Richard Rathmell Interview

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John A. Adams ’71 Center for Military History and Strategic Analysis Military Oral History Project Interview with Richard Rathmell by Cadet Brian C. McGettigan, April 8, 2008.
©Adams Center, Virginia Military Institute
About the interviewer: Brian McGettigan is majoring in History and is a member of the Class of 2008. He hopes to pursue a commission in the U. S. Navy or in military intelligence.
McGettigan – The following interview is being conducted for the John A. Adams Class of 1971 Center for Military History and Strategic Analysis as part of the requirements for History 386—U.S. Military History since 1919. The interviewer is Cadet Brian McGettigan. The interviewee is Mr. Richard Rathmell. Today is the 8th of April 2008. We are meeting at Mr. Rathmell’s home.
McGettigan – Mr. Rathmell, would you please give me a biographical sketch of yourself.
Rathmell – A quick sketch Brian. I was born a little over 83 years ago and grew up in the state of Delaware, outside of Wilmington, home of DuPont Company. I was determined to be a chemical engineer. When I was a 17-year-old senior in high school, the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. I went immediately after graduation up to Penn State and finished three years of college in less than two years of time. In early 1944 I went into the Merchant Marine when the European war was not going so well. When the war was over, I came back, finished my college and worked as a chemical engineer in Wilmington and in many other parts of the U.S. I’ve traveled extensively. I retired here about 14 years ago. I have a relatively large family, which includes one son—the oldest—five daughters and lots of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Skiing is my principle vice these days—downhill skiing out in Colorado.
McGettigan – Can you please give me a run-through of your military career?
Rathmell – In the spring of 1944 someone came up from Washington, DC and said “We desperately need engineers to sail ships. We have ships ready to go but no engineers to sail them. If you have three years of college (which I almost did) you can qualify to have the rank of a Third Assistant Licensed Engineer.” The only training we had was that we would sail one trip in the crew and then come back and take the exam. I signed up on a Tuesday and missed a ship that day, because I had to go get a 2
passport, but I was on another ship by Thursday. Soon after we assembled in convoy and went across. We carried a full load of ammunition. We took it over during the D-Day operation. After I came back, I passed my engineering license exam, and made two more ammunition runs across the north Atlantic. Coming back from the third crossing VE-Day occurred, but the war was still on in Japan. I only made one trip after that. That was down to Capetown, South Africa, up the far coast of Africa, back around, and eventually back to USA. When we came into New Orleans on October 26th I signed off and started my senior year at Penn State on November 1st. So I graduated from high school in June 1942, and I graduated from college in June 1946.
I should add that the Merchant Marine was a civilian organization. We were not part of the military. We were told we could sign off anytime we wanted to and join the military any time we wanted to. It suited me. We were treated well. We were fed well, and we had a great degree of freedom but, frankly, they were scraping the bottom of the barrel when they brought me in. We had crews of people from all over the world, and the organization was unionized so we made more pay per day than military did. We didn’t achieve military status until 20 or 25 years ago when Congress recognized that the Merchant Marine was an important part of the military effort. I’ve heard that the Merchant Marine actually had a higher casualty rate than the military services did. A lot of ships were sunk.
McGettigan – What motived you to join during this particular time period?
Rathmell – Well, the war was going so poorly in Europe and it was tough in Japan too, but everyone had a sense that the war effort was necessary. The country desperately needed to win this war. I was studying chemical engineering and my dean was urging us to complete our chemical engineering. He kept saying “We need chemical engineers—technical people—more than we need foot soldiers, so do not join the Navy. Do not join the Army.” We students didn’t know it, but the dean was evidently working on atomic energy (the Manhattan Project) so he had that point of view. The whole sense of needing to win the war right now prevailed and when we were told that they needed engineers on-board ship right now, that was a motivation.
McGettigan – Did Pearl Harbor play any kind of role in your decision to join?
Rathmell – Pearl Harbor, of course, was the thing that threw the entire U.S. into the war effort. Prior to that there was a general public feeling that “We’ve been over to Europe before, and we don’t want 3
to get involved again. Just be nice to everybody and they’ll be nice to us.” When Pearl Harbor occurred, that changed the general attitude in the U.S. and made people realize that wars do happen and they have to be fought. Don’t just roll over and say “We’ll be nice to you and you be nice to us.” There comes a time when you’ve got to fight back.
McGettigan – Did you have any specific or general aspirations or expectations upon joining?
