Commander Ellison’s lifetime interest in aviation and space began with encouragement from his parents. His father, A.C. Ellison strongly supported a career in flying through examples from serving as a B-24 pilot during World War II. His mother, Jean Houstman Ellison challenged him to find something in aviation at which he could be better than anyone else.
After growing up on cattle ranches under the big sky in Montana, and with the benefits of those powerful role models, Dan embarked on a Navy career with an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD. Following graduation in 1970 he received orders to flight school in Pensacola, FL. Upon receiving Navy wings, his first duty assignment was with HC-5, a helicopter combat search and rescue squadron based at Imperial Beach, CA. In 1972 his squadron was recommissioned as HSL-31, and he joined a detachment aboard the USS Cook (DE-1083) deployed to Southeast Asia with the forces removing mines from Haiphong Harbor. Rotating to shore duty in 1975 he served as a helicopter flight instructor with HT-18 at NAS Whiting Field, logging nearly 1,500 hours as an instructor pilot.
LT Ellison received orders to VXE-6 in Point Mugu, CA in 1977 and made three deployments to Antarctica supporting National Science Foundation polar research programs. Operating primarily form McMurdo Station on Ross Island as a pilot in UH-1N Twin Huey helicopters, his flight duties included locating meteorites on the polar plateau, capturing penguins for Sea World, transporting research teams to and from the craters of active volcanoes, and hauling rock and fossil samples for ongoing geology studies. He also performed flight duties at remote field camp detachments in Marie Byrd Land, on the Darwin Glacier, and in the Ellsworth Mountains where he served as Officer-in-Charge of the detachment. He survived a helicopter crash at hill #870 near the Byrd Glacier in January 1979, and was a search and rescue mission commander for the lengthy recovery effort following the crash of an Air New Zealand DC-10 on Mount Erebus in November 1979. While visiting Scott Base during his second polar deployment LT Ellison met Elizabeth Jane Fournier, of Nelson, New Zealand and they were married in that city in 1980.
Rotating to shore duty LCDR Ellison served as Operations Officer and senior SAR pilot at NAS Lemoore, CA, again flying the UH-1N Twin Huey. In May 1981 he responded to a request from Yosemite National Park to rescue a critically injured climber from a sheer cliff face in the Cathedral Rocks. Experiencing heavy turbulence and with little margin for error along the cliffs, his crew successfully hoisted a park ranger and the unconscious victim off the rock face and transported her to a hospital where she survived. For this rescue LCDR Ellison was awarded the Air Medal with bronze star for heroism, and was selected from among all Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard aviators as the Helicopter Pilot of the Year for 1982 by the Navy Helicopter Association.
In January 1982 he was the pilot in command on a mission to search for a light aircraft presumed crashed east of Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Locating the crash site on the 5th day of the intensive search, and encountering extremely challenging flight conditions at 11,000 feet, LCDR Ellison and crew rescued the only survivor, a 9 year-old boy. This action resulted in his being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism while participating in aerial flight. In 1983 LCDR Ellison was again selected from among all Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard aviators as the Helicopter Pilot of the Year, becoming the only individual ever selected twice for this honor.
In 1983 he transferred to HSL-37 at NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii and deployed as Helicopter Detachment Officer-in-Charge aboard USS Harold E. Holt (FF-1074) with the Kitty Hawk (CV-63) Battle Group deployed to the Western Pacific and Arabian Sea. On completion of the deployment he was selected for the senior course at the Naval War College. CDR Ellison graduated “with distinction” in 1985 and received orders as Special Assistant to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Space Command at Peterson AFB, Colorado. Serving for the next four years on the nation’s newest Unified Command he developed space operations policy and campaign plans for military and national space systems. Following a lengthy suspension of space shuttle flights he was among the U.S. Space Command’s representatives on hand for the launch of shuttle Discovery in September 1988.
In 1989 he received orders to serve as speechwriter for the Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon. In July 1990, only weeks before to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, he was selected as Legislative Assistant to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell. In this capacity CDR Ellison was the Joint Staff primary liaison with the Foreign Relations, and the Intelligence Committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. He was awarded the Legion of Merit Medal and retired from active duty by General Powell in August 1992.
At retirement CDR Ellison had accumulated over 3,800 pilot hours in over a dozen aircraft types and models, from single engine helicopters to multi-engine transports. He held commercial pilot and instrument ratings for both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. During his flying career he served as an aviator on four continents, was at sea on most of the major oceans, was credited with saving over a dozen lives, and received two of the nation’s highest military decorations awarded to pilots.
Following active duty CDR Ellison returned to the Rocky Mountains and served as a business and financial manager for the U.S. Forest Service in Jackson, Wyoming. He later joined TRW Public Sector as a business analyst consulting with government agencies on information technology projects. In 2002 he accepted the position of Chief Financial Officer and Chief Information Officer for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. CDR Ellison and his spouse Jane Fournier reside in Helena, Montana. Both are private pilots, and avidly pursue a variety of outdoor activities afforded by western mountains rivers.