Daniels was born sometime in 1925 in Longview, Texas. Daniels joined the army on March 7th 1944, wanting to live up to his father's legacy. As he had never left his hometown, he was naive and sheltered from the outside world.[2] He left home to join the army and was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, where he was deployed to Europe. He is engaged to a woman named Hazel back home and finds out that she is pregnant with their first child after his deployment.