Lieutenant Daniel McShane is a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, and graduated from Independence High School in 1988. He attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, earning a Bachelor of Creative Arts degree in 1992 for study of classical theatre and music education. He graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in London, England, in 1995. Dan was on the Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center U.S. Masters swim team and is a marathon runner.

Dan reported to Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, Florida, in January 1999 for Officer Candidate School (OCS) and primary flight training before transferring to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, for advanced flight training in the E-2C Hawkeye at Airborne Early Warning Squadron 120 (VAW-120). He received his wings of gold in February 2001.

In June of that year, Dan reported to the VAW-113 "Black Eagles" in Point Mugu, California, where he completed a 10-month deployment aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) in support of Operations Enduring Freedom, Southern Watch and Iraqi Freedom. During deployment, he served for six weeks on the operations floor of the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, during combat operations.

In June of 2004, Dan transferred to Commander, Airborne Command Control and Logistics Wing where he served as the assistant operations officer on the commodore’s staff. While there, he completed two individual augmentations to Yongson Army Garrison in Seoul, Republic of Korea, as a subject matter expert and analyst for local operations. He completed the F/A-18 flight syllabus with the "Gladiators" at Fighter Attack Squadron 106 (VFA-106) at NAS Oceana, Virginia, in 2006.