRIM. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

• Click here to view the list.

back to top

go to the end of the page

• Click here to see which USS ANTRIM memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

back to top

go to the end of the page

About the Ship's Coat of Arms:

The Crest:

The wreath is for outstanding gallantry and achievement in which the palm denotes victory, and the laurel, honor. The torch symbolizing leadership and bravery is contained behind the portullis representing the period of imprisonment as a prisoner of war.

The Shield:

On the shield, the dark blue and gold are traditionally associated with the Navy and represent the sea and excellence. The light blue and downward pointing star refer to the Medal of Honor awarded to Real Admiral Antrim for heroic actions while in a Japanese POW camp at Makassar, Celebes and Java.

The anchor symbolizes his naval career and represents his dedication to service. The crosslets are a personal device from the Antrim family crest. The cross throughout the shield is an allusion to the Navy Cross awarded Admiral Antrim for action in the battle of Java Sea in the Dutch East Indies. Beneath the shield is the ship's motto "In Defense of Freedom", which provides a reference to both Admiral Antrim's life of dedication and the mission of the ship which bears his name.

back to top

go to the end of the page

Accidents aboard USS ANTRIM:

back to top

go to the end of the page

About the Ship's Name:

Richard Nott Antrim-born in Peru, Indiana, on 17 December 1907-entered the Naval Academy in 1927 and graduated on 4 June 1931. He served briefly in the 11th Naval District before reporting to NEW YORK (BB 34) as fire control officer. Detached from that battleship in April 1932, he received flight instruction at the Naval Air Station (NAS), Pensacola, Fla., before serving consecutive tours of sea duty in SALINAS (AO 9), NITRO (AE 2), and TRENTON (CL 11).

Subsequently ordered to the Bethlehem Steel Corp., Quincy Mass., Antrim assisted in fitting out PORTLAND (CA 33) and after her commissioning, served as a division officer in that heavy cruiser until the spring of 1936. After that time, he became assistant first lieutenant in CROWNINSHIELD (DD 134) before undergoing instruction in lighter-than-air (LTA) flight at NAS Lakehurst, N.J. Antrim subsequently received his naval aviator (LTA) designation, qualified for duty as an airship, kite, or free-balloon pilot. In the spring of 1938, Antrim arrived on the Asiatic Station and served as executive officer of BITTERN (AM 36) before joining POPE (DD 225) in December 1939, as her executive officer. The outbreak of war in the Pacific in December 1941 found Antrim still serving in that capacity.

During her brief wartime career, POPE played a significant part in two major engagements fouht by the venerable Asiatic Fleet destroyers-the Battle of Makassar Strait and the Battle of Badoeng Strait, as well as in the last act following the Battle of the Java Sea.

In the former, POPE delivered close-range attacks that momentarily helped to delay the Japanese landings at Balikpapan. During the action, Lt. Antrim cooly selected targets for his guns and torpedoes, placing his shots so accurately in the midst of a large Japanese convoy" and thus inflicting damage to several enemy ships. After the Battle of Badoeng Strait, POPE's commanding officer, Comdr. Welford C. Blinn, reported that his executive officer was "highly deserving of commendation for the meritorious performance of his several duties before and throughout the action." Citing Antrim as a "ready assistant in navigation fire control, and torpedo fire," Blinn recommended him not only for a destroyer command but for a "decoration deemed appropriate." Antrim later received a Navy Cross for this service.

The Battle of the Java Sea (27 to 28 February 1942) ended all Allied hope of stemming the Japanese onslaught. In the wake of that action, the smashed Allied fleet attempted to escape the cordon of Japanese warships rapidly tightening the noose around Java. Among the small groups was one composed of the British heavy cruiser HMS EXETER, the destroyer HMS ENCOUNTER, and POPE.

The ships slipped out of Surabaya, Java, on the evening of 28 February, but were spotted the next day by Japanese aircraft. A surface force of cruisers and destroyers located the fleeing trio, and a fierce action ensued, with EXETER and ENCOUNTER after having put up a stiff fight, going down under a deluge of Japanese shells. POPE, however, fought on, managing to make a temporary haven in a passing rain squall.

