Rites Held in Oceanside for Victim of Egypt Jet Hijacking

Friends, family and officials gathered here Saturday to bury Scarlett Marie Rogenkamp, the only American killed in the hijacking of an Egyptian airliner last weekend.

At a graveside ceremony, an Air Force officer presented Rogenkamp’s parents with a posthumous Purple Heart, honoring her service as a civilian Air Force employee.

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 award, usually reserved for soldiers injured in battle, is the nation’s oldest military decoration.

Presented With Flag

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

A floral wreath from the consulate of Malta, the Mediterranean island where Rogenkamp died, adorned the altar near her casket during a Requiem Mass held earlier. Joseph Galea, Malta’s honorary consul in Los Angeles, attended.

The Rev. John Lucev urged about 100 mourners not to be bitter at the hijackers who murdered Rogenkamp. “We will have no fists of rebellion or bitterness towards anyone,” he said, adding, “God loves all of us without exception.”

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

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

An Egyptian commando raid on the parked aircraft ended the hijacking. Fifty-eight people died in the raid, including four of the five hijackers.

Worked at Air Base

Rogenkamp, who worked at the Tanagra Air Base near Athens, was on her way to Cairo to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday when the plane was hijacked.

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

The solid oak casket bearing her remains was interred atop a small hillside in a cemetery here, the spot shaded by a tropical coral tree that will bloom scarlet flowers in the winter.