Van Orden was stationed as captain and Marine detachment commander at the Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, when airship "LZ 129 Hindenburg" crashed on May 6, 1937. He commanded his Marines during the salvage operation and received a letter of commendation by the commandant, Thomas Holcomb, "for exercising "good judgment and initiative in immediately leading his Marine Detachment to the scene of the disastrous destruction by fire of the "Hindenburg" as it nosed to its mooring mast."