DOB/DOD: November 17, 1961 (Waterbury, CT) – June 15, 1985; 23 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Unmarried
LOCAL ADDRESS: Unknown; moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Waldorf, Maryland, as a child
ENLISTMENT: May 4, 1981
NAVY RATE: [Seabee] SW – Steelworker and DV – Second-Class Diver
UNIT: Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 62 (Gulfport, MS) and Underwater Construction Team One (UCT-1), Little Creek, Virginia
FAMILY: Born to Richard L. and Patricia L. Ashe Stethem (1936-2022) [both are Navy veterans]. Two brothers, Kenneth J. and Patrick L. [both are Navy veterans]. One sister, Sheryl J. Stethem Sierralta (1958-2018).
DECORATIONS: Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, Navy Good Conduct Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal
OTHER: Posthumously promoted to Master Chief Petty Officer. Named an honorary Master Chief Constructionman (CUCM) by order of the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy. In 1995, the US Navy commissioned a destroyer, DDG-63, the USS Robert Dean Stethem, in his honor. Christened Stethem on July 16, 1994, by Patricia L. Stethem, the mother of the ship’s namesake, Steelworker Second Class (SW2) Robert Stethem. The vessel then transited the Panama Canal and was officially commissioned on October 21, 1995, in Port Hueneme, California. On February 15, 1996, the USS Stethem successfully completed her Post Delivery Test and Trials and was thus cleared for combat operations. She was assigned to her home port, San Diego.
CIRCUMSTANCES: On June 15, 1985, Hezbollah Shi’ites brutally beat, tortured, and then killed 23-year-old Robert Dean Stethem as he was being held hostage aboard TWA 847 commercial airliner. Robert was on his way home after a 2-week tour of duty with the US Navy in Greece. The terrorists had hijacked the plane with 153 passengers in Athens, Greece, forcing the pilot to fly twice to Algiers and twice to Beirut during the 17-day siege. When the plane was at the Beirut airport in Lebanon, Petty Officer Stethem was singled out because he was in the US military. After many hours of being cruelly beaten, tortured, and finally killed by the terrorists, they threw his body from the plane in a final, disgraceful, cowardly act. The wounds were so terrible that his body had to be identified by its fingerprints. Throughout the ordeal, Robert Stethem did not yield and instead encouraged his fellow passengers to endure by his example. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star for heroism and bravery.
One of the hijackers, Mohammed Ali Hammadi, was arrested two years later in Frankfurt, Germany. He was tried and convicted of Stethem’s murder and sentenced to life in prison, but was released in 2005 after serving 19 years. 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, Mugniyah was killed in an explosion in Damascus, Syria. [multiple sources]
Graduated from Thomas Stone High School (Waldorf, Maryland), Class of 1980.
Citation to accompany the award of the Bronze Star Medal
For heroic achievement on 14 June 1985 while assigned to Detachment NM-85 of Underwater Construction Team One, deployed to the Naval Communications Station Nea Makri, Greece. Petty Officer Stethem displayed exceptional valor and professional integrity while a hostage of militant Shiite hijackers of TWA Flight 847 at Athens International Airport, Algiers, Algeria, and at Beirut, Lebanon. Exhibiting physical, moral, and emotional courage beyond extraordinary limits, Petty Officer Stethem endured a senseless and brutal beating at the hands of his fanatical captors. He drew upon an unwavering inner strength and absorbed the punishment. The hijackers were infuriated by his refusal to succumb, a symbol to them of the strength of the United States of America, and in their cowardly desperation, shot him to death. Petty Officer Stethem’s courage, steadfast determination, and loyal devotion to duty reflected great credit upon himself and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. Signed by John Lehman, Secretary of the Navy.
From The Evening Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) on June 18, 1985
By Jenny Abdo | Evening Sun Staff
SLAIN MAN REMEMBERED AS ‘TOUGH’
Family in Charles County Mourns Robert Stethem, Killed in Beirut
WALDORF — To his friends in this small Southern Maryland town, he was just “Rob,” popular with the girls, a linebacker on the high school football team, the one who didn’t get caught when he and some buddies scaled the big green municipal water tower.
To Shiite Muslim hijackers a world away in Lebanon, he was Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Robert Dean Stethem, 23, who had a U.S. government passport. He was “an example of an American military man who was tough,” said his brother, Kenneth Stethem, 24.
That’s why, perhaps, he was singled out from among more than 30 hostages aboard a TWA jetliner, why he was beaten beyond recognition, shot in the head, and then dumped on the tarmac of the Beirut International airport.
Meanwhile, as the Reagan administration tried to quietly broker a deal for their release, about 40
Americans from the hijacked plane were reportedly being held in scattered locations throughout Beirut. Shiite leader Nabih Berri said the hostages would be safe as long as he was in control.
“He was tough. That’s what I’ll always remember about him,” Kenneth said yesterday, standing outside the family’s mauve brick home. “You try to make an example out of the toughest guy. “I think what happened, happened because it was probably clear he wanted to protect people aboard the plane. You can let people know these things by the way you look at them. Maybe they (the hijackers) knew this just by looking at him,” said Kenneth, who is also in the Navy.
Inside the Stethems’ split-level home in Charles County, where they have lived since 1977, friends and relatives bringing food and moral support packed the living room. The family had been warned by officials on Friday that an American serviceman who was killed aboard flight 747 could be Stethem.