Rathmell – I knew that I would be going to sea and I knew there was hazard about it, but it was just a necessary thing that people had to do. Other than that, it was just go do it.
McGettigan – What was your occupation, and was it what you expected?
Rathmell – I did become an engineering officer. There’s a Chief Engineer and three assistants who serve as watch engineers. I worked down in the engine room. On my first trip I found I was in charge of “all the electrical equipment on-board ship.” All I had was physics to back me up on that. You’re not solving new engineering problems in work like that. You’re just making sure that all the machinery functions the way it is supposed to, so it was not a difficult thing.
McGettigan – You said that you went to sea just two days after joining. How did you feel about that, and since you joined so soon, did you expect anything?
Rathmell – It, perhaps, did go quicker than I had anticipated. I had classes on Saturday, traveled all day Sunday, spent Monday at home with my folks, went to Philadelphia on Tuesday and joined up. I didn’t expect I would be on-board a ship quite so fast, but that was alright. I was put aboard a ship two days after joining, but it took another week or ten days to be loaded with ammunition. Then we sailed to join a convoy.
McGettigan – How did your folks feel about your decision?
Rathmell – They knew that the war was on. My brother had already gone into the service—he was two years older—so it was time for me.
McGettigan – What was life like while at sea and was it what you expected, or different?
Rathmell – Actually, 99% of the time it was so quiet—I say quiet, except the engine room is not quiet. I would be on watch in the engine room from 8:00 a.m. to noon, and then from 8:00 p.m. until midnight. That was my turn down there, seven days a week. I was always trying to find some place that was cool. I would sit under the ventilator, where there was natural air blowing down. Most of the time it 4
was, you might say, boring, because there was nothing going on. Just that steady chug, chug, chug of the engine. Then I would go up, and eat and sleep the rest of the time.
McGettigan – Since it was the Merchant Marine, did your ships have any type of defensive capability or were there escorts such as destroyers that would go along with you on the convoy?
Rathmell – Yes. During my first trip we were in a major convoy of well over 100 ships, and we had some DE’s—destroyer escorts—around us. We had a small Navy gun patrol crew on-board. We had a five-inch cannon aft and a three-inch cannon forward, and maybe six or eight 20mm anti-aircraft guns on the deck. We were able to fight back with Navy personnel, but the Merchant Marine crew was not normally involved in that. We generally returned alone, not in convoy, and without escort.
McGettigan – During your time at sea, what most surprised you and/or caught you off guard?
Rathmell – I don’t know that there was any surprise. I guess I would say that the Merchant Marine crew and officers were entirely different than I had grown up with. It was a cultural shock to me.
McGettigan – You said you made three or four crossings?
Rathmell – I made four total. First I went through the Mediterranean, down through the Suez and Red Sea, into the Persian Gulf and then down the Indian Ocean, around Capetown, over to South America and back home. The second one—and that was my first trip as a licensed officer—was a quick trip into the Mediterranean, also with a full load of ammunition. Third was across the North Atlantic and up into the canals of Belgium and Holland area with ammunition, for the Battle of the Bulge, then back. The final trip took 68 days to reach Cape Town, then on up the east coast of Africa. We were booked to go up to Cairo, but got sent back; back to Capetown and on up to French Equitorial Africa, Ghana, Casablanca, and finally back to New Orleans where I signed off.
McGettigan – So you got to see a pretty good bit of the world?
Rathmell – Yes. A lot more shore time in Africa than any place else, although I got some shore time in England, Wales, Belgium, and France.
McGettigan – During your four crossings, was there ever a fear—I know this was 1944—of being hit by a U-boat aboard-ship while crossing?
Rathmell – Definitely. There were U-boats around, although it was a lot safer when I was doing it than it had been in early 1943. They did feel that there was a submarine under one convoy. They were 5
dropping depth charges right into the middle of the convoy. That would shake us up. We knew that there was action.
McGettigan – Especially in the engine room, I guess, you could probably feel it.
Rathmell – Yes. I remember once it shook us so badly that it snapped the light bulbs in their sockets.
McGettigan – Are there any experiences while at sea that particularly stick out in your mind that you would like to share?
