SAN DIEGO — A San Diego artist who dedicated his life to helping Vietnam veterans recover from PTSD passed away last week but his legacy is being honored.
Steve Maloney, 78, served in the Michigan National Guard alongside the troops who were deployed to Vietnam for the war. He spent the last nine years dedicating his life to his Take Me Home Huey project where he rebuilt the Huey 174 helicopter that was shot down in Vietnam on February 14, 1969 and turned it into a 47-foot art sculpture.
For two years Maloney toured the U.S. stopping at 29 sites including in Coronado raising awareness about PTSD.
In a memoriam video Maloney talked about the Huey and its healing powers.
“This is a real Warburg for sure. And we all should pay homage [to what] it did during the Vietnam war for these guys,” said Maloney. “I learned it truly was a conversation starter, a trigger for people to talk about their feelings when they were in service.”
The Huey is now on permanent display at the Air Museum in Palm Springs.
Mr. Maloney lived part-time in Rancho Santa Fe and Palm Springs. His close friends of the project say he suddenly passed away from heart complications last week.
His plan was to release the Take Me Home Huey book on March 29th, which is National Vietnam Veterans Recognition Day. His family will honor his legacy and release the 216-page book filled with 180 photos of the Huey project on that date.
“His motto was always that art can be healing, art can spark conversations. And this is what the Huey should be,” said Nicole Teusch-Butcher, Director of Operations, Art by Maloney.
The contemporary artist not only sculpted but he wrote a book, he also made a film and wrote a song with singer Jeanie Cunningham.
She toured with the Huey project and saw the impact it made on veterans who saw horrific things in the war and came home to be called “baby killers”. These veterans spent years burying the scars until they saw Take Me Home Huey.
“It is a place where there is so much reverence for what these men went through that when they touched it, some of them, if they're hypersensitive, they can actually relive many, many stories and feel the souls of the men who have perished just being taxied back from Medevacs,” said Cunningham.
A piece of art that will help heal the wounds of the heroes who fought in the Vietnam war.
“I see this Huey as a wounded warrior veteran, now enlisted as a messenger,” said the late Maloney in the memoriam video.
To learn more about the Take Me Home Huey project and book click here.