U.S. Sailor Killed by Hijackers Buried in Arlington Ceremony
WASHINGTON — A Navy diver slain by terrorists aboard a hijacked U.S. airliner was buried with military honors Thursday. His father said his “spirit and love for life will live with all of us forever.”
Under cloudy skies at Arlington National Cemetery, Richard Stethem asked Americans to pray for the hostages still held in Beirut by the Shia Muslim terrorists who killed his son, 23-year-old Robert Dean Stethem, last Friday.
“We wish to express our gratification to all who are praying with us,” he said. Prayers give his family “strength and support,” he said.
About 500 mourners watched six uniformed pallbearers carry the steel-gray casket up a hill to the gravesite as the Stethem family followed. The Rev. Wendell Cover, pastor of the Assembly of God in Springfield, Va., said the young sailor “gave us an example of courage, bravery and love.”
Stethem was buried near a Cedar of Lebanon and a memorial stone reading, “Let Peace Take Root.”
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