Unfortunately, the destroyer-one of those Asiatic Fleet flushdeckers "old enouh to vote"-could not elude her pursuers. Ultimately, damaged by Japanese bombs, from aircraft summoned from the carrier RYUJO, and by shells from the Japanese force, POPE began to sink, but not before all but one of her men had reached safety in life rafts and the destroyer's sole motor whaleboat. Antrim, wounded in the action, helped to gather the life rafts around the boat to facilitate the disribution of what meager supplies were available to the men. His devotion to duty during the ordeal inspired and sustained his shipmates' morale.

For three days and nights, POPE's survivors doggedly stuck together as a group until picked up by a Japanese warship and transferred to Japanese Army authorities at Makassar, in the Celebes.

There, Antrim performed an unforgettable act of personal bravery. During the early part of his imprisonment at Makassar in April 1942, he saw a Japanese guard brutally beating a fellow prisoner of war (POW) and boldly intervened, attempting to quiet and reason with the guard, as others, and some 2,000 POW's closed in about the scene.

However, the Japanese ignored Antrim's entreaties and continued beating the prisoner unmercifully. After receiving some 15 blows with a hawser and the kicks of three other guards, the victim was almost insensible. At that instant, Antrim stepped forward. The expressions of the Japanese changed to incredulity as the lieutenant volunteered to take the remainder of the battered man's punishment. This action threw his captors off balance and drew a roar of acclaim from the Allied POW's gathered around. Antrim's stand, while saving the life of the other man also saved his own and won new respect for the American officers and men. Later, his leadership in serving as a spokesman for his fellow POW's earned them an improvement in camp living conditions. For his conspicuous act of valor at Makassar in the spring of 1942, Antrim later received the Medal of Honor.

Subsequently when the Japanese forced Antrim to take charge of a labor detail assigned the task of constructing slit trenches for protection during air raids, he carefully rearranged the construction work plans approved by the Japanese and gained their approval of his own ideas. Under the eyes of their captors, the POW's due the slit trenches all right, but in a curious pattern recognizable from the air as a giant "U.S." which clearly and craftly identified the occupants of the trenches. This audacious action possibly saved hundreds of prisoners of war from mistaken bombings by Allied planes. Antrim carried out the plan in spite of the fact that discovery of his trick would have resulted in instant beheading! For that alteration of construction work Antrim received a Bronze Star.

Ultimately liberated after the war in the Far East ended in August 1945, Antrim returned to the United States and enjoyed rehabilitation leave before attending the Repatriated POW Refresher Course at the Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C. in May 1946. He then brushed up on his pilot training at NAS Lakehurst and later completed a course at the Naval War College. The valiant officer-who had been listed as missing since the sinking of POPE in March 1942-received the Medal of Honor and Bronze Star from President Harry S. Truman in ceremonies at the White House on 30 January 1947.

Later, following a brief stint at the Fleet Sonar School, San Diego, Calif. in June and July 1947, Antrim went to sea in command of the destroyer TURNER (DD 834). He next underwent further instruction at NAS, Lakehurst, before assuming the duties of Assistant for Lighter-than-Air Planning and Programs Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), Washington, D.C. in December 1948.

Following further Washington duty-with the Policy Advisory Staff, Department of State, and the Psychological trategy Board-Antrim commanded the attack transport MONTROSE (APA 212) before returning to the capital for a brief tour of duty as Head, Amphibious Warfare Matters Section, Office of the CNO, prior to his retirement on 1 April 1954. He was advanced to rear admiral on the retired list on the basis of his combat awards.

Rear Admiral Antrim died on 7 March 1969 in Mountain Home, Arkansas. He is survived by his wife Mary Jean Packard Antrim, the ship's sponsor, and their three children.

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS ANTRIM History:

USS ANTRIM was built for the United States Navy as one of the early guided missile frigates of the OLIVER HAZARD PERRY-class. Ordered on February 28, 1977, she was laid down at Todd Pacific Shipyards in Seattle on June 21, 1978, launched on March 27, 1979, and commissioned on September 26, 1981. Named for Richard Nott Antrim, she began her active career with the standard sequence of shakedown and post-shakedown corrections that shaped many early PERRY-class ships as the US Navy refined tactics, maintenance routines, and combat system integration for the new class.

