Robert Stethem
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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).
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[edit] Biography
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, all of them as Navy SEALs. 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 No. 1 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Honors
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.
