[NMC EXP]

Major O'Donnell was from Springfield, Illinois. Born August 13, 1945. MIA on March 24, 1970. He served with the 170th Aviation Company, 52nd Aviation Battalion, 17th Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Brigade.

Michael D O'Donnell is on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, panel 12W line 40.

The remains of the 7 Americans lost in this crash were repatriated on 12 Apr 1995 and positively identified on 20 Jun 2001.

The 7 men are:
Major Michael O'Donnell, CPT Jerry L Pool, CW3 John C Hosken, SFC John A Boronski, SFC Gary A Harned, SSGT Rudy M Becerra, SSGT Berman Ganoe.

[.308]

Great poem! I've seen it before, somewhere, but then lost it. This time I will print it and hang it on my wall.

[dandelion]

Their thoughts are with me always - and their legacy shines. These veterans, these sacrificed dead of Vietnam - they are forever preserved in the amber of memory as the best of their generation.

The Vietnam veterans' sanctimonious peers - the powerful, egotistical hoard that reviled these servicemen in "protest" of the war - continue to bleat and whine, but time has revealed them for what they are; aging, bloated self-worshippers who tried to disguise self-love as morality. These onanistic martinets have spent their lifetimes singing their own praises while silencing all dissent, but the truth remains...

The purity of youth, the beauty of humanity, the best of the "Boom" bled in the jungles of Vietnam.