On October 1, 1981, USS ANTRIM departed Seattle for her long transit to her east coast homeport at Naval Station Mayport, stopping at Mazatlan and Manzanillo before reaching the Canal Zone on October 25, 1981. She transited the Panama Canal on October 27, 1981, and arrived at Mayport on November 2, 1981. After local independent ship exercises, she sailed on November 20, 1981 for Guantanamo Bay to conduct shakedown training in the West Indies through December 12, 1981, followed by a port visit to Fort Lauderdale and sound gear calibration in the Bahamas before returning to Mayport on December 20, 1981, for holiday standdown.

Beginning on January 11, 1982, USS ANTRIM conducted combat system qualifications and trials, then maintained a normal cycle of local and Caribbean operations until she departed Mayport on April 26, 1982, for Bath, Maine, and a post-shakedown availability at Bath Iron Works. En route she stopped at Yorktown, Va., to offload ordnance and made a port visit to Portsmouth. She arrived at Bath on May 7, 1982, and remained in the yard for a repair period lasting 16 weeks, departing on August 27, 1982, and returning to Mayport on September 11, 1982. After nearly a month in port, she sailed again on October 8, 1982, for post-repair refresher training off Guantanamo Bay, completed that period in early November, made a brief call at Key West, and then carried out advanced antisubmarine drills in the Bahamas before reentering Mayport on November 12, 1982, and remaining there through year's end.

In early 1983, USS ANTRIM's routine training was punctuated by two notable incidents. On February 10, 1983, during a test of the Phalanx close-in weapon system, a BQM-74 aerial target drone struck the ship, causing a fire. A civilian instructor later died from burns sustained in the incident, an event that became a frequently cited driver for later range-safety restrictions on such testing profiles. On March 16, 1983, USS ANTRIM collided with USS FLATLEY (FFG 21) during training exercises roughly 160 miles north of Puerto Rico. Both ships reportedly suffered only superficial damage. Despite that interruption, USS ANTRIM deployed on March 22, 1983, executing a sequence typical of Cold War-era Atlantic and Mediterranean tasking: she participated in a North Atlantic Treaty Organization exercise in the eastern Atlantic, then visited Lisbon on April 12, 1983, and from April 30, 1983, operated with a battle group under Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. Reflecting the era's emphasis on rapid cross-theater flexibility, she transited the Suez Canal on June 5, 1983, to shift to the Indian Ocean and onward to the Persian Gulf, visiting Bahrain on July 11 and July 14, 1983, and conducting training events with ships from Egypt, Pakistan, Greece, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Returning to the Mediterranean, she made port calls at Piraeus on August 6, 1983, Izmir on August 10, 1983, and Istanbul on August 14, 1983 - an itinerary that underscored the continuing strategic sensitivity of the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea approaches during the late Cold War. USS ANTRIM ultimately returned to Mayport on October 22, 1983, after a deployment of roughly 215 days and about 14,000 miles, then resumed a peacetime rhythm of upkeep, training, and readiness with her destroyer squadron.

USS ANTRIM's 1984 operations consisted of local workups and refresher training cycles out of Mayport and in the West Indies, followed by tasking that included plane-guard duties for USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69) from September 12, 1984 to October 19, 1984, after which USS ANTRIM visited Norfolk on October 20, 1984. Her schedule reflected the broader operational posture of the era: sustained forward presence and routine carrier support, coupled with recurring Caribbean training that doubled as a ready reserve of capability for contingency response in the wider Atlantic basin.

In 1985, USS ANTRIM again headed for northern European waters, departing on February 9, 1985, and visiting Liverpool on February 18, 1985, while participating in major allied exercises (including Ocean Safari and Northern Wedding). She continued with port visits to Portsmouth, UK, on March 6, 1985, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, on March 9, 1985, and Copenhagen, Denmark, on March 17, 1985, before returning to Mayport on March 26, 1985. Later that year, she entered an overhaul period at Charleston Naval Shipyard in Charleston. A particularly consequential event occurred on May 2, 1985, when Haitian military forces fired on USS ANTRIM in the vicinity of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. One missile reportedly passed over the ship's bridge and struck the Liberian-flag motor vessel CARIBBEAN BREEZE. USS ANTRIM then proceeded to assist the Panamanian-flag motor vessel NORDIC TRADER, which had been hit by small-arms fire. USS ANTRIM towed that merchant ship to Guantanamo Bay between May 3, 1985 and May 4, 1985, and returned to Mayport on May 5, 1985, later being relieved on scene by USS KLAKRING (FFG 42) and USS REID (FFG 30).

