O'Donnell was serving aboard Griffin when the carrier travelled to the Aster system, as part of Operation Menelaus. He was charged with delivering the security override code to Dragon, to disable the battleship and allow the boarding teams to get entry to it.

The first transmission apparently succeeded, but was later uncovered to have been a feint concocted by the enemy, to lure the allied forces into a false sense of security. O'Donnell tried several more times to override Dragon's security fail-safe, but was unable to do so.

O'Donnell was killed when an Imperial starfighter crashed onto Griffin's flight deck, causing tremendous damage to the ship and causing parts of the life support to fail. He was flung against the walls and ceiling of the bridge, where he died as a result of a cranial trauma.