Van of Valor

Van of Valor unveils the harrowing story of a shot-up Huey, a rear-seated pilot who returned fire with an M-16 and gave immediate trauma care to two shot pilots while shot himself, an impossible radiator-seat landing, and the Air Force “High Bird” that guided them home.

This impossibly valorous single-incident chapter of a legendary Tet Offensive mission—a tale of gut-level courage, an unbreakable crew, and one very bad day in Vietnam—is coming to  www.HelpVoV.com, this Autumn or early Winter.

July 15, 2026 – Van of Valor proudly announces the launch into an extraordinary true story of American battlefield heroism, featuring Loren McAnally, the pilot who took control from the radiator seat of a catastrophically damaged UH-1 Huey and, without a single working gauge or flight control, brought his aircraft down alive. Guiding him through the darkness was the Air Force HC-130 Crown “High Bird,” the eye in the sky that coordinated the entire rescue task force, managed every critical radio transmission, and talked McAnally through an impossible landing under fire.

But this is only half the story.

Soon, www.HelpVoV.com will pull back the curtain on the full mission—a high-speed, pulse-pounding account that drops you into the chaos of the Tet Offensive, where a mixed crew of Army pilots and enlisted men found themselves at the wrong place on the wrong day. You will meet Bobby Zahn, McAnally’s life-long friend and a hero in his own right on that same mission. You’ll learn the full story of his heroism that impossible day. You will learn the fates and the raw courage of the crew chief, the pilot, the co-pilot, and every man who fought to keep that shattered Huey in the air. You will see, for the first time in full, how the Air Force’s watchful eye above held a thin line of hope against overwhelming odds.

“This isn’t a cleaned-up war story—it’s loud, it’s brutal, and it’s real,” said the Van of Valor team. “It captures one terrible day for a band of brothers who refused to quit. We’re honored to bring their legacy to the American people.”

Captivating. High-speed. Intense. This is the stuff of Cavalry legend, and it lives now at the Eyes of the Ninth.

Visit www.HelpVoV.com today to read the opening account and sign up to be the first to experience the complete mission. The cavalry’s story deserves to be told—and it’s only getting started.

Note: The feature image is of a separate, but squadron-related story of another 1/9 Cav hero; a two-time Silver Star valorous Blue named Sgt. Barry McAlpine. We highly recommend you read all their stories of heroism here, and in the Van of Valor book.

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