Following are two citations that Iran celebrates "Death to America" every year on April 24. On that day in 1979 Iranians took scores of American Embassy personnel hostage and kept them for 444 days:
11/5/2014, "Six things you didn't know about the Iran hostage crisis," CNN, Susan Chun
"It has been 35 years since a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took a group of Americans hostage....
6. The former U.S. Embassy in Tehran has been preserved as a museum....
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"Thousands of people also took to the streets in the central Iranian towns of Yazd and Tabas chanting "Death to America" to mark the anniversary, state television said."
"Thousands of people also took to the streets in the central Iranian towns of Yazd and Tabas chanting "Death to America" to mark the anniversary, state television said."
4/24/2008, "Iranians mark US copter crash during failed 1980 rescue try," AP via USA Today, by Ali Akbar Dareini
"DASHT-E-KAVIR, Iran--Hundreds of Iranian
hard-liners held noon prayers and gave thanks Thursday in Iran's central
desert where a U.S. military helicopter crashed in 1980 during a failed
mission to free 52 Americans held hostage at the U.S. Embassy in
Tehran.
Caught in a sandstorm, a helicopter collided with
a C-130 transport plane at the ill-fated operation's desert landing
spot. Eight American servicemen were killed at the spot known in the
U.S. as "Desert One."
Almost 2,000 students and members of the
paramilitary Basij forces were bused to the site in the Dasht-e-Kavir
desert where Iran later erected a "Mosque of Thanks," or Masjed-e-Shokr
in Persian.
The tour, sponsored by Iran's elite Revolutionary
Guards, is an annual event to keep anti-U.S. sentiments high among
Iranian youth. Apart from the mosque, there is nothing at the site 70
miles from the nearest town, Tabas. At night, the mosque light is the
only man-made illumination in the area.
Hundreds at the ceremony kneeled in the midday
heat, remembering the day 28 years ago when U.S. helicopters on the
hostage rescue mission were caught in a vicious sandstorm that led to
the collision. Iranian clerical leaders have credited divine
intervention for the incident.
"The sandstorm was God's miracle that protected
the revolutionary Iran at that time from a foreign attack it was not
militarily capable of dealing with," said Abdolrahim Rahimi, a cultural
official in Tabas.
He said the gathering thanked God for "nullifying the conspiracy of the U.S. against the newly established Islamic republic."
Addressing the worshippers, Sardar Alaei, a
Revolutionary Guards commander, said Iran should build a city called
"Death to America" at the site to showcase "America's failure in
invading Iran."
Thousands of people also took to the streets in
the central Iranian towns of Yazd and Tabas chanting "Death to America"
to mark the anniversary, state television said.
The U.S. operation ordered by President Carter
was designed as a complex two-night mission beginning on April 24, 1980.
The first stage involved establishing a small staging post at the
Desert One site.
Eight RH-53D helicopters, flying in at low
altitude from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in the Indian Ocean, were
supposed to rendezvous with C-130 transport planes at the site.
Two helicopters turned back because of mechanical
problems, and one of the six that made it to Desert One had a
malfunctioning hydraulics system, leading commanders to order the
mission aborted.
But as the helicopters maneuvered into position
for refueling on the ground, the whirling rotors of one sliced into a
C-130 carrying fuel, setting off a fire that killed eight servicemen and
injured several others. The force loaded onto the remaining aircraft
and flew to safety.
After extensive diplomatic efforts, the U.S.
Embassy hostages were eventually released on Jan. 20, 1981, shortly
after President Reagan took the oath of office. They had spent 444 days
in captivity."
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Image caption: "Remains of a burned-out U.S. helicopter
lies in front of abandoned chopper in the eastern desert region of
Iran, April 27,1980, one day after an abortive American commando raid to
free the U.S. Embassy hostages. (AP Photo) Photo: AP"
Above AP photo, image 2, from UK Telegraph article:
9/27/13, "Lieutenant-General James Vaught," UK Telegraph
"Lieutenant-General James Vaught, who has died aged 86, commanded Operation Eagle Claw, the mission to rescue American hostages in 1980 which failed disastrously amid a catalogue of errors in the remote Iranian desert."
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