Bucks County dedicated Bridge 36 in Newtown Township on Tuesday in honor of U.S. Army Warrant Officer William Herbert McDonnell, a 19-year-old helicopter pilot killed in action during the Vietnam War.
The ceremony marks the 15th bridge dedication since the county began its Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge Program in 2022.
McDonnell died on Jan. 24, 1969, after his UH-1C helicopter was shot down while providing cover for supply convoys in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. The local man was serving as aircraft commander and leading three other helicopters when he identified an enemy ambush site and made an offensive strike to draw fire away from the convoys.
“Despite the hazardous terrain, Warrant Officer McDonnell deftly maneuvered his aircraft, giving his gunners maximum field of vision while at the same time avoiding the enemy’s fire,” said Matt Allen, director of veterans affairs for Bucks County, reading from McDonnell’s Silver Star citation during the ceremony.
The helicopter crashed after enemy fire penetrated vital parts of the helicopter, killing McDonnell and three crew members: Warrant Officer Scott C. Griswold, Specialist Bruce Westmoreland, and Specialist John O. Tafoya.
McDonnell posthumously received the Silver Star, the military’s third-highest decoration for valor in combat, for his actions that day.
The citation notes his “exceptionally valorous actions” while serving with the 170th Assault Helicopter Company.
The bridge named for McDonnell crosses Newtown Creek along Wrights Road in Newtown Township, which is near where he grew up.
McDonnell, known to friends as Billy, was a 1967 graduate of Council Rock High School.
“It’s only right that we honor him today and name this bridge and put a marker with his name on it so that everyone from now on that passes this bridge will be able to look at that marker and see William’s name,” said Bucks County Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo.
The ceremony featured a flyover by a restored UH-1C helicopter from the Liberty War Birds Association.
Ed Preston, chairman of the Pennsylvania Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund who helps organize the dedications, noted the aircraft was likely piloted by McDonnell during his service in Vietnam.
“We are 99.9 percent sure that Bill piloted that helicopter in Vietnam in combat,” Preston said, explaining that the helicopter arrived in Vietnam on Jan. 3, 1969, just 21 days before McDonnell’s aircraft was shot down and was in the same unit.
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McDonnell’s brother, Brian, spoke at the ceremony, sharing memories of growing up with his older brother in Newtown Borough and later Newtown Township after the family moved.
Brian McDonnell described McDonnell as “a Newtown boy, 100 percent” who attended Chancellor Street School and Council Rock High School when the area was still largely rural.
“If you were at a red light on State Street and there was two cars behind you, that was a traffic jam,” Brian McDonnell said, describing the Newtown of the 1960s.
He recalled his brother as popular and always active, noting that McDonnell went directly from high school graduation to basic training and flight school before deploying to Vietnam. The family saw him only once after high school, at his flight school graduation when he received his wings.
“One of the sad realities of his loss is after high school he went right into basic training,” Brian McDonnell said. “So all my memories of him are from school days.”
Commissioner Chairperson Bob Harvie noted the significance of dedicating bridges near where the honored veterans lived.
“It’s obviously very conceivable that he traveled over this road at some point in his life, over this bridge, probably never thinking about it,” Harvie said.
The commissioner also reflected on the responsibility placed on young service members like McDonnell, who was leading other soldiers in combat at just 19 years old.
“The trust we put in our young men and women when we put them into harm’s way,” Harvie said. “That at 19 years of age, piloting an expensive aircraft, leading the lives of other men, doing it on behalf of this country.”
McDonnell is buried in Newtown Cemetery, not far from the newly dedicated bridge.
Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia noted that McDonnell’s grave site in Newtown Cemetery is located near other Vietnam veterans honored through the bridge program, including one who was the co-pilot of her prisoner of war’s helicopter.
“There is a quote at the bottom of his stone that I will end with,” Ellis-Marseglia said. “And it says he is a proud young American who served his country honorably.”
Peter Chong, a member of the U.S. Army who was representing Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick’s office, presented the McDonnell family with an American flag that was flown over the U.S. Capitol in the warrant officer’s honor.
“This bridge will now bear his name, a permanent tribute to a man who soared above the battlefield and gave his life in service,” Chong said.
Elen Snyder, the chairperson of the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors, said McDonnell gave up his life to protect America. She thanked all those veterans who did make it home.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge Program honors the 136 Bucks County residents who were killed in action or remain missing from the Vietnam War.
Preston works with county officials to locate bridges as close as possible to where the honored veterans lived or are buried.
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