Van of Valor

VIRGINIA CITY, Nevada – The Purple Heart is a medal unlike any other. It is not sought, but bestowed; a small, enameled badge of courage paid for with blood and trauma. 

For U.S. Army National Guard Sgt. Blanca Taylor, that price came due on a dusty Iraqi road on New Year’s Day, 2005 — a day that began with hope and ended in fire and gunfire, forever etching her name into the roster of the nation’s combat wounded.

But a medal, even one as revered as the Purple Heart, is a silent artifact. Alone, it carries no voice.

“A Purple Heart’s true story lives in the heart of the recipient and, if not captured, risks fading with time. It is this very gap between a symbol and a story that creates a narrative many Americans cannot resonate with; what we aim to change,” said Dr. Kevin P. Wallace, Purple Heart recipient and Van of Valor cofounder. 

To help combat what they saw as flailing patriotism in America, Dr. Wallace and his wife, Lauren Wallace, sold off most of their worldly belongings to move into the Van of Valor fulltime to capture these stories.

“Ensuring that the sacrifices of heroes like Sergeant Taylor are not just recorded in military archives, but are remembered, shared, and honored by the citizens they served,” said Mrs. Wallace, a practicing anthropologist and History graduate student at Harvard University. 

SGT Taylor’s story is one of steadfast service. Enlisting in the Army National Guard in August 2002, she served for more than a decade with the 1864th Motor Transport Company. As a truck driver, she was the backbone of military logistics, the vital artery moving supplies and personnel through a hostile landscape during her deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The morning of January 1, 2005, was meant to be a transition. Taylor was driving her heavy truck back to Kuwait, the mission nearly complete. The convoy was halted initially; another unit was disarming an improvised explosive device (IED) on the other side of the road. The all-clear was given, and the lumbering line of vehicles pressed on, the tension easing with each passing meter.

That illusion of safety lasted about five minutes.

Without warning, a massive IED detonated directly beneath the front right tire of Taylor’s truck. The force of the blast was catastrophic.

“The cabin immediately filled with thick, black smoke. You couldn’t see, you could barely breathe,” Taylor would later recount. But in that maelstrom of noise, heat, and confusion, her training and instinct took over. Despite the disorientation and the searing pain, she kept her foot firmly on the accelerator, knowing that stopping in the kill zone meant certain death for her and her fellow Soldiers.

As the convoy began taking enemy fire, Taylor’s act of sheer will became the difference between life and death. She wrestled the crippled vehicle, its engine screaming and frame mangled, further down the road, putting precious distance between her team and the attackers. 

She drove until the truck, bleeding fuel and hope, finally shuddered to a permanent stop. Only then did she and her co-driver evacuate, eventually finding salvation through aerial support that swooped in to suppress the enemy and secure their rescue.

For her injuries and her extraordinary composure under fire, SGT Taylor was awarded the Purple Heart. It joined a collection of commendations earned through a dedicated career, including the Army Commendation Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal. But the physical medals in a shadow box could never fully capture the terror and triumph of that day.

The Van of Valor: Giving Voice to Sacrifice

It is in the space between a medal’s gleam and the veteran’s memory that Dr. and Mrs. Wallace park their Van of Valor. Theirs is a modern-day mission, a rolling testament to remembrance. They travel the continental United States in a renovated van, a mobile studio and home, on a singular quest: to collect and share the stories of Purple Heart recipients and Gold Star families. 

However, due to maintenance issues, the van is currently broken down in Billings, Montana, and the Wallaces are in a rental vehicle.

“We started this project because we believe that these stories are a national treasure,” said Dr. Wallace. “They are lessons in sacrifice, courage, and patriotism that cannot be allowed to fade. Our van is the vehicle, but the community we build and the histories we preserve are the real mission.”

Their methodology is simple yet profound: they go to the heroes. They connect with veterans in their own communities, sit with them, and listen. 

They record firsthand accounts, ensuring that the nuances of tone, the pause before a difficult memory, and the resolve in a veteran’s eyes become part of the historical record. By sharing these stories through social media and public engagements, they create a living, breathing archive of service and sacrifice.

A Legacy Forged in Fire, Preserved in Story

Sometimes the parallel paths of Purple Heart recipients or Gold Star Families and the Van of Valor converge. 

Taylor was selected to represent her fellow Purple Heart heroes as Nevada’s honoree during the 2023 Purple Heart Patriot Project Mission, a separate but complementary program that honors the combat wounded. Her participation highlighted her as a pillar of her community and a symbol of resilience.

While the Van of Valor team has not yet interviewed Taylor due to the aforementioned maintenance issues and a new, accelerated plan, her story is precisely the kind they travel the country to find. It’s a narrative that showcases not just the moment of injury, but the character that defined the response. Taylor’s story is not one of a victim, but of a warrior who, in the face of chaos, fulfilled her duty to her last ounce of strength.

Her legacy, and the legacies of thousands like her, is what the Van of Valor seeks to protect. They understand that the phrase “Never Forget” is an active verb. It requires listening, documenting, and sharing. It requires ensuring that the story behind a Purple Heart — the story of a young soldier from Nevada who kept driving through the smoke — is passed on to a new generation.

The Purple Heart medal is a silent testament to a day of violence and pain. But thanks to SGT Blanca Taylor’s courage and the dedicated work of citizens like the Wallaces, the story it tells will never be silent again. 

“It’s a story of sacrifice, yes, but also of survival, duty, and the unbreakable bond between those who serve and the nation that must strive, always, to be worthy of their sacrifice,” said the Harvard student, who is dedicated to helping these valorous stories reach more audiences.

For more information, or to share a story with the Van of Valor, visit their website at http://www.HelpVoV.com or follow their journey on social media @VanOfValor.