Posted on 02/11/2013 7:26:27 PM PST by Selene
The reality television show cast member who died in a helicopter crash in Southern California on Sunday was an Army Special Forces veteran who had served four tours of duty in Iraq, family members said Monday.
The cast member, Michael Donatelli, 45, “was going to show off a lot of his military skills” on the show, which was in production for the Discovery Channel, said one of his nieces, Venessa Vega.
(Excerpt) Read more at mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com ...
“In Iraq he was a member of the Army’s elite counterterrorist unit Delta Force.”
Mike Donatelli was from my hometown of Indiana, Pa.
RIP Mike.
As high school Freshman, he was a better man and had more leadership qualities than the POS that currently serves as CinC.
RIP Mike.
Discovery has a “reality” show?
They are everywhere now. Used to like Nat'l Gepgraphic shows on African lions, etc., now it is just reality shows featuring Navaho cops going after illegal alien criminals. Animal Planet channel has gone nuts with reality shows tatooed women going after lost dogs, Texans catching rattlesnakes, and swamp boys catching gators. All the good nature shows are gone.
Prayers up
Crash occurred at 3:40am.. A.M. Huh?
Prayers up for him and his family.
Too bad for a brave man and his family. I hope the show had provided him with a life insurance policy so that his family can be supported. As a vet, he had some benefits, but not enough to keep the family in necessities.
Some of our best and bravest on return to civilian life are having a hard time finding jobs due to the economy. They try security and dangerous jobs such as he was doing to just keep body and soul together. Not good as they often have learned good leadership and management skills, but such jobs are scarce and hard to find.
When the helicopter went down, just about the first thread on it, people were speculating that it was another example of a special forces/ second amendment activist getting taken out. It was pure speculation, because nothing was known about it at the time — but it was correct.
I have to admit my initial reaction was “Another one?!!”
Can you summarize why you think the speculation was correct?
But there have been, I think, half a dozen such people who died in surprising ways in the past month or two. Seems to be slightly above what one would normally expect. Of course, some of us are now "on the lookout" for such news events, and so we see things we might never have noticed.
I don't want to make too much of it, but Obama doesn't like the military, and he doesn't like guns, and there seem to be a fair number of such people who are dying. It's just "unexpected".
My guess. Tight shooting schedule. Unforseen holdups. Day ran long.
Nothing Good comes from Reality Shows. May he RIP.
Interesting that a helicopter goes down on a movie ranch in southern california anywhere and no one gets any video of it?
Why were they in a helicopter at 3am? That would make filming it a bit difficult, I would think.
Good grief, these guys are dropping like flies. Seems they are in more danger now than when they were on missions.
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