In That Time

October 7, 2019
Art historian Weiss (Remaking College: Innovation and the Liberal Arts) eulogizes Michael O’Donnell, a poet, folk musician, and U.S. Army helicopter pilot killed in the Vietnam War, and summarizes “how America lost its way in the 1960s” in this poignant account. In March 1970, O’Donnell and his crew flew their helicopter into Cambodia to rescue a reconnaissance team “pinned down under heavy fire.” They picked up the commandos, but were hit by a missile on their ascent; an air support team arrived just in time to see the helicopter burst into flames and disappear beneath the jungle canopy. Declared missing-in-action, O’Donnell left behind a cache of poems, one of which has been widely anthologized: “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.” Weiss brilliantly evokes O’Donnell’s fatal mission and the toll his MIA status took on his loved ones (his remains were recovered in 2001), but much of the war and postwar history feels like filler. As a précis on the tragic place Vietnam holds in the American consciousness, however, this slim book succeeds admirably. Agent: Karen Gantz, Karen Gantz Literary Management