In That Time: Michael O'Donnell and the Tragic Era of Vietnam

by Daniel H. Weiss

Through the story of the brief, brave life of a promising poet, the president and CEO of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art evokes the turmoil and tragedy of the Vietnam War era.

In That Time tells the story of the American experience in Vietnam through the life of Michael O'Donnell, a bright young musician and poet who served as a soldier and helicopter pilot. O'Donnell wrote with great sensitivity and poetic force, and his best-known poem is among the most beloved of the war. In 1970, during an attempt to rescue fellow soldiers stranded under heavy fire, O'Donnell's helicopter was shot down in the jungles of Cambodia. He remained missing in action for almost three decades.

Although he never fired a shot in Vietnam, O'Donnell served in one of the most dangerous roles of the war, all the while using poetry to express his inner feelings and to reflect on the tragedy that was unfolding around him. O'Donnell's life is both a powerful, personal story and a compelling, universal one about how America lost its way in the 1960s, but also how hope can flower in the margins of even the darkest chapters of the American story.

Genres: History, Biography, War, Poetry

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 5, 2019

About the author

Daniel H. Weiss is Homewood Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University and President Emeritus of the Metropolitan Museum of Art where he served from 2015-2023.

A scholar of art history and a seasoned leader of complex institutions, Weiss was previously President and Professor of Art History of Haverford College and, from 2005 to 2013 of Lafayette College. He holds an MBA from Yale and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University in western medieval and Byzantine art, where he joined the art history faculty and in six years rose to full professor and then chair of the department. Three years later, he became the James B. Knapp Dean of Johns Hopkins’s Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.

The author of seven books and numerous articles, Weiss has published and lectured widely on a variety of topics, including the art of the Middle Ages and the Crusades, higher education, museums, and American culture.

Reviews

[Mary Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael O'Donnell will long be remembered as a soldier, a rescue helicopter pilot, and a poet. He was a beloved son, a brother, a friend, a fiancé, and a talented musician. His poetry inspired fellow soldiers that understood the poetic force behind his words.

Once an aspiring songwriter, Michael volunteered to serve in Vietnam instead of waiting to be drafted. By choosing enlistment, O'Donnell thought he'd have the ability to control service to his country. O'Donnell successfully completed officer training and was given the special opportunity to become a helicopter pilot. Performing well, Mike met every challenge head-on. Once in Vietnam, Michael expressed himself through songwriting and poetry.

Tragically, Captain Michael O'Donnell became a casualty of war on March 24, 1970. He was declared MIA after attempting a dangerous rescue extraction. Ordered to wait for backup, O'Donnell watched from the air as enemies advanced on fellow soldiers. It appeared to be the end of the line for the reconnaissance team on the ground. There was no time to wait. O'Donnell's slick (a UH-1 helicopter transport), followed by a team of Cobras, flew through a small opening in the jungle's canopy. Although exposed, he held position. Michael O'Donnell's last reported words were, "I've got all eight, I'm coming out." What remains tragic to those that witnessed O'Donnell's bravery is that he was so close to success. Returning to base, pilot Jonny Kemper said, "It was the most heroic act I have ever seen." Mike's comrades had little time to reflect. The demands of war continued. The primary focus was supporting one another – doing what's required to survive another day. While gathering O'Donnell's personal effects, comrades discovered a collection of poems in a file labeled Letters from Pleiku. In death (or MIA), O'Donnell became an inspiration.

Now, reading his work, they were deeply moved. The poems spoke directly to soldiers with their own experience and a grim reality faced every day in a distant and terrible place – far from everything and everyone they loved. Mike's friends copied the collection of writings, distributing them around the base. Soon, the poems began to circulate widely from base to base throughout Vietnam.

By the end of the war in 1975, Michael O'Donnell's poems were well known. He will always be remembered as a war poet of importance, heroism, and inspiration.

