Memorial Day is the day America honors the men and women who have sacrificed their lives in military service.
But not all of those lives were lost on the battlefield.
U.S. Air Force fighter pilot Michael Donnelly flew 44 combat missions during the Persian Gulf war, Operation Desert Storm, in the early 1990s.
But in 1996, Donnelly was medically discharged from the Air Force, after being diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
His subsequent fight with the U.S. government to get medical treatment proved to be the most difficult battle he had ever fought.
In 1998, Donnelly and his sister Denise co-wrote Falcon’s Cry: A Desert Storm Memoir.
So here now, from 1998, Denise Donnelly.
Michael Donnelly died in 2005. He was 46.
A 2008 study by the University of Cincinnati found that confirmed 48 cases of ALS in Persian Gulf war veterans.
You may also like these episodes:
Elmo Zumwalt IIIWinnie Smith
Buy Books / Media from Amazon
