Van of Valor

By Dr. Kevin Wallace
Van of Valor

MOAB, Utah – The dust has long settled over the scar in the earth. The shattered windows have been replaced, the shattered lives memorialized in stone and memory. 

But for the families of 19 U.S. Air Force Airmen, the pain of June 25, 1996, is a permanent fixture — a void shaped by a truck bomb, political tensions, and ultimate sacrifice.

Now, a new generation has taken up the mission to ensure their story, and thousands like it, is not forgotten. It’s not a mission born in a briefing room, but on the open road, from within a converted van known as the “Van of Valor.”

The Night the Earth Shook

The Khobar Towers housing complex was meant to be a respite for service members assigned to Operation Southern Watch, the no-fly zone enforcement over southern Iraq. But on that warm June night, the compound became a battlefield.

A sewage tanker, converted into a massive shaped charge containing the equivalent of up to 30,000 pounds of TNT, was parked just 72 feet from Building #131. 

Hezbollah Al-Hejaz, a group demanding the withdrawal of U.S. forces, had delivered on its threat. At approximately 10:20 p.m., they detonated the bomb, killing 19 Airmen and injuring dozens more.

The blast was felt 20 miles away in Bahrain. It left a crater 85 feet wide and 35 feet deep. 

Amid the chaos, heroes emerged. Staff Sgt. Alfredo R. Guerrero, stationed atop the building, initiated a frantic floor-by-floor evacuation, saving countless lives before the detonation.

But for 19 Airmen, there was no escape. They were the cost of a conflict that, for many Americans, was distant and abstract.

We must remember their names:

Capt. Christopher Adams

Capt. Leland Haun

Master Sgt. Michael G. Heiser

Master Sgt. Kendall K. Kitson

Tech. Sgt. Daniel B. Cafourek

Tech. Sgt. Patrick P. Fennig

Tech. Sgt. Thanh V. Nguyen

Staff Sgt. Ronald King

Staff Sgt. Kevin Johnson

Sgt. Millard D. Campbell

Senior Airman Earl F. Cartrette Jr.

Senior Airman Jeremy A. Taylor

Airman 1st Class Christopher Lester

Airman 1st Class Brent E. Marthaler

Airman 1st Class Brian W. McVeigh

Airman 1st Class Peter W. Morgera

Airman 1st Class Joseph E. Rimkus

Airman 1st Class Justin Wood

Airman 1st Class Joshua E. Woody

They were rescue squadron members and fighter squadron personnel, their lives and missions cut short.

A New Mission on the Open Road

While the Khobar Towers attack is a searing memory for the Air Force, the task of preserving its human cost — and the cost of all conflicts — is now carried forward by individuals like Dr. Kevin Wallace, a retired Air Force Senior Master Sgt. and his wife, Lauren, an anthropologist and Harvard University graduate student.

Wallace, a Purple Heart and Bronze Star with Valor recipient himself, understands the weight of sacrifice. 

In 2025, they left their former lives behind, converting a van into a mobile recording studio and tribute to heroes. Their project, the Van of Valor, travels the nation to seek out Purple Heart recipients, Gold Star families, and those awarded for valor, recording their stories for an online archive.

Their mission is one of active preservation: to sit in the living rooms of heroes and families, to listen, and to ensure that a name on a memorial is understood as a person with a story, a family, and a legacy.

A Permanent Place of Honor

In a powerful and tangible act of remembrance, the Van of Valor team has announced a specific plan to honor the Khobar Towers fallen. Upon taking possession of their van again in approximately two weeks, their first order of business will be to add the names of all 19 Airmen to its side.

They transformed the van from a vehicle about remembrance into a rolling memorial itself in July and have been adding names since. As it travels the highways of America, the names of these Airmen will be displayed for all to see, connecting communities from coast to coast with a story of sacrifice that occurred a world away.

The narrative of Khobar Towers is now framed by two powerful, complementary missions.

The first is the mission of the 19 Airmen — a deployment in service to their country that ended in the ultimate sacrifice. It is a story of duty defined by its tragic end.

The second is the ongoing mission of the Van of Valor — a journey of reverence, recording, and return to the public memory. It is a story of duty defined by the unwavering commitment to ensure that no sacrifice is ever forgotten.

One represents the price paid. The other represents the promise to remember, now made concrete with the upcoming inscription of 19 names. 

For the 19 Airmen of Khobar Towers, the Van of Valor’s mission ensures that their stories — and the enduring grief of their Gold Star families — will travel on, a rolling testament ensuring that the stories of sacrifice from Khobar, from Vietnam, from Afghanistan, and from every conflict, continue to be told, understood, and honored.

To read more, visit www.HelpVoV.com