A Mighty Memorial to a Slain Naval Hero : Ship: Commissioning of destroyer Stethem, named for diver killed in 1985 hijacking, is emotional for family, comrades.

Following orders to “man our ship and bring her to life,” more than 300 sailors in dress blues rushed up the gangway to their stations aboard the Navy’s newest, sleekest destroyer Saturday.

The engines roared. Radar dishes whirled. The ship’s gun mounts spun around as if looking for targets. Torpedo launchers shot a payload of compressed steam.

The frenzy of activity made it official: the U.S. destroyer Stethem had joined the naval fleet.

More than 5,000 people attended Saturday’s commissioning of the ship named after Robert Dean Stethem, a Navy diver slain by terrorists during the hijacking of a TWA airliner to Beirut a decade ago.

“Petty Officer Robert Stethem was a true American hero, offering his life for the safety of others,” President Clinton wrote in a letter read to the crowd. “This ship will sail in the defense of freedom around the world, reminding us all of Robert’s legacy of heroism.”

The commissioning was the first in the 53-year history of Port Hueneme’s Naval Construction Battalion Center, home of four construction battalions, known in Navy parlance as CBs or Seabees.

The $900-million Aegis guided-missile destroyer could have been commissioned earlier at the Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., said Cmdr. Steven C. Miller, the ship’s captain.

But he and others wanted to pay tribute to the Seabees, who build everything from barracks to runways for the Navy and Marines. Stethem (pronounced STEED-em) was a Seabee steelworker specializing in underwater construction. He had trained at Port Hueneme but never was stationed there.

“This is the place to commission a ship named Stethem,” Miller said.

For the Stethem family, the ceremony was more than the official acceptance of the Navy’s 374th warship into the U.S. fleet. It marked another attempt to fill a hole in their lives, dress a wound that refuses to heal.

“We’ve lost part of our life that can never be brought back,” said Richard Stethem, father of the fallen Seabee. “But this is the highest honor for somebody to have. It has made us feel awfully, awfully proud.”

The commissioning also turned into an emotional reunion for the five Navy divers who were with Stethem when terrorists hijacked TWA flight 847 on June 14, 1985.

Petty Officer 1st Class Clinton Suggs found himself wiping his eyes during the ceremonies. “It makes me miss him even more,” said Suggs, who was Stethem’s close friend and roommate.

Stethem, Suggs and four other Navy divers had been sent to Greece to repair an underwater sewage pipe on a Navy installation near Athens. They were headed home on a TWA flight to New York, with a stopover in Rome, when two terrorists hijacked the plane with 153 people on board.

The Shiite Muslim extremists diverted the plane to Beirut. They demanded freedom for 700 Shiite Muslim prisoners held by Israel and forced the pilots to fly back and forth between Beirut and Algiers in a televised drama that riveted the nation.

Flight attendant Uli Derickson became an overnight heroine for her calm efforts to protect passengers and later inspired a two-hour made-for-TV movie.

Early during the hijacking, the terrorists singled out the 23-year-old Stethem, and later Suggs, for brutal beatings because they were carrying military identification instead of passports.

After hours of torture, they shot Stethem in the head and dumped his body on the Tarmac in Beirut when authorities refused the hijackers’ demands for more jet fuel.

He was the only fatality in the 17-day ordeal, which ended when the terrorists freed the final 39 hostages from a hideaway somewhere in Beirut.

Navy general counsel Steven S. Honigman, the principal speaker at the commissioning, said the Stethem is a special ship because of its namesake.

“Petty Officer Stethem endured a senseless and brutal beating at the hands of his fanatical captors,” Honigman said. “During his ordeal, Petty Officer Stethem did not yield. Instead, he acted with fortitude and courage and he helped his fellow passengers to endure by his example.”

Many details of the hijacking did not surface until the 1988-89 trial of Mohammed Ali Hamadi, one of the two terrorists. He was nabbed in 1987 for trying to smuggle explosives into West Germany.

Then-President Ronald Reagan sought Hamadi’s extradition to the United States. When that failed, he telephoned Patricia Stethem to assure her that the terrorist would “get the justice he deserves.”

Stethem’s parents attended every session of the yearlong trial, which ended in conviction for murder and air piracy. Hamadi is serving a life sentence in Germany, although he blames his accomplice for murdering Stethem. The accomplice remains at large.

During the trial, one passenger told of Stethem’s self-sacrifice, how he was ready to die to save the lives of others.

“He believed that someone would die on the plane, someone from the Navy men, and he said because he was the only one who wasn’t married, that he should be the one to die,” testified passenger Ruth Henderson of Australia.

Stethem had been so badly beaten that she had to hold a cigarette for him. He was bleeding from his head and back. His wrists had been tied so tightly he had no feeling in his hands.

“He didn’t believe that all of us could get out alive,” Henderson said. “He felt it was fair that he dies so that the rest of us could live.”

Saturday’s ceremonies were steeped in 220 years of Navy tradition. There was a 17-gun salute. Richard Stethem passed a long eyeglass to the crew. Officers set the first watch. The captain read his orders, officially taking command of the ship as part of the Pacific Fleet.

The most dramatic moment was left to Patricia L. Stethem, mother of the slain Navy diver. She has been the ship’s sponsor, and months ago christened the 8,600-ton vessel by smashing a magnum of champagne across its bow.

On Saturday, she set the crew in motion. “Officers and crew, man our ship and bring her to life.”

“Aye, aye, ma’am,” the 340 crew members shouted in response. Then the all-male crew galloped up the gangways to man rails in classic Navy formation.

“It was a moving moment for me,” Patricia Stethem said later. “We know this ship bearing my son’s name is in capable hands.”

The Stethem is the 13th ship built of the 32 Arleigh Burke class destroyers planned by the Navy. It will be stationed in San Diego.

The destroyer was developed to protect aircraft carriers or other battle groups.

Armed to the teeth, the Stethem has three types of missiles, two types of torpedoes, a five-inch gun and a Gatling gun capable of spraying a hail of bullets at anything that manages to get through long-range defenses.

What distinguishes the ship is its space-age technology, called the Aegis combat and control system, after the protective shield borne by Zeus in Greek mythology.

The Stethem carries the Navy’s most advanced radar, which can scan in all directions to simultaneously track hundreds of aircraft and missiles from the top of waves to the stratosphere. Its computers can automatically fire missiles and other weapons if the ship falls under attack.

The Navy is now working on a booster for its standard missiles so that destroyers like the Stethem can shoot down missiles such as the Iraqi Scuds that were launched at civilian targets during the Gulf War.

Once that booster is developed, the Stethem could be used as a shield for coastal communities--a floating Patriot missile system cruising just offshore.

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Ship Tours

The Stethem will be open to the public for free tours from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. today. To visit the Stethem, enter the Pleasant Valley Gate of the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Port Hueneme. The gate is at the end of Pleasant Valley Road near its intersection with Ventura Road. For information, (805) 982-2057.