No matter your thoughts or understanding of Vietnam, O'Donnell's words resonate with those that lived the Vietnam experience. O'Donnell was lost in the unforgiving terrain of Vietnam for thirty years but his voice is a living testament and tribute to soldiers that died, soldiers that returned, and soldiers that left something deep behind in the jungles of Ratanakiri Province and beyond.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daniel Weiss has written a well researched, easily read, clearly explained, and very moving book that tells the story of a young man “who sacrificed everything for a cause that meant so little.” He himself describes it as “first and foremost a story about loss and reconciliation, for an individual and our nation, but it is also a gesture of respect.” After 50 years, Michael O’Donnell is due our respect and I hope my reading and sharing provides a small measure of that.

I read this book because I have a personal connection. I taught for years with Marcus Sullivan who contributed to and is mentioned in this book. Marcus was a close friend of the title character Michael O'Donnell, who, like Marcus, went to Vietnam, but unlike Marcus, did not come home. Author Weiss traces their friendship, their mutual love of music and poetry alongside the looming threat of the draft and the increasing numbers of young American men, just like them, who were dying oversees. And so part of this book is Michael's personal story, which differs perhaps little from many of the over 58,000 American soldiers killed in Vietnam, but is powerfully sorrowful, a gut-punch when seen up close. This tragic loss of young lives is exemplified and personalized and amplified by the loss of Michael's talent and promise, which is on full display (and therefore not entirely "lost") in the searching/searing/sensitive poems scattered throughout this book, written by Michael before he left, while in training, and finally as he faced an almost certain end in a faraway land for unclear or unknown reasons. And that is the other part of this book: the history of America's involvement in Vietnam, both the political machinations behind the scenes and the growing unpopularity of the war at home. While Michael's story and poems brought me to tears several times, the political story of lies and deceit and misjudgments and the resulting devastation to American families made me want to scream and tear my hair out. Or maybe more accurately, find someone responsible and make them pay. But presidents and generals, politicians and military men, retire and write memoirs while Michael's body lay unrecovered in a Cambodian jungle valley for 30 years.

Perhaps it's because I just missed being in Marcus and Michael's boots (I'm 8 years younger) but I found the first half of this book gripping. Weiss adds historical perspective of how the war started and escalated which adds to the growing sense of doom that eventually surrounds O'Donnell and his friends. The later half details the aftermath of Michael's death, the end of the war, the fate of the veterans who returned, and the eventual government efforts to recover and properly honor and bury the more than 2,500 Americans left behind. This section completes the story in a fascinating and informative way but it lacks the narrative drive of the beginning. However, none of the book drags as the writing is clear, direct, and understandable.

Michael O'Donnell's poem "If You Are Able," from which the title of this book comes, has a fame of its own and appears on memorials and in commemorative booklets. I'm tempted to include it here but if you are unfamiliar with it, you should really encounter it first in the context of this book.

One final note on the political aspect of this book. Weiss believes that the greatest good, perhaps the only good, that can come from the American tragedy that was Vietnam is that we learn something and never repeat our mistakes. He points out how "President Johnson and his civilian advisers deepened the American commitment in Vietnam through a series of near-term political decisions that were focused on advancing their domestic agenda, and not on a careful and informed understanding of the issues in Vietnam." He adds that "the president deliberately excluded from his deliberations the opinions of those who might disagree with him" and notes the "inexperience and arrogance" of those who did make the decisions. That couldn't happen now, could it? Although his mentions of Iraq and Afghanistan are brief, it seems Weiss is worried we didn't learn from Vietnam or that we have forgotten our lessons. How frightening is this sentence considering our current Commander in Chief? "If the leaders in the era of Vietnam had demonstrated a greater capacity to wield their power with humility, to learn from those who were knowledgable rather than to manipulate and exploit them, to base their decision-making on principles of integrity and truthfulness rather than expediency and self-interest, and to act with courage in doing what they knew to be right, the outcome in Vietnam would almost certainly have been very different."

