Turner Seems Weary but He’s in Good Condition : Freedom: The released U.S. hostage will undergo tests in Germany. Reunion with his family is due today.

Jesse Turner, the American mathematics professor who was freed after nearly five years of captivity in Lebanon, arrived here Tuesday for medical tests and secret debriefings before heading home at last.

Turner, 44, of Boise, Ida., walked with a slight stoop but was described as being in “basically good physical condition” as he entered the U.S. Air Force hospital here about 4:45 p.m.

He later ordered a ham and turkey club sandwich, a tossed salad, cherry pie and “lots and lots of black coffee” for dinner, said spokesman Sgt. Scott Hyland, who added that Turner had eaten in Damascus, Syria, “so he wasn’t overly hungry.”

The full beard that Turner displayed in photographs released earlier by his captors was gone, and his beige jacket hung loosely on his bony shoulders as he climbed gingerly out of the Blackhawk helicopter in front of the hospital.

Turner appeared weary but grinned happily and waved at hospital staff and patients cheering from balconies, weakly calling up “Hey!” to the dozens of flag-waving Americans. Bedsheet banners welcoming Turner back to the world hung from the balcony railings.

Reporters shouted questions at Turner, but he could not be heard over the whir of the helicopter rotors. He shrugged apologetically before being escorted inside by Col. Earl Ferguson, the cardiologist in command of the 7100th Combat Support Wing Medical Center.

Turner’s wife, Badr, and Joanne, the 4-year-old daughter he has never met, are expected to arrive in Germany this morning with his mother and stepfather, whom they had been visiting in Boise. The family left Idaho on Tuesday.

“I didn’t think this day was ever going to arrive,” said Turner’s mother, Estelle Ronneburg, as she hugged friends and waved goodby to a small crowd of well-wishers who had gathered to see the family off.

Like the rest of the family, Turner’s wife was all smiles after enduring Monday’s 24-hour emotional roller coaster over whether he had actually been released. She spoke with her husband at 2:15 a.m. Tuesday during a quick call from Damascus.

“He kept saying, ‘Is that you? Is that you? Is it true that you are going to see me?’ ” she said. “His voiced had changed a bit. It sounded deeper.”

She finally saw her husband on television four hours later. “He looks different,” she said. “I’ve never seen him without his beard.”

Turner is expected to return to Boise. His wife had spent the morning tidying up their small, two-bedroom duplex apartment in preparation for her husband’s eventual arrival.

“It will be very different for us,” said Badr Turner, who had been married to Turner only six months and was four months pregnant with his daughter when he was kidnaped from Beirut University College. “It will mean a new life for us, a new family, a new life. We will be one family and not half a family.”

In Wiesbaden, Navy Cmdr. John Woodhouse, spokesman for the U.S. European Command, said Turner will undergo medical tests and meet with a State Department “repatriation team,” which debriefs released hostages in hopes of learning more about their captors and those still being held.

Turner’s release early Tuesday followed a night of uncertainty about his fate in light of heavy fighting near the headquarters of the Hezbollah militia group in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon and a warning from one of the kidnaping groups that Israeli air raids against Hezbollah targets could block release of more hostages. Hezbollah is believed to have links with many kidnaping groups, including the one that held Turner.

In Damascus, U.S. officials had originally been told that Turner was to be released Monday night. But a Syrian official at mid-evening said that, while the release still appeared a go, it would occur so late at night that the handing over of Turner to U.S. Ambassador Christopher Ross would not occur until Tuesday morning.

Turner was delivered to Syrian military officers in Lebanon about midnight, sources said. He was driven to Damascus in Syrian custody and allowed to get several hours sleep, then was served a large breakfast before he was released to U.S. authorities.

In Damascus, he appeared before television cameras at 9:20 a.m. local time. He looked very pale and at points appeared to have to push himself to speak, as if he had not been talking regularly, said some who conversed with him. But he was described as “lucid” and in very good spirits.

In his brief meeting with reporters, Turner hesitated when asked about Alann Steen, a fellow Beirut University College professor kidnaped with him Jan. 24, 1987, and believed to have been held with him by the Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine. He finally declined to answer, and there were reports that Turner was extremely concerned that public comments by released hostages can affect those remaining in captivity.

“I’d just like to say I’m very happy to be out, finally. I’m looking forward to seeing my family and friends, and I’d like to thank everybody for the help they gave in obtaining my release,” Turner said.

Turner and Steen, along with two other academics, were snatched by kidnapers posing as policemen at the campus. The two others, Indian Mithileshwar Singh and American Robert Polhill, were freed in 1988 and 1990, respectively.

After his brief public appearance Tuesday in Damascus, Turner was taken to the U.S. ambassador’s residence. Later, he left on a U.S. Air Force C-141 for Germany.

Officials in Damascus said they were optimistic that other hostage releases will proceed on track and said the United Nations’ role in arranging them will continue. But there was no indication that any new release is imminent. “It may be weeks; it may be days. We just don’t know,” one source said.

On Monday, Israel freed 15 Arab detainees from a prison in the Israeli-controlled security zone in southern Lebanon as part of a deal for Turner’s release. Israeli officials tied the prisoner release to confirmation that one of six Israeli servicemen missing in Lebanon, Pvt. Yossi Fink, had been confirmed dead.

Now, Israeli officials are awaiting new information on soldiers still unaccounted for. They have reportedly accused Syria of dragging its feet on launching a search for three soldiers missing after a tank battle near Sultan Yacoub, a Syrian-controlled area in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. The battle occurred on the fifth day of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

British-born navigator Ron Arad, whose plane was shot down on Oct. 16, 1986, is thought by many Israeli officials to be alive and held in an unknown location. Shiite Muslim groups holding Western hostages have insisted on release of an estimated 300 Arab detainees held by an Israeli-controlled militia in exchange for progress both on the missing servicemen and the eight remaining Western hostages.

Also complicating the process is the upcoming Middle East peace conference in Madrid, which has been vigorously opposed by Shiite Muslim radicals in Lebanon. Although Shiite leaders have declared the issues unrelated, there have been at least three bomb attacks near the Israeli security zone in southern Lebanon. The first attack sparked a swift retaliatory strike from Israel, which, at least at one point, threatened to hold up the hostage release.

In Washington, President Bush welcomed Turner’s release, saying: “We’re very pleased. . . . But we just have to keep supporting the efforts that are . . . going on right now, to get the release of all of them.”

“We rejoice with Mr. Jesse Turner and his family at his release after so many years in unjust captivity,” White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said in a written statement.

Jones reported from Wiesbaden, Germany, and Murphy from Damascus, Syria. Times staff writers Ron Harris, in Boise, Ida., and Norman Kempster, in Washington, contributed to this report.

Profile: Jesse Turner

Kidnaped: Jan. 24, 1987; held by the Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine.

Released: Oct. 22, 1991

Hometown: Boise, Ida.

Occupation: Was a professor of mathematics and computer science at Beirut University College when he was kidnaped; had previously taught at Cal State San Bernardino.

Education: Undergraduate degree in philosophy from Boise State University; master’s degree in philosophy and a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Idaho.

Personal: Age 44; his wife, Badr, gave birth to a daughter, Joanne, five months after the kidnaping.