Rathmell – I guess the experiences were primarily due to some of the dumb things that our Chief Engineer or Captain did. In my first trip as an engineering officer, the Chief Engineer said “You’re only 19 years old and you can’t possibly know anything.” And he tried his damnest to prove it. One day when we were in convoy and in a war zone, he gave me a full speed astern signal from the inside bridge. I thought “Should I phone the Bridge and ask—do you mean that, or should I do it?” Well, being that we were in a war zone, I figured I had to do it, which I did. The Captain and the third mate were up on the wing of the bridge, and did not know that the Chief was going to pull that maneuver. The Chief thought he was going to get me into trouble. The Captain looked back and saw a tanker coming right up into our fantail so we did a little maneuvering. Of course, I didn’t know what was going on, down below. I was just following orders.
McGettigan – Did the Chief get in trouble?
Rathmell – Yes. The Chief got into trouble, not me. During this trip, I was a Yankee. The ship had come from Mississippi and all the people on board were redneck Mississippians with the exception of one guy who was in my crew. This Chief Engineer gave me formal orders: “You are not to talk to him.” Well, that’s ridiculous. At first I thought the other officers and crew people were talking about the war, which I thought we were in, but they were talking about the war that I had caused. I had no guilty feelings over the Civil War. After this incident of throwing the ship into full speed astern, I was thereafter known as “Crash Stop.” The other officers and crew respected me more after that.
McGettigan – So that was a nickname?
Rathmell – Yes.
McGettigan – Reflecting back, is there anything that you would change?6
Rathmell - No. We did what we needed to do. We just went with the flow.
McGettigan – What is one of your best or worst experiences during service that you would like to share?
Rathmell – My final trip around Africa was after VE-Day, and VJ-Day occurred during that time, so we had a much more relaxed situation then because the war was either winding down or over. We had virtually no news. No radio except for Morse Code. We did not have radar on the ship. The officers would just fix the position by shooting the stars and the sun and dead reckoning. I had some interesting experiences going around Africa. At one point I bought a dug-out canoe and then did a dumb thing. I ended up taking a ride in that canoe with a stranger—the native who had sold it to me. I thought it was going to be a 20 minute canoe ride back to the ship. It turned out to be about eight hours—22 miles—through a stormy ocean. That was an experience that I shouldn’t have done, but I did it.
McGettigan – He took you eight hours out in the ocean? Why did he do that?
Rathmell – Well, after I bought the canoe and I didn’t know how far away the ship was. I had this little native kid who was acting as my guide and he told me “about 20 minutes.” So we went down the river, out into the ocean. The natives had been saying “No, no, not today.” I couldn’t speak their language, and my kid was interpreting. I’d asked the native man if he would deliver it to me sometime later and he said “Well, yes.” I said “When?” He said “Oh, week, two weeks, three weeks.” I said “No, it must be today.”
After we were in the ocean, the storm hit. We were taking white water and having to bail the canoe out. We couldn’t go close to the shore because of the waves crashing over the rocks. Then he saw a sandy strip of beach and we headed in. When I could put my feet down, I started ashore and I looked back and he was going out the other way with my canoe. I thought “Oh Lord, where do I sleep tonight and how do I get back from here?” So I swam back out, and got into the canoe, and we went around the point of land. Eventually we saw the lights on the ship and got the canoe aboard. Kind of a long adventure but it was fun.
McGettigan – I take it you never got the canoe all the way back to the United States?
Rathmell – Up in Casablanca, there were two Italian submarines tied up out on the breakwater and the third mate and I paddled out to see if we could get any souvenirs. We tied up between the7
submarines, and the current brought the subs together and cracked my canoe in half. I repaired it, did get it back to New Orleans, but I was eager to get up to Penn State. The Chief Mate said that the ship was supposed to go to Marseille, France and would be back in New York City soon, and he’d ship it down to me. Well, I never saw it again.
McGettigan – Did you get any other souvenirs during any of your time at sea?
Rathmell – This elephant table you see over here—that’s one chunk of mahogany in the carved elephant that holds up the table. That, I guess, is the most pertinent or memorable souvenir.
McGettigan - You said you got it from Ghana?
Rathmell – Yes, I got that from Ghana.
McGettigan – Finally, what advice would you give someone—anyone—joining today, in the war that we currently face?
Rathmell – Just do your duty and do what you need to do and be part of the organization.
McGettigan – I would like to thank you, Mr. Rathmell. That concludes this interview. I would like to thank you for your service and for your contribution to the John A. Adams ’71 Center for Military History and Strategic Analysis. Thank you very much.
Rathmell – Thank you Brian. My pleasure.