DONNELLY
Col Pete Donnelly
- Silver Star
- Legion of Merit
- Distinguished Flying Cross
- None on file
SERVICE RECORD
Colonel Peter “Dude” Donnelly is the architect, conscience, and quiet storm behind Carrier Air Wing ZERO (CVW-0 “Deep Scythe”). A legend across multiple branches of service, Donnelly’s career defies categorization — a man who has lived three military lives and burned through none of them. He began as a USAF bomber pilot, cutting his teeth in B-52’s during the twilight years of Cold War deterrence. When that wasn’t enough, he volunteered for ground duty, earning a TACP (Tactical Air Control Party) slot and spending years embedded with special operations units across Afghanistan.
By the time Donnelly returned to the air, he had become something more than a pilot or controller — he was a tactician forged in every dimension of war. His transition from the chaos of the battlefield to the high command of black-budget aviation programs was inevitable. The Pentagon called him “a necessary problem,” a man whose vision for modern warfare was as inspiring as it was unsettling. When the opportunity arose to form CVW-0 “Deep Scythe”, a carrier wing designed to operate beyond political oversight, Donnelly was given carte blanche — and one warning: “Don’t make us regret this.”