[Jill Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

More than 57,000 men (and a few women) did not return alive from their tours of duty in Vietnam. One was Michael O'Donnell, a sweet, loved and loving 24 year old, from the Midwest. He was a singer of folk songs and a writer of poems, and he left parents, an older sister, and a fiance to mourn him. He died in 1970 in a helicopter crash in Cambodia, where he was flying a mission to pick up downed soldiers. All aboard were killed in a fiery crash; their helicopter was not found til the late 1990’s, when their bodies were brought back to the United States for burial at Arlingtoni Cemetery. His parents - his father died in 1988 and his mother was lost to Alzheimers - never knew what happened to their boy.

In his book "In That Time: Michael O'Donnell and the Tragic Era of Vietnam", Daniel Weiss uses the life...and death of Michael O'Donnell as an example of what and who we lost when fighting that doomed war. The book, which is quite short, flips between O'Donnell's life and the "life" of the war. He also intersperses poems by O'Donnell and others in the text. He looks at the history of that tragic war, with ill conceived notions on whether the US could "win" the war, back to should we even have been there. We meet Michael O'Donnell through the words of those who loved and valued him, and in the official correspondence to his family from our government in the years after 1970.

I was of the Vietnam generation but never knew anybody who actually went to Vietnam. Then, in my middle-age, I met many men who were there, and a few women, too. Most of them have stories of the war and their service, and will talk about it if asked. Some don't want to talk about it and I sure don't blame them. Daniel Weiss gives voice to one lost man, but I'll bet his story was echoed by many, many more who actually went to fight in a war they knew was doomed to fail.

Daniel Weiss has written a beautiful book. He has made sure that Michael O'Donnell will never be forgotten.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read many Vietnam war memoirs and tributes. This one is decidedly short on the connection to the soldier being remembered because there is so much historical teaching surrounding him. A small fragment of the book is actually about Michael O’Donnell, and the majority is a history lesson about the Vietnam war. I would rather read multiple memoirs/biographies and learn pieces of information in each one than to have so many facts and figures and so much political commentary that I lose sight of the man or woman I am trying to read about.

This is a story of an MIA soldier who waited for decades to come home. I wanted to feel more for him, to read his poems and songs that were repeatedly mentioned, and to genuinely grieve his loss and the disservice that our country did to him by not bringing him home sooner.

[Danton West · Rating 4 out of 5]

Felt this one. As someone who was fairly clueless about the Vietnam war it was a beautiful if brief and personal introduction.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5-Minor Spoilers

‘...when we land too hard or get torn, from the outside or within we spill out and stain the hands of everyone who knew us...’-25 Oct 1969

A historical account of the Vietnam war, in particular Michael O’ Donnell, a helicopter pilot who perished in Cambodia in 1970. O’ Donnell distinguished himself from others who served, by expressing his loneliness, fear, and frustration through music and poetry, all while yearning to be home. Weiss sews other authored poems in through his vigorous research ranging from Vietminh to Confederacy, All of them play a important role in this publication, linking sorrowful combatant experiences to the war that was taking place at home.

Special thanks to NetGalley for providing eBook for honest review.

[Mike Cunha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first came across Michael O’Donnell’s poem “Letters from Pleiku” in the credits for the 1987 film Hamburger Hill. In the days of VHS, I stopped and played the film until I had written down every line of that poem. It has stayed with me ever since.

Daniel Weiss’ book on the life of one American soldier who died in the Vietnam War may be short, but it is no less powerful. It is doubly more powerful in that O’Donnell and Weiss shared no personal connection whatsoever. As Weiss himself writes in the author’s note at the beginning of the book, “...I never knew Michael O’Donnell. Why then have I decided to write about a young helicopter pilot I never knew, who was lost long ago, in a war few want to remember?”

Weiss goes on to answer by saying that he felt “compelled” to write the book. He was “deeply moved” by O’Donnell’s poem “Letters from Pleiku,” and he understood that in this one resonant poem that its author was asking “that we simply remember the people who sacrificed everything for a cause that meant so little. Even if the war should be consigned to oblivion, those who were left behind…should not.”

