Patrick O'Donnell

Patrick K. O’Donnell is the critically acclaimed author of the bestseller Beyond Valor, which won the Colby Circle Award for Outstanding Military History, as well as Into the Rising Sun,  Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs, and the recently published We  Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder With the Marines Who Took Fallujah.  O’Donnell was the only civilian historian to spend three months in Iraq in uniform and conduct oral histories of our troops in battle.  He literally fought with the marines in Fallujah, was ambushed several times, and dragged a mortally wounded marine from battle.  He has provided historical consulting for DreamWorks’ award-winning miniseries Band of Brothers, and for documentaries produced by the BBC, the History Channel, and Fox News.  He is an expert on WWII espionage and special operations.  O’Donnell is also the founder of the Drop Zone (www.thedropzone.org), an award-winning web site dedicated to preserving the oral histories of veterans.  His books and website have been widely praised by newspapers across the country, including USA Today, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times.  His books have been Main or Alternate selections of the Book-of-the-Month, History, and Military History Book-Clubs, and have been released as audiobooks from Random House Audio and Blackstone Audiobooks.

His next book, THE BRENNER ASSIGNMENT, is a thrilling account of a daring OSS mission behind enemy lines. It will be published by Da Capo Press in October 2008.