Rites Held in Oceanside : Medal Presented Mother at Hijacking Victim’s Funeral

The parents of an American woman who was executed during the hijacking of an EgyptAir jetliner wept during graveside services in Oceanside on Saturday as they held an American flag and a Purple Heart medal awarded to their daughter “in recognition of her contributions to the effort of peace.”

Scarlett Marie Rogenkamp, 38, the only American slain during the hijacking in which 58 died, was buried beneath a shade tree after a Roman Catholic Mass of Resurrection attended by about 100 mourners.

During the 50-minute Mass, the Rev. John Lucev “asked that there be no bitterness . . . (saying) that no one can take our lives; they can only take our bodies,” said Joyce Carr, a reporter for Southern Cross, a Roman Catholic newspaper.

Lucev told the mourners to “be forgiving and not be rebellious. . . . How many years God gives us is a mystery to us all,” Carr said.

Other reporters were barred from services at both St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Church and the Eternal Hills Memorial Park where Miss Rogenkamp was buried.

The plain casket, without the American flag that had draped it when the body arrived in Los Angeles on Friday, was carried from the church by eight pallbearers and placed inside a gray hearse after the Mass ended.

During graveside services, an Air Force officer presented a Purple Heart medal to the victim’s mother, Hetty Peterson, who wept as she held the medal on her lap with its accompanying certificate.

Also at graveside was her former husband, Vernon Peterson, Miss Rogenkamp’s father. The retired Army colonel, who lives in Washington, held the flag.

‘Efforts of Peace’

Air Force Col. John C. Novak said Miss Rogenkamp’s Purple Heart was “in recognition of her contributions to the efforts of peace as a civilian member of the U.S. Air Force and in recognition of her supreme sacrifice.”

A civilian employee of the Air Force in Athens, Miss Rogenkamp was on her way to Cairo for a vacation when the jetliner was diverted to Malta shortly after takeoff from Athens airport.

She was shot execution-style by the hijackers and her body thrown from the plane after it landed in Malta. Fifty-eight people, including four of the five hijackers, died later during an Egyptian commando assault on the parked jet that ended the hijacking.