Date of Birth: 10/20/1949
Neighborhood: South Philadelphia
High School: Bishop Neumann High School
Street: Dickinson Street
Branch of Service: Navy
Rank: SN
Date of Casualty: 06/23/1970
Province of Casualty: Phong Dinh
Philadelphia Memorial Panel: Panel 8
Panel Row: 9
Click on the memorial panel below for a printable photo of the serviceman on this page.
Donnelly loved swimming, fishing and camping. "Jackie and water were hand and glove," his father said. He was on the swimming team at Bishop Neumann High School for several years and had been a lifeguard at the Vare Recreation Center for the Philadelphia Department of Recreation and a swimming instructor before entering the Navy in October 1968. Deeply loyal to his country, he played the drum in veterans parades, his eyes welling with tears when he heard taps. The 1968 Neumann graduate volunteered for Navy Seal Team one and underwater demolition teams. He died in a helicopter crash on the Cau Mau Peninsula in Phong Dinh Province, Vietnam, on June 23, 1970. He was 20 years old. Donnelly was survived by his parents, a brother and two sisters. An applied electronics training facility at the Naval Fleet Training Center in Norfolk, Va., was dedicated in his honor. A new eight-floor Bachelor Enlisted Quarters at the San Diego Naval Station was dedicated in Donnelly's memory earlier this mont