File photo

Photos: Sgt. John Davis Harvey and the Iran hostage crisis

John Davis Harvey — a Roanoke native son, born on Memorial Day, killed at America's dawn of terrorism a quarter-century ago — lives on. In yellowed news clippings. In marble monuments. In his family's dreams.

"It seems like yesterday," said Jean Harvey, 82, whose son was one of eight U.S. servicemen killed April 25, 1980, during an aborted mission to rescue Americans taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Iran. "I think of Davis every day of my life — something he's done or hasn't done. You have to go on, but you don't ever get over losing a child."

While America's global war on terrorism officially started Sept. 11, 2001, many people consider Nov. 4, 1979, as the first major terrorist act against the United States, when Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. In January 1981, after failed negotiations and the aborted rescue effort, the 52 hostages were freed when the U.S. government released nearly $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets and signed an agreement prohibiting the hostages from suing Iran for damages.

The ill-conceived 1980 rescue attempt prompted America to reorganize its military special forces, creating the U.S. Special Operations Command. The failed mission also hurt the re-election chances of President Carter. And some say America's handling of the Iran hostage crisis emboldened terrorists and laid the groundwork for the U.S. campaign against insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan today.

"There's no question Sept. 11 and the [Iraq] war are rooted" in the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East, said Richard Kohn, the chairman of the curriculum in peace, war and defense at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a former Pentagon chief of Air Force history.

But Kohn said the Iran hostage crisis is just one of many factors that led to America's war on terrorism today, including U.S. intervention in Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf War and other results of U.S. foreign policy.

The Iran hostage crisis mostly stems from America's Cold War policy of supporting the shah of Iran and other totalitarian foreign regimes — no matter how unpopular with their own citizens — to try to contain communism and advance other U.S. strategic interests, Kohn said.

"We have to look at that [Iran hostage] crisis in the context of its time rather than as helping to build a worldwide terrorism threat," he said.

The Harvey family doesn't dwell on the larger ramifications of the Iran hostage crisis. Their loss 25 years ago Monday was personal — a son, brother, husband and father, embodied in one young man they loved deeply. His grave is on a grassy hillside in Sherwood Memorial Park in Salem. His name is engraved in war monuments in downtown Roanoke and in Arlington National Cemetery. He left his wife, Alisa Hillman Harvey, and daughter, Lauren Beth Harvey, who today live in Richmond, and his parents, Jean and John Harvey, and sister, Jaye Harvey, who live in Roanoke.

Western Virginia has a second connection to the Iran hostage crisis. Army Maj. Richard "Dick" Meadows, a Covington native who grew up in poverty as the son of a moonshiner, was a highly decorated Green Beret and a legendary figure in the U.S. Special Forces.

In 1980, he was retired from the military, but he volunteered to lead a team of U.S. agents into the Iranian capital to scout out the embassy where the hostages were held. When the rescue mission was aborted, Meadows, who posed as an Irish businessman, and his team of agents were left behind. All eventually escaped safely.

Known for his quiet heroism and a lifetime of adventure, Meadows was the subject of books and magazine covers. There is an 8-foot bronze statue of him at Fort Bragg, N.C., home of the Army Special Forces. He died of leukemia in Florida in 1995.

A quarter-century after the Iran hostage crisis, after all the history books and news articles and broadcasts and memorial services, there's not much left for the Harvey family to say publicly that hasn't been said. They remember Davis Harvey privately, in their thoughts, their prayers, their dreams.

"We think of him all the time," especially whenever Marines are killed in the Iraq war, said his father, John Harvey, 89, an Air Force veteran of World War II.

A remembrance ceremony is held each April 25 at Arlington National Cemetery, where a monument's brass marker lists the names of the three Marines and five Air Force crew members killed in the Iran hostage rescue crash at an aircraft refueling site code-named Desert One.

The servicemen's families used to stay in touch, but those ties have faded over the years. Monday, the eight families — and some ex-hostages — are expected to reunite for Arlington's 25th anniversary remembrance service.

Harvey was a 21-year-old Marine sergeant when he volunteered for the rescue mission, which was aborted because of a sandstorm and equipment failure. A Marine helicopter hit one of the Air Force transport planes at a clandestine refueling site in Iran's Great Salt Desert, creating a massive explosion that killed eight and injured four servicemen. Harvey was the youngest of the troops to die.

