Patrick K. O’Donnell is a military historian and the author of five previous books: Beyond Valor, bestseller and winner of the prestigious William E. Colby Award for Outstanding Military History; Into the Rising Sun; Operatives, Spies and Saboteurs; The Brenner Assignment, which received international praise, and the highly acclaimed We Were One, about a Marine platoon in the Battle of Fallujah.

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, special operations and counterinsurgency on the modern battlefield. O’Donnell is also the founder of The Drop Zone, an award-winning online oral history Web site. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.