Robert Stethem

In an emotional ceremony Wednesday, a sailor killed in the Middle East in 1985 by terrorist hijackers was remembered as a patriotic American who "gave up his life rather than compromise his honor or integrity." And the commanding officer of a guided-missile destroyer named in honor of that sailor said the ship may soon sail to the Persian Gulf to fight the same kind of terrorists. Petty Officer Robert Dean Stethem was a construction diver, a group in Navy-ese known as "steelworkers."

"Terrorism Victim Is Remembered" (Nov. 22), on the U.S. Navy destroyer Stethem, provoked a memory. It also shows the U.S. government knows nothing about good publicity. Just think of the worldwide impact if our president had announced that the air attack on the Taliban had begun with a missile fired from the Stethem, named after Robert Dean Stethem, a victim of terrorism on June 14, 1985 [from an airplane hijacking]. I was on that airplane, TWA Flight 847, when Stethem was executed, and it would have meant a lot to me and most likely many other members of the passengers and crew, including his construction battalion buddies who did survive.

The televised tragedy gripped the nation and shattered a family. * Gun-wielding terrorists hijacked a TWA airliner to Beirut and singled out Robert Dean Stethem because he was carrying military identification. The Shiite Muslim extremists repeatedly beat him as a way to intimidate the other 152 passengers. When their demands for more jet fuel were refused, they shot him in the head and dumped his broken body on the Tarmac.

In an emotional ceremony Wednesday, a sailor killed in the Middle East in 1985 by terrorist hijackers was remembered as a patriotic American who "gave up his life rather than compromise his honor or integrity." And the commanding officer of a guided-missile destroyer named in honor of that sailor said the ship may soon sail to the Persian Gulf to fight the same kind of terrorists. Petty Officer Robert Dean Stethem was a construction diver, a group in Navy-ese known as "steelworkers."

Navy diver Clinton Suggs testified today he figured he had just five minutes to live after Arab hijackers shot fellow sailor Robert Stethem and threw him out of a hijacked TWA jetliner. Suggs testified at the murder and air piracy trial of Mohammed Ali Hamadi. The Lebanese Shia Muslim is charged in the June, 1985, hijacking, in which Stethem, a 23-year-old U.S. Navy diver, was killed and 39 Americans were held hostage for 17 days.

The passenger killed by terrorists aboard a hijacked plane in Beirut has been identified as Robert Stethem, a 24-year-old Navy frogman from Waldorf, Md., Rep. Roy Dyson's office said today. Stethem, a member of the Naval Seal Program who was eight months short of completing his four-year Navy tour, was identified through fingerprints, medical records and identification of friends, said Katie Tucker, a spokeswoman for Dyson.

Here is a transcript of President Reagan's remarks Sunday about the release of the hostages from TWA Flight 847: Good afternoon. The 39 Americans held hostage for 17 days by terrorists in Lebanon are free, safe and at this moment on their way to Frankfurt, Germany. They'll be home again soon. This is a moment of joy for them, for their loved ones and for our nation, and America opens its heart in a prayer of thanks to almighty God.

U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem said shortly before he was slain on a hijacked TWA jetliner that he was ready to die to save the lives of other passengers, a witness testified Wednesday. Australian Ruth Henderson told a Frankfurt court how she tried to comfort Stethem after he had been badly beaten by the hijackers of Trans World Airlines Flight 847 in June, 1985. Stethem was later shot to death and his body thrown onto the runway at Beirut airport.

A court on Wednesday convicted Mohammed Ali Hamadi of air piracy and murder in the killing of a U.S. sailor in the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner and sentenced him to the maximum term allowable under West German law--life imprisonment. The parents of slain Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem, Patricia and Richard Stethem of Port Tobacco, Md., sat silently facing Hamadi as Chief Judge Heiner Mueckenberger delivered the verdict and sentence. Later, the Stethems indicated that a "more severe" punishment should have been imposed.

"Terrorism Victim Is Remembered" (Nov. 22), on the U.S. Navy destroyer Stethem, provoked a memory. It also shows the U.S. government knows nothing about good publicity. Just think of the worldwide impact if our president had announced that the air attack on the Taliban had begun with a missile fired from the Stethem, named after Robert Dean Stethem, a victim of terrorism on June 14, 1985 [from an airplane hijacking]. I was on that airplane, TWA Flight 847, when Stethem was executed, and it would have meant a lot to me and most likely many other members of the passengers and crew, including his construction battalion buddies who did survive.

The televised tragedy gripped the nation and shattered a family. * Gun-wielding terrorists hijacked a TWA airliner to Beirut and singled out Robert Dean Stethem because he was carrying military identification. The Shiite Muslim extremists repeatedly beat him as a way to intimidate the other 152 passengers. When their demands for more jet fuel were refused, they shot him in the head and dumped his broken body on the Tarmac.

A court on Wednesday convicted Mohammed Ali Hamadi of air piracy and murder in the killing of a U.S. sailor in the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner and sentenced him to the maximum term allowable under West German law--life imprisonment. The parents of slain Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem, Patricia and Richard Stethem of Port Tobacco, Md., sat silently facing Hamadi as Chief Judge Heiner Mueckenberger delivered the verdict and sentence. Later, the Stethems indicated that a "more severe" punishment should have been imposed.

U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem said shortly before he was slain on a hijacked TWA jetliner that he was ready to die to save the lives of other passengers, a witness testified Wednesday. Australian Ruth Henderson told a Frankfurt court how she tried to comfort Stethem after he had been badly beaten by the hijackers of Trans World Airlines Flight 847 in June, 1985. Stethem was later shot to death and his body thrown onto the runway at Beirut airport.

Navy diver Clinton Suggs testified today he figured he had just five minutes to live after Arab hijackers shot fellow sailor Robert Stethem and threw him out of a hijacked TWA jetliner. Suggs testified at the murder and air piracy trial of Mohammed Ali Hamadi. The Lebanese Shia Muslim is charged in the June, 1985, hijacking, in which Stethem, a 23-year-old U.S. Navy diver, was killed and 39 Americans were held hostage for 17 days.

Here is a transcript of President Reagan's remarks Sunday about the release of the hostages from TWA Flight 847: Good afternoon. The 39 Americans held hostage for 17 days by terrorists in Lebanon are free, safe and at this moment on their way to Frankfurt, Germany. They'll be home again soon. This is a moment of joy for them, for their loved ones and for our nation, and America opens its heart in a prayer of thanks to almighty God.

The passenger killed by terrorists aboard a hijacked plane in Beirut has been identified as Robert Stethem, a 24-year-old Navy frogman from Waldorf, Md., Rep. Roy Dyson's office said today. Stethem, a member of the Naval Seal Program who was eight months short of completing his four-year Navy tour, was identified through fingerprints, medical records and identification of friends, said Katie Tucker, a spokeswoman for Dyson.

A West German court ruled that a Lebanese suspect in the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner and slaying of a U.S. sailor will receive at the most a 15-year prison sentence, if convicted, because he was under age 21 at the time. A state court in Frankfurt said that Mohammed Ali Hamadi, now 22, will be tried by a juvenile court.

The mother of slain Navy diver Robert Stethem says she will be satisfied if West Germany lives up to its promise today not to free accused terrorist Mohammed Ali Hamadi, but she still believes the Reagan Administration let her family down. Patricia Stethem was assured directly today by Karl Paschke, minister of the West German Embassy in Washington, that Hamadi will never be given clemency if he is convicted in West German courts of killing her son during the TWA hijacking in June, 1985.