USS ANTRIM's 1986 operational year featured another long overseas deployment that combined northern European, Baltic, Mediterranean, and Black Sea tasking. She departed Mayport on June 2, 1986, with an embarked helicopter detachment, arrived at Portsmouth, UK, on June 12, 1986, and reached Kiel, Germany, on June 21, 1986, for Baltic operations beginning June 22, 1986. Port visits followed in Stockholm, Sweden, on June 27, 1986, Helsinki, Finland, on July 1, 1986, and Leningrad, Soviet Union, on July 4, 1986 - an especially notable Cold War-era visit given the political and naval sensitivities surrounding Western warships in Soviet ports. She then called again at Copenhagen on July 10, 1986, transited the Kiel Canal on July 16, 1986, and shifted back toward the Mediterranean with port calls at Malaga, Spain, on July 23, 1986 and Tarragona, Spain, on July 30, 1986. Later visits included Barcelona, Spain, on August 20, 1986, and La Spezia, Italy, on August 27, 1986. After participating in a two-phase allied exercise (Display Determination 1986), USS ANTRIM visited Naples, Italy, on September 25, 1986, then transited the Dardanelles on October 13, 1986, to enter the Black Sea for Black Sea operations and port visits at Constanta, Romania, on October 18, 1986, and Istanbul, Turkey, on October 23, 1986. The return sequence ran through Piraeus, Greece, on October 25, 1986 and Toulon, France, on November 1, 1986, before USS ANTRIM returned to Mayport on November 19, 1986, and began a three-week holiday standdown.

By July 1, 1987, USS ANTRIM was reassigned to the Naval Reserve Force, Atlantic while remaining homeported at Naval Station Mayport, marking a shift in how the ship was manned and employed while still retaining the ability to put to sea for training, readiness evaluations, and operational tasking as required. Publicly available summaries of her Naval Reserve Force years are comparatively less granular than the earlier deployment narratives, but confirmed snapshots show USS ANTRIM continuing to operate in multi-ship training contexts as the United States Navy maintained Caribbean readiness during the early 1990s - an era shaped by post-Cold War force restructuring alongside recurring regional contingencies, including embargo enforcement operations tied to Haitian political instability.

A documented example appears in the January 1994 issue of All Hands (Number 921), which discussed the operational environment following the reimposition of United Nations sanctions against Haiti on October 18, 1993, and described a high-tempo, multi-ship training evolution in which ships rendezvoused and operated together in the Puerto Rico operating areas. In that account, USS ANTRIM and USS ESTOCIN (FFG 15) rendezvoused with other frigates and proceeded to the Puerto Rico operations area for tactical maneuvering and readiness exercises, with USS FLATLEY and USS YORKTOWN (CG 48) also joining for parts of the evolutions. The same issue listed USS ANTRIM and USS FLATLEY as homeported in Pascagoula, indicating that by January 1994 USS ANTRIM's reserve-era basing had shifted from her earlier long-term association with Mayport. A separate dated photographic caption records USS ANTRIM tied up at a pier at Naval Station Mayport on February 5, 1994, consistent with continued use of Mayport for visits, logistics, or participation in wider Atlantic Fleet activities even after the ship was associated with Pascagoula in published Navy material.

USS ANTRIM's US Navy career concluded with her decommissioning on May 8, 1996, after which she remained in disposition status pending transfer. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on September 4, 1997, and transferred to Turkey on August 27, 1997, for service in the Turkish Naval Forces as TCG GIRESUN (F 491), reflecting the broader post-Cold War pattern in which the United States shifted significant numbers of frigates to allied navies through security assistance and excess defense-articles transfers while reducing its own frigate force structure.

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS ANTRIM Image Gallery:

back to top

Back to Frigates list.

Back to ships list.

Back to selection page.

Back to 1^st page.