Patrick K. O'Donnell

Patrick K. O’Donnell is a critically acclaimed American author who has written eight books on military history. 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.

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]

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 is required reading for Marines.

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]

Bibliography

• Beyond Valor: World War II's Ranger and Airborne veterans reveal the heart of combat 2001 ISBN 9780684873848 which won the Colby Circle Award for Outstanding Military History.
• Into the Rising Sun: in their own words, World War II's Pacific veterans reveal the heart of combat 2002 ISBN 9780743214803
• Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs: the unknown story of the men and women of World War II's OSS. 2004 ISBN 9780743235723
• We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder With the Marines Who Took Fallujah 2007 ISBN 9780306815737
• The Brenner Assignment: The Untold Story of The Daring Spy Mission of WWII 2008 ISBN 9780306815775
• They Dared Return: the true story of Jewish spies behind the line in Nazi Germany 2009 ISBN 9780306818004
• Give Me Tomorrow: The Korean War’s Greatest Untold Story – The Epic Stand Of The Marines Of George Company 2010 ISBN 9780306818011
• Dog Company: Boys of Pointe Du Hoc Rangers Who Landed at D-Day and Fought Across Europe 2012 ISBN 9780306820298

References

External links

• http://www.patrickkodonnell.com
• http://www.realinglorious.com/#!gallery/c1pwt
• Author Interview on Operatives, Spies and Saboteurs: The Unknown Story of the Men and Women of WWII's OSS on March 18, 2004, at the Pritzker Military Library
• Author Interview on We Were One on November 16, 2006, at the Pritzker Military Library
• Author Interview on Dog Company on November 15, 2012, at the Pritzker Military Library