Patrick K. O'Donnell

Patrick K. O'Donnell
Occupation Military Historian
Nationality United States
Period 1999 - present
Genre Military History
Notable works First SEALs, The Brenner Assignment, We Were One, Beyond Valour, Operatives, Spies and Saboteurs, Dog Company
Website
www.patrickkodonnell.com

Patrick K. O’Donnell is a critically acclaimed American author who has written ten books on military history. His most recent book is First SEALs: The Untold Story of the Forging of America's Most Elite Unit. He received the Colby Circle Award for Outstanding Military History for his best-selling book, Beyond Valour. His other works include Into the Rising Sun; Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs; We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder With the Marines Who Took Fallujah; The Brenner Assignment: The Untold Story of the Most Daring Spy Mission of WWII; They Dared Return; Give Me Tomorrow: The Korean War’s Greatest Untold Story – The Epic Stand Of The Marines Of George Company; and Dog Company: Boys of Pointe Du Hoc Rangers Who Landed at D-Day and Fought Across Europe.

Writing career

As an unpaid, volunteer combat historian, O’Donnell spent three months in Iraq in uniform and conducted oral histories of U.S. troops in battle. On a later tour to Iraq, he also served as a war correspondent for Men's Journal and Fox News. His writing has also appeared in Military History Quarterly (MHQ), WWII Magazine, and a number of well-known blogs.

As an expert on WWII espionage, special operations, and counter-insurgency, O'Donnell has provided historical consulting for DreamWorks’ award-winning miniseries Band of Brothers, and for scores of documentaries produced by the BBC, the History Channel, and Fox News.[1] His book They Dared Return was the basis for the independent documentary The Real Inglorious Bastards. He also served as a consultant for the Medal of Honor game franchise.[1]

Personal life

O’Donnell is also the founder of the Drop Zone, a website and virtual community for combat veterans and the interested public. It includes more than 4,000 oral history interviews he has personally conducted with American veterans of wars from World War I to Iraq and Afghanistan.

He is native of Westlake, Ohio, and attended American University for his undergraduate studies and Johns Hopkins for his graduate work.[1]

Awards & Recognition

O'Donnell's books have been chosen as Main or Alternate selections of the Book-of-the-Month, History, and Military History Book Clubs. In 2012, the OSS society presented O'Donnell with the John Waller Award, which recognizes achievement in scholarship related to intelligence and special operations history. O'Donnell's book We Were One was chosen for the Commandants' Professional Reading List and is required reading for Marines.

Bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 3 Author's bio at literary representative, Zack Company Retrieved on 2011-01-04

External links

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