Catholic cardinal
He has a passion for preserving oral histories of combat veterans.
Has been studying World War II and modern was since childhood.
He fought with a marine rifle platoon (Lima Company 3/1) during the battle of Fallujah.
He survived several ambushes. And carried a mortally wounded Marine out of a fire fight.
Hes written several books on military history. Including "Dog Company: The boys of Pointe du Hoc", "Give Me Tomorrow", "They Dared Return", "The Brenner Assignment", "We Were One", and others.
During the Iraq war. ODonnell was embedded with military units as the only civilian combat historian.
