Daniel Perryman was born Nov. 10, 1950. At 8 years of age, he took his first flight with his grandmother from Burbank to San Francisco. He was fascinated with the view from the air, the fields of crops, the cars looked like ants and the scattered clouds that looked as if you could walk on. He told his grandmother he wanted to be a pilot, she said "Sure, you can be anything you want to be."

At 15, he went to Compton airfield with a cousin whose friend was a pilot, and he let Daniel sit in the captain's seat of a Cessna 172. After take-off, he was taught a few basics and flew a plane for the first time.

In 1969, he went to San Jose State University, majoring in Aeronautics Engineering, and also joined Air Force ROTC. He joined the Navy in 1978 and in 1985 attended Aviation Officer Candidate School, where he was No. 1 in class Regimental Commander. In the Navy he flew T-28, T-44 and P3 aircrafts in Asia, Australia, Africa and the Middle East as well as other places.

After an honorable discharge, he remained in the Navy Reserves. In 1986 he began his career with American Airlines, flying 727 and S80 (DC9) aircrafts. He was a Flight Engineer for 2 years, First Officer for 5 years and a Captain for the remaining years until his retirement in 2011