“In That Time” is the story of Michael O’Donnell’s life, from his upbringing on through the lives of those around him whom he touched and upon which he left an indelible mark, to his tragic end in the jungles of Indochina. We do not read here of a man in a military life. Rather, we read of a man’s life that saw its early end in military service.

In his days as a helicopter pilot in the northern reaches of South Vietnam, O’Donnell chronicled his and his buddies’ lives in his poetry. He channeled his feelings of loneliness, of being irrevocably separated from his former world, in lines that still reach into one’s soul today:

“Like dreams
carved from bars
of Ivory Soap
you float by and melt away
with the passing of each day,
growing smaller
and smaller
until there is nothing
left of you
to touch…”

US Army CPT Michael O’Donnell was killed in action during a horrific helicopter extraction in heavy combat on the 24th of March, 1970. His remains, along with the remains of some of those on his helicopter that day, would be lost in the jungle until early 1998. Their recovery brought some closure to those who still carried Michael in their hearts.

“In That Time” honours and brings to light the bright life of one of the 58,220 dead of the Vietnam War, showing us that these were not but names and ranks. These men and women were real people whose tragic passing left open wounds in the lives of those who loved them. Michael O’Donnell asked that he and the others whose ranks he joined be remembered, and Daniel Weiss’ book will help in that endeavour.

As well, Michael’s words remain with us, ensuring that he will not be forgotten.

“If you are able

Save a place for them

Inside of you . . .

And save one backward glance

When you are leaving

For the places they can

No longer go . . .

Be not ashamed to say

You loved them,

Though you may

Or may not have always . . .

Take what they have left

And what they have taught you

With their dying

And keep it with your own . . .

And in that time

When men decide and feel safe

To call the war insane,

Take one moment to embrace

Those gentle heroes

You left behind. . .”

[Dave Berry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Davis O'Donnell is a hero of mine. I first became aware of his poetry in a story in Stars and Stripes when I too was a young soldier in Vietnam. I carried that clipping in my wallet another dozen years after coming home, then left it by his name (on Panel 12W, Line 40) at The Wall during my first visit to the Vietnam Memorial. Thousands of Vietnam veterans have come to know his poetry; few know his story. Daniel Weiss does a wonderful job of introducing us to the young man who, like many of us, did not understand the reasons and rationale for the war. But he carried on, did his job, looked out for his buddies and died in a faraway jungle. The words he scribbled between missions express the doubts and struggles so many of us felt. Mike O'Donnell would never know the impact of his writing: "And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind." Mike is one of those gentle heroes who - for a time, at least - was left behind. Now is the right time for this book.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My hear weeps....When I was a little girl growing up in Kentucky, I had a POW bracelet that had belonged to my mother that I used to wear. I remember wondering about the man whose name was engraved there. Who was he and what happened to him? The name on that bracelet was Captain Michael O'Donnell. It is so good and so tragic to finally put a face to the name and know his story. I think had I known him, we would have been friends. This book was so well written and interesting, especially for someone like me who grew up in a different era. We remember you Michael and we thank you for your service. God bless.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book follows the story of one young brave war-helicopter pilot O’Donnell who noted down his war journey in the forms of poems and letters to family and friends, and many for his own keeps. Yet much more than that, the book shares valuable insights about the cause and aftermath of this war, raising the red-flag question of “in the case of Vietnam, by the question of what, beyond self-defense, constitutes a legitimate basis to wage war - sacrificing others in service of a political idea - and by whose authority such decision should be made”.

[Roy Farchmin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! A poignant story of an MIA Huey pilot and poet who was shot down in Cambodia in 1970 (we overlapped in deployment) and whose remains were recovered in 1998. In addition to the personal tragic story, this is a great commentary on the insanity of the Vietnam war. But, the real tragedy, is that the United States learned nothing and has repeated the craziness in Iraq and most depressingly is repeating it right now in Afghanistan.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Educational and moving. This book melds a compact history lesson of the Vietnam war with the poetry and story of one soldier. It points out lessons learned and lessons missed, then and now, and provides a glimpse into the physical and emotional aspects of those who served there. It is well written and captures your interest right from the start. Highly recommended.

