Lone American Killed : Hijacking Victim Buried; Awarded the Purple Heart

In a deliberately subdued ceremony, family members, friends and officials gathered here Saturday to bury Scarlett Marie Rogenkamp, the only American killed in the hijacking of an Egyptian airliner last weekend.

During the half-hour graveside rites, an Air Force officer presented Rogenkamp’s parents with a Purple Heart in recognition of her service as a civilian employee of the Air Force.

The Purple Heart, said Col. John C. Novak, “recognizes her contribution to world peace . . . and also recognizes the supreme sacrifice she made, simply because she was an American.” He noted that the medal, usually reserved for members of the armed forces who are killed or wounded in combat, is the nation’s oldest military decoration.

The family was also presented with the American flag that accompanied Rogenkamp’s casket on its way from Europe.

During a requiem Mass earlier Saturday, the Rev. John Lucev urged about 100 mourners not to be bitter at the hijackers who murdered Rogenkamp.

At the request of Rogenkamp’s family, the Roman Catholic services were closed to the dozens of newsmen who gathered outside the Spanish-style Saint Mary’s Star of the Sea Church. A special detail of police officers cordoned off several nearby streets for the funeral.

A floral wreath from the consulate of Malta, the island nation in the Mediterranean where Rogenkamp and other hostages were killed, adorned the altar near her casket during the Mass. Joseph Galea, Malta’s honorary consul in Los Angeles, attended.

During the graveside service, Lucev prayed, “Give our sister rest in this grave.”

Rogenkamp, 38, was shot execution-style last weekend by the hijackers of the EgyptAir jet as it sat on a runway at Luqa Airport. Two other Americans were shot but survived.

An Egyptian commando raid on the parked aircraft ended the hijacking, in which 58 people died.

Rogenkamp, who worked at the Tanagra air base near Athens, Greece, was on her way to Cairo to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday when the Boeing 737 was hijacked.

Rogenkamp’s mother, Hetty Peterson of Oceanside, fought back tears during much of the graveside service. Sitting next to her was the victim’s father, Vernon W. Peterson, a retired Army colonel who works in Washington for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Three younger sisters and a younger brother also attended.

Rogenkamp’s body arrived in Los Angeles Friday afternoon aboard a flight from London and was driven to Oceanside.

The solid-oak casket was interred atop a small hillside in a Eternal Hills Memorial Park, the spot shaded by a tropical coral tree that will bloom scarlet flowers in the winter.