Robert Dean Stethem

Robert Dean Stethem (November 17, 1961 – June 15, 1985) was a United States Navy Seabee diver who was murdered by terrorists during the hijacking of the commercial airliner he was aboard: TWA Flight 847. His Navy rating was Steel Worker Second Class (SW2).

Robert Stethem was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, but grew up in the Pinefield section of Waldorf, Maryland. He was one of three children. His father and two brothers also served in the U.S. Navy, one of them serving as a US Navy SEAL. His mother was a civilian Navy administrator. He graduated from Thomas Stone High School in 1980, where he played defensive back on the varsity and junior varsity football teams. He joined the Navy shortly after graduating.

In the Navy, he was assigned to the Navy Underwater Construction Team ONE in Norfolk, Virginia. He was returning from an assignment in Nea Makri, Greece aboard TWA Flight 847 when it was hijacked by members of the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah. They demanded the release of 766 Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

When their demands were not met, Stethem was singled out. The hijackers learned he was a member of the U.S. military. They beat and tortured him. Then, they shot him and dumped his body on the tarmac at the Beirut airport.

One of the hijackers Mohammed Ali Hammadi, was arrested two years later in Frankfurt, Germany. He was tried and convicted of Stethem's murder. He was sentenced to life in jail. Three others, Imad Mugniyah, Hassan Izz-Al-Din and Ali Atwa were eventually indicted for their involvement in the incident. In 2002, they were added to the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list. On February 13, 2008, Imad Mugniyah was killed in an explosion in Damascus, Syria.

Mohammed Ali Hammadi was paroled in December of 2005 and returned to Lebanon. It is speculated that he was released in a prisoner swap in exchange for the release of Susanne Osthoff, who was kidnapped in Iraq one month earlier.

Awards and Decorations

Stethem was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. In 1994, the U.S. Navy launched USS Stethem (DDG-63) in his honor. There is a sports complex in Waldorf named in his honor on Piney Church Road, in the center of which is a large stone memorial to Stethem, above which a U.S. flag flies.

Robert D. Stethem Memorial Park includes 10 ball fields, two of which have 90-foot infields; the complex is the main complex for Waldorf American and Waldorf National Little Leagues. It was opened in 1990 and boasts a memorial stone 75 yards from Stethem's memorial, which includes a tribute plaque to several former Waldorf players, as well as local umpires and district officials who have lost their lives. The Career and Technology Center in Pomfret was renamed the Robert D. Stethem Center in the late 1990s.

The U.S. Navy Seabee's named the Port Hueneme Naval Construction Training Center Headquarters Building in his honor.

TWA Fight 857

TWA Flight 847 was an international Trans World Airlines flight which was hijacked by the Amal Movement, widely believed to be a nom de guerre for the Islamist Lebanese Shia group before Hezbollah ^[1], on Friday morning, June 14, 1985, after originating in Cairo, Egypt and was flying from Athens, Greece to Rome, Italy, from where it was scheduled to travel on to London. The aircraft with its passengers and crew endured a three-day intercontinental ordeal during which one passenger, a U.S. Navy diver, was murdered. Dozens of passengers were then held hostage over the next two weeks, until released by their captors.

Events

Piloted by 58-year-old Captain John Testrake, the Boeing 727, tail number N64339 ^[2], departed at 10:10 am, carrying 153 passengers and crew, including flight engineer Benjamin C. Zimmermann,^[3] co-pilot Philip G. Maresca, and flight attendant Uli Derickson.

It was commandeered shortly after takeoff by two German-speaking Lebanese men who had smuggled pistols and grenades through the Athens airport security. A third intended hijacker, Ali Atwa, had been bumped from the flight and was later arrested in Greece.

To Beirut, then Algiers

The plane was diverted from airspace over Greece to the Middle East and made its first stop, for several hours, at the Beirut, Lebanon airport, where 19 passengers were allowed to leave in exchange for fuel. During this time, Lebanon was in the midst of a civil war, and Beirut was divided into sectors controlled by different militias.

On Friday afternoon, the aircraft continued on to Algiers, Algeria in North Africa where 20 passengers were released during a five-hour stop, before heading back to Beirut Friday night.

Back to Beirut

The Beirut International Airport, surrounded by a Shia neighborhood, had no perimeter security and nearby residents could simply drive onto the runway. During this stop, the hijackers identified a U.S. Navy diver, Robert Stethem, among the passengers. They beat him, shot him in the right temple, and dumped his body out of the plane onto the tarmac. Seven American passengers, who were alleged to have Jewish-sounding surnames, were taken off the jet by Hezbollah and sequestered in Beirut.

"Every time I look at the flag now and for the rest of my life,'' said Kenneth Stethem, "the red will represent the blood he spilled, the blue the beating and bruises he endured, and the white the purity and integrity he demonstrated in sacrificing his life.''