TWA Bombing, Disco Blast : Rites Held for 5 American Victims of Terrorist Acts

Five American victims of terrorism were buried Saturday in emotion-charged services in three cities, and one mourner told their killers, “You will never destroy the heart and soul of America.”

In a red brick church in Annapolis, Md., services were held for three generations of a Greek immigrant family hurled out of an airliner to their deaths by a terrorist bomb, and in Stratford, Conn., a long cortege followed the body of Alberto Ospina into Gates of Heaven cemetery for burial. The Colombian-born Ospina was the fourth American fatality on TWA Flight 840.

In Detroit, services were conducted for Sgt. Kenneth T. Ford, the only American killed in the terrorist bombing of a West Berlin discotheque.

The airline bomb exploded April 2, on a Trans World Airlines flight over Greece. Demetra Stylian, 52, her daughter Maria Stylian Klug, 24, and Maria’s 9-month-old daughter, Demetra Cristina, were pulled out the gaping hole at 15,000 feet. Their bodies were found by a shepherd near the village of Argos. Both the women were born in Greece.

Mourners From Greece

On a quiet lane in Annapolis on Saturday, 350 people crowded into Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church for the funeral. Many were members of the Stylian family from Greece.

Swinging an ornate silver censer that sent incense wafting through the small church, Metropolitan Silas, the second-highest ranking Greek Orthodox prelate in the Western Hemisphere, blessed the three victims and then condemned all terrorism.

“Our sense of loss converts quickly to a sense of outrage when we consider how easily a few sick people can destroy the lives of others,” he said.

Warren Klug, 25, called reporters together outside the church where he married Maria Stylian 20 months ago to read a statement from the family.

“To those responsible for this cowardly act, you have succeeded in devastating our family, but you will never destroy the heart and spirit of America,” he read, choking back tears. “We anxiously await your judgment day before Americans who are not defenseless, and more importantly, before God.”

In Detroit, more than 250 people packed tiny Flowery Mount Baptist Church to honor Ford, who was remembered by a brother as a father figure who “always wanted to help somebody else.”

“He’ll be a brother sometimes, but he was like a father also,” said Robin Beecham, Ford’s younger brother who is a U.S. Army private stationed in West Germany.

“When he sees you make a mistake or he knows a way that you can do things better, he kind of pulled away from the brother side and would sit you down and tell you how to go about doing it,” Beechem said.

The Rev. Floyd Moore criticized President Reagan from the pulpit for failing to telephone the Ford family after the bombing.

Reagan Criticized

“The family and I are very upset because the head of this nation, President Ronald Reagan, has not called this family,” Moore said before the soldier’s flag-draped coffin.

At Forest Hills Cemetery, Ford’s parents wept quietly and as the bugler sounded Taps, tears began rolling down Beecham’s cheeks.

In Stratford, Conn., flags flew at half-staff and a police honor guard lined up in the chill outside St. James Roman Catholic Church as the casket carrying the 39-year-old Ospina was carried out. His widow and two children sobbed as roses were laid atop the coffin.

Ospina, who became an American citizen six years ago after emigrating from Colombia, was a medical supplies salesman who traveled the world on business.