[Sara Danzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sat down to read a few pages and couldn’t put it down.

[Robert A. Neuman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just Excellent

Read it in one sitting..brilliant! I recommend it too all interested in the history and the legacy of the American war in Vietn
am.

[Robert Colvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story of a horrible time. O'Donnell's poetry is so moving. Highly recommended.

[Paul Womack · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was in Vietnam during the period of Michael O’Donnell’s tour. The poetry resonates. It is all so sad, so very sad.

[Aurora · Rating 5 out of 5]

In That Time--one of those books falling in the category of ethos--proves a worthwhile read for those wanting to share in a personal experience of war, and sound the depths of the Vietnam War's legacy in particular. This biography tells that story from the perspective of a 23 year old poet, songwriter, and musician, Michael O'Donnell. Like many young American men in the Vietnam era, he knew he would likely be drafted, so he chose to enlist in the Air Force.

The book opens with O'Donnell's now-famous poem (excerpted here):

"Take what they have left and they have taught you with their dying...and in that time...take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind."

While on one of many of his rescue missions within the "secret war" extending the Vietnam War into Cambodia and Laos, Captain Michael O'Donnell was shot down piloting his "slick"--a helicopter for troop transport, stripped of external guns and rockets--on a rescue mission near the North Vietnamese border in Cambodia. Just weeks before his fatal mission rescuing that reconnaissance team, he penned the above poem entitled, In that Time.

O'Donnell had just recently lost a close friend (a fellow pilot) and his crew in a friendly fire incident, and every day he endured the same routine of inserting secret reconnaissance teams, returning with wounded or dying soldiers-- or often his sole cargo--those in body bags. The author relates how O'Donnell's fiancée, sister, and best friend stateside knew how disconsolate he had become in his isolated location, living this daily routine fraught with high risk and loss.

As captain of his platoon of helicopters on March , O'Donnell made the fateful decision to proceed in a rescue without full air support, knowing the small ground crew on a secret reconnaissance mission under relentless NVA pursuit, and also becoming trapped by Napalm fires, had no other chance to survive. His skilled, heroic attempt that brought all six successfully on board, but ended nonetheless in the death of them all, plus O'Donnell and his crew when they were hit by a ground rocket before exiting the steep canyon.

The author crafts O'Donnell's life story well in just 176 pages, weaving the personal authenticity of this young man and his struggle to find value and meaning as he is inserted in the life and death drama of this complicated conflict. And the author helps reveal to the reader the value and difference this young man's life made to both his comrades, and to all those reading his poetry posthumously.

Later, the Parks and History Association published O'Donnell's poem, In That Time, in the booklet provided by the government, entitled, Let Us Remember: the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which serves as a guide to one of the most visited sites in Washington. O'Donnell's elegiac poem, reflects upon the sacrifices of war, and serves as an epitaph honoring equally all those who gave their lives for their comrades, regardless of their beliefs about the war's validity.

Many Americans have friends or family who were forever affected by this decade of Vietnam, and certainly as citizens we are affected by the legacy of that war. One Air Force B52 mechanic working on those bombers--as they returned from those secret missions, burning hot and dripping with Napalm--described how it was, seeing them continuously lining up on the airstrip. I find this book has value and is a good read for anyone to understand this decade of history and its legacy from a deeply human perspective.

[Andy Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 4th of July read - A visit by Dan Weiss

For the 247th birthday of our country I read this written by Dan Weiss about a poet warrior who died in my generation’s great conflict in Vietnam. It begins with a poem: If you are able
Save a place
Inside of you…
I know other poet warriors. One was my son, also named Daniel. I think a God wink brought this to me. I wept with my grief’s insights leading me to that sure knowledge of the insanity of war and of all we owe to the warriors both living among us and those who have died.

Michael O’Donnell and all my older brothers give me hope as they teach me still about the cost of our Republic’s high ideals.

An excellent read. Thank you.