"I don't think they ever knew what hit them," Jean Harvey said. "I hope not."

A former choirboy and Boy Scout, Davis Harvey graduated from Patrick Henry High School in 1976. He was gregarious, tall and handsome. He was also an average student who was unmotivated, quick-tempered, unsure what to do with life.

He worked construction until the next spring, when he decided to join the Marines. He thrived under the discipline, impressing his superiors, moving up the ranks, becoming a specialist in helicopter electronics. The Marines matured him, helped him settle down. He married his high school sweetheart. They had a daughter.

Jean Harvey's memories of that long-ago morning, April 25, 1980, remain clear — hearing on the radio about the rescue attempt, the call from her husband to come home from work right away, knowing before she arrived that it was the worst.

"It's horrible," she said, remembering the Marine officers standing in her family room. "You know why they're there."

She remembers how Iranians cheered as the U.S. servicemen's bodies were paraded through the streets of Tehran.

"It was ghoulish, desecrating the bodies that way," she said.

Sitting in their home recently — a tidy brick ranch on a tree-lined street near Patrick Henry High School — the Harveys leafed through their two scrapbooks on their son. They bulge with clippings, photos, citations, condolence letters from President Carter, generals, other dignitaries, the yellowed telegram from the Marine commandant informing them of their son's fate.

On the family room wall is a gold-framed oil painting of Davis — 7 years old and smiling — next to a similar portrait of his sister. His boyhood sports trophies are still in the basement. A bookcase that he made is down there, too. He was handy with wood. His parents think often of their only son.

"I wonder what he'd be doing today," Jean Harvey said softly.

President Carter, who ordered U.S. flags flown at half-staff around the world, considered the young servicemen to be heroes.

"We know that it is not the length of a life that determines its impact or its meaning or its quality, but the depth of its commitment and the height of its purpose," Carter told hundreds of mourners at the memorial services in Arlington National Cemetery.

The Harveys said their son wouldn't have considered himself a hero.

"He would have said he was just doing his job and serving his country," his mother said.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made the Harveys reflect anew.

"It makes me sick to think of what the families [of servicemen killed in action] are going through," Jean Harvey said. "There's so much happening in the world today, and I think people do forget" about the Iran hostage crisis. "So, I'm very grateful for these [remembrance] services. It shows some people remember."

In the twilight of their own lives, the Harveys visit their son's grave on his birthday, Christmas and Easter. They remain close to his widow, who remarried, and to his daughter.

"That means so much to us," Jean Harvey said. "They're a part of Davis."

Alisa Harvey Dick said she thinks of her former husband every day. Easter, the day of resurrection and the day they were last together, and the April 25 anniversary of his death are the hardest times.

"It's not something you ever really get over," she said, "but life goes on."

Dick and new husband have two children. They, along with Lauren, who was 2 when her father died, call Jean and John Harvey their grandparents.

"I claim them all," Jean Harvey said, smiling.

Dick calls the Harveys her surrogate parents.

"My parents have been deceased for a long time, so a blessing for me is that Davis' family has become my family," she said. "It's a godsend to us. They're such a great family. I think if I hadn't maintained those ties that life would have been much harder for me."

Dick made sure her daughter understood from an early age that her father was a noble man who died serving his country.

"She's always known and talked about it," Dick said. "Ever since she could read, she's had a speaking part" in the April 25 remembrance service at Arlington.

Lauren Harvey, 27, has few memories of her father, but he has been an important part of her life. His death prompted her to become involved in No Greater Love, a nonprofit foundation that sponsors wreath-layings, remembrance tributes and memorial dedications for families who have lost loved ones in military service or terrorist attacks.

"It's important to support our military personnel even if you don't support going to war," she said.

Lauren Harvey said she thinks most Americans have forgotten the Iran hostage crisis and the servicemen who died.

"If you went up to 20 people on the street, probably five people might know of it," she said. "A lot of things happen in history, and if you don't know anybody who's related to it, you don't remember. That's why they [remembrance ceremonies] are so important. They're not just for the families. They're to help educate people."

Dick said she is consoled whenever people do remember the eight servicemen who perished in the Iranian desert.

"When it happened, there was an incredible outpouring of love and support from people all over the world," she said. "You can't imagine how much comfort that was. And our whole family [the Harveys and Dicks] will be there" at Monday's remembrance service. "There's comfort in family."