United States Navy Sailor, Terrorist Victim. While flying home from Athens, Greece, Lebanese terrorists hijacked his airplane, Trans World Airlines Flight 847, and he was murdered solely because he was an American sailor. His body was dumped on the tarmac below the airplane and left there for several hours before the terrorists allowed authorities to remove it. Born in Waterbury, Connecticut and raised in Waldorf, Maryland, he was one of three sons (his father and two brothers also served in the US Navy; his mother worked for the Navy as a civilian). After graduating from Thomas Stone High School in 1980, he joined the US Navy, where he was trained as a diver and as a steelworker. He was assigned to the Navy Underwater Construction Team No. 1 in Norfolk, Virginia, and in 1985, the team was sent to Nea Makri, Greece, to repair a Navy Communications facility. On the return flight, TWA 847, members of the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah hijacked the flight and forced it to fly to Algiers, where they demanded the release of 435 Arab prisoners held by Israel. When their demands were not met, they forced the airplane to fly to Beirut, Lebanon. Seizing the passengers' passports, the terrorists discovered several American sailors aboard the plane. They singled out Stethem and beat him senselessly for several hours, attempting to break his will. Infuriated by his unwavering inner strength and his calm under the punishment, the hijackers then executed him and dumped his body on the ground. As they killed him with a pistol shot to the head, his last words were a prayer to God for strength. For 17 days, the hijackers kept the passengers hostage, before giving in and releasing them. Stethem was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star for heroism. In 1995, the US Navy commissioned a destroyer, DDG-63, the USS Robert Dean Stethem, in his honor. His citation for the Bronze Star for Heroism reads: "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."