Barbara Ferguson & Essam Al-Ghalib, Arab News

WASHINGTON/ JEDDAH, 20 June 2004 — Family members of Paul M. Johnson, the American hostage beheaded by terrorists on Friday, released a statement thanking Saudi and US authorities for their efforts to rescue him.

Johnson’s family gathered in Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey and nearby Galloway Township but remained behind closed doors as news filtered in that Al-Qaeda had beheaded Johnson.

Yellow ribbons were tied on posts in the yard of the homes, and the small southern New Jersey town was filled with signs reading, “Our Prayers are with the Johnson family.”

Excerpts from the statement issued Friday night by the Johnson family, including his mother, siblings and children, were read out by FBI Special Agent Joseph Billy.

“They understand the Saudis and the United States did everything they could under very difficult circumstances,” Billy read from their statement.

“Paul considered Saudi Arabia his home. He loved the people and the country,” he said. “They also know this act of terrorism was committed by extremists and does not represent the Saudi Arabia that Paul often spoke and wrote about to his family.

“They knew the odds were not in the favor of law enforcement,” he said. “They also know that the vast majority of citizens of Saudi Arabia also grieves with them at this time.”

Johnson, an engineer for the defense contractor Lockheed Martin, worked on Apache helicopter systems for the Saudi government. At the time of his abduction, Johnson was working on targeting and night vision systems.

His kidnappers said he was singled out for that reason.

After Thursday night’s candlelight vigil in Eagleswood Township, where Johnson grew up, community members felt helpless, Kelly said.

“Today, we can only pray for his soul,” he said.

Outside local wholesale outlet Captain’s Carpets a sign read, “Paul Johnson will live forever unlike those cowards that will never.”

In the humid thickness of June, there was anger — at Al-Qaeda, at the Saudis, at President Bush — and disbelief that Johnson’s life had come to this end.

Neil Marzano, 47, a contractor from Eagleswood, New Jersey, said: “We are sending our people over there to help them and then they do this to us. It’s not right.”

His 67-year-old mother, who is ailing, lives with Johnson’s brother, Wayne, in a trailer park in Stafford Township. His sister, Donna Mayeux, lives in Little Egg Harbor.

Johnson left his hometown long ago, and friends intimated that he rarely wanted to look back. His father died when Paul was a teenager. His mother, brother and sister took it hard, friends said. Paul, then a tall, lean youngster who loved to listen to music, was left pretty much to himself. He read — joining the library club at high school in Manahawkin — and tinkered and took up bird-watching.

His uncle, Bob Fischer, watched Paul navigate those years and shoulder so many of his family’s troubles. “He kept the house warm and the food flowing,” Fischer told The Washington Post. “Nothing really bothered him because he had been through so much.”

Debbie Fadde, a school friend, has a simpler bottom line. “If the yuck of life makes you stronger,” she said, “then Paul should be Hercules.”

These are tightly knit blue-collar towns, and those born here tend to die here. Over and over, one hears a local saying: “Our creek may be shallow, but our roots run deep.”

“Paul was willing to take the risk to leave this,” Fadde said.

At first, he commuted by motorcycle to the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark. But at some point he joined the Air Force and left. “He knew where he was going and what he wanted to do in life,” Fadde said.

Johnson never returned to live in New Jersey. He stayed in touch with just a few friends and relatives, often by e-mail.

He wound up in Saudi Arabia, equipping military helicopters with night vision and radar instruments. He liked the desert heat and liked to scuba-dive in the Red Sea.

In Saudi Arabia, he will be remembered by many as a friendly, easy-going fellow with little interest in politics.

Paul was a well-known figure in Jeddah’s diving community. A licensed divemaster, he would make regular trips to Jeddah to dive in the Red Sea.

One scuba shop manager remembers him as a customer who came to Jeddah from Riyadh frequently to dive.

“I knew Paul as a customer,” he told Arab News on condition of anonymity. “He would come to our store whenever he was in Jeddah with his Thai wife, Num, always part of a group of four or five other divers.”

The two were building their dream home in Thailand.

“I remember Paul when he first came to the store. He was with a group of at least seven people. They spent about SR30,000 that day. Since that time, he has come in on a regular basis to service his scuba diving regulator.

“Paul struck me as a friendly person who loved his wife greatly, always doting on her. Whenever he walked into the dive store, he would project happiness and feelings of comfort, always remembering everyone’s first names. He seemed like a happy person.”

Johnson was distinctively American. “What I remember most of all about Paul was that he always came in wearing a cowboy hat. I am just guessing that that was what maybe made him stick out,” he said.

“I am very sad about what happened. My thoughts and prayers are with his wife and family. He was a good guy and I wish nothing had happened to him,” the manager said.