The possibility was mentioned during a prayer service Sunday evening at the Word of Life Assembly of God Pentecostal church in Springfield, Virginia, where the family has been part of the congregation for a year and a half, said D. Wendel Cover, the pastor. “The church wept,” he said.
For three days, the family—Patricia and Richard, Stethem’s parents, Kenneth and Patrick, his brothers, and Sherry Sierralta, his sister —received conflicting reports from Pentagon officials. But yesterday afternoon, three Navy representatives visited their home and told them what they had hoped never to hear: Medical records confirmed that the man who was brutally murdered was Stethem.
The young man’s body was being flown home from the Middle East today and was scheduled to arrive at Andrews Air Force Base early this evening. He is scheduled to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
“We are very proud of our son. He enjoyed being in the Navy,” said Richard Stethem, 49, a 26-year Navy veteran. “I don’t know why he was singled out. He was a very good kid. He was an independent kid,” he said, trembling.
Standing at Richard Stethem’s side, his father said, “We thought he had a great future. We heard he was singled out because he was a military man. A lot of things go berserk in situations like this. People panic.”
Indeed, by all accounts, Stethem, described as a handsome, gregarious young man, was full of potential. Having completed a two-week assignment in Greece on Friday morning, he boarded the Boeing 727 in Athens on his way home. One reason that Stethem joined the Navy was that he was not interested in attending college, his father said.
Navy officials said that Stethem was a steelworker second-class who joined the service at the end of 1980 and had been assigned to assist on a sewer project at a naval communications station in Nea Makri, Greece, during the last two weeks. He was trained as a diver and had no involvement with the Navy SEALs, a trained team of Top Secret commandos, officials said.
Kenneth Stethem said Stethem was assigned to the Underwater Construction Team One and was returning to the Navy base in Norfolk, Virginia, where he was stationed.
Friends and relatives last visited with Stethem in Waldorf about two weeks ago, before he left for Greece. Patricia Collins, a teacher at Thomas Stone High School in Waldorf, where Stethem was a 1980 graduate, recalled a recent conversation with him. “He came to visit me before he went to Athens. I told him how much he would love Greece, the countryside, and all,” she said. “He told me something was wrong with the sewers in Athens, and divers were going there to fix the system.
“We talked about the danger of his work. He told me that when he dived before, he often had to fend off sharks. This is the ironic part. We talked about how important it was to understand people of other cultures,” she said.
Collins, who taught Stethem history while he was a student at Thomas Stone, remembered long conversations with him about world politics. He was ‘‘a good thinker who was interested in everyone’s point of view,” she said. Not only was Stethem a bright, B student, but he was also popular, said Collins and the school’s vice principal, Deborah Magie.
“He always had a girlfriend,” said Collins, who said the two remained close even after Stethem graduated. “He looked like a movie star, and he was so nice on top of that,” she said. “It’s a real heartbreak.”
As several of Stethem’s friends crowded the street in the 2100 block of Dennis Ave., many said they too considered joining the Navy and that Stethem’s death would not dissuade them. Many young men who attend Thomas Stone often join the Navy, said William Fisher, 19.
“The Navy crosses my mind every week,” said Fisher. If they called me today, I would go.”
From The Stars and Stripes on August 27, 2010
By Erik Slavin
NAVY PROMOTES SAILOR KILLED IN HIJACKING
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Decades after hijackers took his life, the namesake of the destroyer USS Stethem was promoted to master chief petty officer in a ceremony aboard the ship here Tuesday.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Robert Dean Stethem was posthumously promoted 25 years after Lebanese hijackers aboard TWA Flight 847 singled him out because of his military status, killing him when their demands were not met.
Stethem’s brother, retired Chief Petty Officer Kenneth Stethem, accepted the honor on Robert’s behalf, according to a Navy news release.
Months ago, the USS Stethem commander, Cmdr. Hank Adams forwarded the promotion request to the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy after the ship’s chiefs’ mess recommended the honor, the news release said.
Robert Stethem, 23, a Navy Seabee diver, was returning from an assignment when his flight was hijacked by Shiite Muslim extremists of Hezbollah, or Party of God. He was shot in the head and thrown on the tarmac at Beirut International Airport in Lebanon.
The victim’s brother said he remembers the funeral at Arlington National Cemetery and can’t help but think about the flag-draped coffin. “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.” – Arlington National Cemetery Tribute to Robert Stethem “
I was one of the Navy Seabee Divers who had to endure the pain of hearing and seeing SW2 (DV) Robert Stethem go through the brutality of terrorism on June 14, 1985… As the gunman fired the fatal shot into my friend’s head, he cried out to God.
That is the example I will always remember and try to follow. Never give up, endure all that is pressed upon me, and cry out to God for strength when I have done all that is within my power. We as a nation can respond to evil in this same way.
The motto of the USS Stethem (DDG-63) is “Steadfast and Courageous”. This is very applicable to the way Bobby lived & died.” On October 21, 1995, one of the world’s most advanced warships, the USS Stethem, named after Petty Officer Robert Stethem, was commissioned by the United States Navy in honor of our fallen hero.
Namesake of the Robert D. Stethem Educational Center, 7775 Marshal Corner Road, Pomfret, Maryland
Namesake of Stethem Sports Complex, 4250 Piney Church Road, Waldorf, Maryland
July 2, 1985, Arlington National Cemetery
Buried in Arlington National Cemetery, 1 Memorial Avenue, Arlington, Virginia; Section 59, Site 430. Photo from ancexplorer.army.mil.
END