Legendary US Army Ranger William ‘Doc’ Donovan achieves very rare special operations honor

Within the U.S. special operations community, a few operators will attain such a level of respect amongst their peers that essentially makes them living legends. For those glorified few comes an instant recognition and reverence from everyone within their own SOF community – be it Army Rangers, Navy SEALs, Green Berets, Marine Raiders, or others – if not from the entirety of the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM). Those individuals also inevitably find their way into the SOCOM Commando Hall of Honor, to be immortalized forever by the SOF community. 

Each year since 2010, SOCOM has inducted a new class of SOF legends into the Hall. In April of this year, one of the most famous Army Rangers ever to have served – Chief Warrant Officer 4 (CW4) William “Doc” Donovan – was inducted into the Hall.

The Commando Hall of Honor was created in 2010 by then-SOCOM Commander U.S. Navy Admiral (SEAL) Eric T. Olson.  

This most recent honor makes Donovan one of only two individuals inducted into both SOCOM’s Commando Hall of Honor as well as its newly-created Medical Hall of Honor, in which he was an inaugural inductee in 2024. The only other individual inducted into both is former Ranger and Special Forces medic – and Distinguished Service Cross recipient – Army Colonel Dr. Robert “Bob” Mabry.

Donovan is also a member of the Ranger Hall of Fame.

Doc Donovan served for 28 years in the U.S. Army, starting his career in the jungles of Vietnam where he earned a Purple Heart while serving with the Army’s 5th Special Forces Group. He then moved to the 1st Ranger Battalion in 1974, where he served for over 20 years and quickly became the battalion’s senior medic. In 1980, he served as the Task Force Ranger senior medic during Operation Eagle Claw, better known as “Desert One,” the attempted and ill-fated hostage rescue mission in Iran. He then volunteered for and successfully became the first physician assistant (PA) in the Ranger Battalion the next year.

Doc would go on to make Ranger combat parachute jumps into both Grenada and Panama in the early 1980s, and to serve in combat operations with the Rangers in Operations Desert Storm (Iraq) and Restore Hope (Somalia) in the early 1990s. In 1992, he was awarded the U.S. Army’s Soldier’s Medal for his heroic actions in recovering the remains of nine Rangers and three aircrew – and rescuing and treating one survivor – during a Ranger helicopter training accident in Utah’s Great Salt Lake.

“Doc Bill,” as this author has always known him since the early 2000s, retired from the U.S. Army in 1995, and went on to continue to support U.S. global military operations worldwide as a civilian. In his distinguished career, he is credited with saving many lives, from Vietnam to Grenada to Afghanistan, where he served post-military retirement (and where this author first got to know him). 

For two decades, Doc Bill was the central figure in Ranger Medic training and development, creating one of the most highly-respected combat medic programs in the U.S. military. He is not only a legend in the Ranger community, but one of the most professional and dedicated combat medics the U.S. military has likely ever produced. He is now justly immortalized forever in the Commando Hall of Honor. I am hard-pressed to think of a more deserving inductee.

The author thanks U.S. Army Col. Michael Tarpey, retired U.S. Army Master Sgt. Harold Montgomery, retired U.S. Navy Captain Frank K. Butler, and U.S. Army Ltc. James Lopata for contributing material for this article.

Feature Image: U.S. Army Gen. Bryan Fenton, middle left, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command and U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Shane Shorter, middle right, command senior enlisted leader of SOCOM, unveil the Commando Hall of Honor plaque displaying names of the 18 newest inductees during an induction ceremony at MacDill Air Force Base, FL., April 16, 2025. William Donovan is second from left. (Photo by Tech Sgt. Marleah Miller/U.S. Air Force)

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