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Posted on 02/28/2005 8:48:37 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
A true heroine (Monica Crowley)
Last week, we lost a true heroine. I’m not talking about a movie star, or a rock star, or a sports star. I’m talking about a woman you’ve probably never heard of, but who was one of the first people to stand up to terrorism— face to face.
Her name was Uli Derickson, and on June 14, 1985, she was a flight attendant aboard a TWA flight from Athens to Rome when it was hijacked by Lebanese terrorists. Of the 152 terrified passengers and crew, it was Ms. Derickson who took courageous control. The two hijackers spoke no English, but Ms. Derickson spoke to them in German, even calming them by singing a German ballad they requested. When they threatened one passenger, she intervened by explaining that his daughter had been delivered by a Lebanese doctor. She also put herself in harm’s way, commanding the terrorists, “Don’t you hit that person!”
When a ground crew in Algiers refused to refuel the plane without payment, she offered her Shell credit card and paid the $5,000 fuel bill herself.
At one point, the terrorists asked her to go through the passengers’ passports and single out those with Jewish-sounding names. She hid the passports instead.
After about 36 hours, she and several other hostages were released and 13 days later, the entire ordeal was over, with one death, a Navy diver.
She became the first woman to receive the Silver Cross for Valor and remained a flight attendant for years afterward.
(Continues below...)
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Where does courage like that come from? It comes from character. Uli Derickson showed us that you don’t have to have superhuman strength or great wealth or fame to do the right thing. You just have to have the courage of your convictions. One woman stood alone against terror— and won. That was the epitome of heroism.
E-mail MCrowley@MSNBC.com
She was a real hero. No doubt.
WARNING: This is a high volume ping list
I heard this one on MC's Saturday radio program. What a story!
The "Navy Diver" was, US Navy, IIRC. Just another of the Americans Arafat and his merry men were permitted to murder over the years, overlooked as Bubba had the old terrorist to the White House more than any other "honored" guest.
In a decadent age where self-indulgent materialism, apathy and amorality seems too often to be the human norm it is vital to the compassionate soul to see from time to time that some people of good character still exist who have not forgotten what it is to be truly human[e] and who have sufficient courage of convictions to stand for decency and right even at ultimate risk to themselves.
BRAVO Ms Derickson...Requiescat in Paces.
Reminds me of another hero -- the stewardess, Cristina Jones, who spotted Richard Reid, the shoe bomber and saved that flight.
Ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Bless those who refuse to cut and run when the going gets tough!
Are you forgetting those who rushed into the burning buildings to rescue people?
Are you forgetting the heroism at the Pentagon?
Let's praise those who rise to the occasion and offer prayers for them and their loved ones.
You know, I didn't see her as a hero, although a few things she did were heroic. I saw her as a sort of accomplice. She co-operated with the terrorists and helped them. I wonder if they could have done anything if she would not have helped them? Is paying for the fuel heroic? Helping these terrorist escape? Imad Mugniyah, Ali Atwa, and Hassan Izz-Al-Din, lived to kill more people! She may have "saved" some on the flight, but other people were killed when these Hezzbolla terrorists escaped:
On March 17, 1992 they bombed the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires Argentina, which killed 29 and the AIMA cultural building in July 1994, killing 86 people. They were behind the 2000 abductions of three Israeli soldiers in the southern part of Lebanon and abduction of Israeli Colonel Elchanan Tenenbaum.
And the article has it wrong, she actually did collect and hand over the passports, and the terrorists rounded up the Jews---and found the American navy diver, Robert Stethem---who they beat to death. Another Seaman was beaten almost to death, and yes, she bravely stepped between the uncivilized, primative barbarians and the boy. I just have to say, "brave" terrorists, aren't they? They need 5 guys to beat up one American! They are really cowards, who can not fight...and would rather committ suicide than take on an American military personnel in a fair fight....but, anyway, I wonder if the family of Robert Stethem thinks of this woman as a hero?
The 'zero tolerance' approach to this would be to shoot down any hijacked aircraft...which I think is now the case in the USA that any such aircraft will be shot down in the future to prevent another 9/11.
The woman's actions preserved most of the lives of her passengers and I think it is unfair to assess blame on her for the future actions of the terrorists. She was a flight attendant and not a soldier. It was the job of soldiers and governments to hunt down and kill the vermin who hijacked the plane.
Robert Dean Stetham of Waldorf, MD.
Heroism is not a zero-sum game; recognizing one example of it cited on this thread in no way diminishes the heroism of others. I'm certainly NOT forgetting the many heroes of 9/11 and if I'd been on FreeRepublic at that time I'd have posted effusive praise for those heroes also.
Let's praise ALL those who rise to the occasion indeed and offer prayers for them and their loved ones.
IMHO, we are in an age of sacrifice and honor as evidenced by our volunteer military and the re-election of our president.
Well, I am looking at this with post 9-11 eyes.
Yet the guys who hijacked this plane also bombed the Marine Barracks in Beirut.
I certainly understand your reference to sacrifice and honour with regards to your volunteer military but I do not understand your adding "...and the re-election of our president."
"...Sacrifice and honor as evidenced by...the re-election of your president"???
Imo it is no sacrifice to vote but yes is an honour as well as a right and sacred duty...yet that honour is the same whether RE-electing an incumbent as was your President or electing a challenger as was Sen Kerry. The Honour is in the act of voting ITSELF not in WHOM one votes for.
Perhaps I am misunderstanding you?
When we re-elected our President we knew it might mean that our sons or daughters might have to go to war. I consider that a sacrifice borne of patriotism.
Now I understand your viewpoint...thanks.
I seem to remember a surreal episode of the media meeting with skyjackers and everyone acting as tho they were at a party. Giving the murdering scum a forum and treating them with the utmost courtesy.
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