Reagan Vows Justice at Marine Rites : Emotional Ceremony Held for 4 Slain by Salvador Terrorists

President Reagan, calling the four U.S. Marines murdered in El Salvador last week the “victims of vicious evil,” vowed Saturday during an emotional ceremony that he and Salvadoran leaders would “move any mountain and ford any river to find the jackals and bring them and their colleagues in terror to justice.”

Reagan interrupted a weekend at Camp David to attend the ceremony held to receive the returning bodies of the four Marines, slain with nine civilians, including two American businessmen, in a machine-gun attack by terrorists as they sat late Wednesday at sidewalk cafes in San Salvador. A unit of El Salvador’s umbrella guerrilla organization, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, has claimed responsibility for the shootings.

Promise to Families

Avoiding any mention of the continuing hostage crisis in Beirut, Reagan--his voice breaking at times--promised the weeping families, gathered before the four flag-draped caskets of the Marines, that their murderers would be found and punished.

“They say the men who murdered these sons of America escaped, disappeared into the city streets,” he said. “But I pledge to you today, they will not evade justice on earth any more than they can escape the judgment of God.”

The murdered Marines, all members of the guard detachment at the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador, were Sgt. Bobby Joe Dickson, 27, of Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Sgt. Thomas T. Handwork, 24, of Boardman, Ohio; Cpl. Gregory H. Weber, 22, of Cincinnati; and Cpl. Patrick R. Kwiatkowski, 20, of Wausau, Wis. All were posthumously promoted one grade above those mentioned.

‘Faith of Our Fathers’

Reagan, accompanied by his wife, Nancy, and Gen. P.X. Kelley, the Marine Corps commandant, stood at attention under a hot, cloudy sky and saluted as each casket was slowly carried from a C-141 transport plane by six Marine pallbearers. The Marine Corps Band played “Faith of Our Fathers” as the coffins were taken through an honor guard of Marines and placed on biers draped with black crepe. Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger, Secretary of State George P. Shultz, and national security adviser Robert C. McFarlane stood nearby with the waiting families.

In a poignant moment before the President spoke, a stiff wind blew away the flags covering the coffins of Dickson and Handwork. An unidentified woman from one of the families sobbed: “Oh God--somebody put it back on.” Two Marines quickly retrieved and replaced the flags.

Reagan described the slain Marines as men who “swung the bag over their shoulders, kissed their parents goodby and went off to serve their country. . . . They did it for love and honor.”

He added: “Semper fi,” an abbreviation for the Marine Corps’ Latin motto, Semper fidelis (always faithful.)

Reagan delivered personal words about each man.

“Gregory Weber was 22 years old and he went to guard the American Embassy because, as he told his father, ‘Dad, they need a few good men down there,’ ” Reagan said. “Thomas Handwork was 24. . . . It wasn’t a job to him. It was a calling. He wanted to be a Marine from the first days he could walk and talk.

“Bobby Dickson was 27, . . . a Southerner raised in a tradition of manly honor. He feared nothing,” Reagan continued. “And Patrick Kwiatkowski was the youngest of the four, only 20 years old. His 21st birthday was yesterday.”

Saying “No words can console,” Reagan thanked the families “for your sons and daughters and your brothers. We thank you for these fine young men.”

He added: “And we receive them in death as they were on the last night of their lives--together, and following the radiant light, following it toward heaven, toward home. And if we reach, or when we reach, heaven’s scenes, we truly will find it guarded by United States Marines.”

After his remarks, the President pinned a Purple Heart on each flag. He spoke individually with members of each man’s family, while Nancy Reagan embraced many of them.

Earlier Saturday, Reagan called Vice President George Bush and McFarlane to a working lunch at Camp David to review U.S. policies to combat terrorism, including the continuing crisis over the 40 Americans held hostage by Shia Muslim hijackers in Beirut.

Bush canceled a scheduled speaking trip to Grand Rapids, Mich., to attend a series of briefings on terrorism before the Camp David meeting. The vice president leaves today on an 11-day visit to allied capitals in Europe to discuss North Atlantic Treaty Organization matters, and Reagan has asked him to add the problem of terrorism to his agenda.

Otherwise, there were few public reminders in Washington on Saturday of the Beirut hostage crisis. In line with the Administration’s refusal to negotiate for release of the hostages in exchange for freedom for about 760 Lebanese, most of them Shia Muslims, held prisoner by Israel, officials kept a low-profile posture, awaiting the next development and declining to confirm assorted rumors and reports from Beirut.

A Pentagon spokesman denied reports by Lebanese Christian radio that U.S. Navy F-14s from the carrier Nimitz had flown over Beirut and eastern Lebanon during the night. The spokesman, who declined to be identified, also refused to confirm reports that a detachment of 1,800 Marines in three amphibious vessels had joined the Nimitz task force. A carrier task force at full strength generally includes a detachment of Marines.

Reagan deliberately made the slaying of the four Marines in El Salvador the centerpiece of Saturday’s public activities. However, a White House spokesman welcomed a statement issued by former President Gerald R. Ford and four other former Western heads of government declaring their support for Reagan’s refusal to bargain with the Shia hijackers or their nominal protectors in Beirut, the Amal militia headed by Nabih Berri, minister of justice in the shaky Lebanese Cabinet.

The statement, issued in Vail, Colo., at World Forum, an annual gathering of political and business leaders for discussion of international events, was signed by Ford, former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and former Prime Ministers James Callaghan of Britain and Malcolm Fraser of Australia. It said:

“It is our conviction supported by our own experience that any deal, direct or indirect, will endanger the lives of the countless innocent people in all our countries. . . . The only correct solution is the immediate and unconditional release of the American hostages held in Beirut.”

Marlene Cimons reported from Andrews Air Force Base and Oswald Johnston reported from Washington.