Michael W. Donnelly

Background

Michael was born on February 3, 1959 in Orange, California, United States. He was the son of Thomas James (an attorney) and Raffaela (a homemaker) Donnelly.

Education

A native of Connecticut, Donnelly attended East Catholic High School. He studied at Fairfield University and received a Bachelor of Arts in 1981. Besides, he finished Midwestern State University with his Master of Arts in 1996.

Career

Donnelly joined the United States Air Force in 1981 and became a fighter pilot, primarily flying the A-10 "Warthog" and F-16. Stationed in Germany, he saw combat in the Middle East during the Persian Gulf War. After the Gulf War he became Chief of Standardization and Evaluation with the 80th Flying Training Wing and trained NATO pilots.

Donnelly contracted ALS while serving in the Gulf. The illness, which he believed was caused by exposure to environmental toxins while he was in the Middle East, forced him to retire in 1996; he had achieved the rank of major by that time. Publishing his story in Falcon's Cry: A Desert Storm Memoir in 1998, with the help of his sister Denise, Donnelly became a champion for veterans' rights. He campaigned before Congress to get them to acknowledge that servicemen were contracting illnesses, including ALS and other diseases, that could be directly linked to their Gulf War duties. He led a six-year campaign to convince the federal government of the connection between Lou Gehrig's Disease and active service in the Gulf, and provided testimony to the United States Congress regarding this issue. Scientific evidence eventually backed up his claims, and in 2001 the government acknowledged the link and began paying more benefits to veterans.

Achievements

• Michael Donnelly was a retired U.S. Air Force pilot and Gulf War veteran, whose struggle with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, led him to call for more benefits from the military for its veterans. He quickly gained national recognition as a veteran's advocate, including appearing in a feature article in People Magazine. He was a co-author of ther famous book Falcon's Cry: A Desert Storm Memoir, based on his story.
  
  The Major Michael Donnelly Land Preserve, in his hometown of South Windsor, Connecticut, is named for him.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Falcon's Cry: A Desert Storm Memoir

    (When Major Michael Donnelly was instructing his U.S. Air ...)

    1998

Views

Quotations: “My book is not about revenge, or even anger, although I have been very angry and have often wished for revenge. My book is about the power of love - my family’s love for me, my own love for my wife and children, for my parents, for my siblings, and my love for my country. I would not have you be persuaded to cynicism by my story. Rather, I would ask you to consider the danger of complacency... I wrote this book so that you would know the real story of what has happened to yet another generation of patriots, and so that you might be moved to act, to prevent it from happening again, so that you might be moved to do whatever it takes to protect the ideals for which I risked my life, ideals which I believe most Americans still truly value.”

Connections

In 1984 Michael married Susan Allen (a homemaker). They have children: Erin Caitlyn, Sean Michael.

Father:

Thomas James Donnelly

Mother:

Raffaela Donnelly

Spouse:

Susan Allen

Sister:

Denise Donnelly

Daughter:

Erin Caitlyn Donnelly

Son:

Sean Michael Donnelly

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 184
  2000