David Danelo graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1998 and served seven years as an infantry officer in the Marine Corps. In 2004, then-Captain Danelo served near Fallujah with the First Marine Expeditionary Force as a convoy commander, intelligence officer and provisional executive officer for a rifle company.  He was awarded a Purple Heart and a commendation for valor during his tour in Iraq.

In 2005, after Danelo left active duty, the U.S. Naval Institute commissioned him as a freelance correspondent for Proceedings, their flagship publication. He spent a week reporting from the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, and a month covering the U.S. military in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti. The same year, Danelo traveled to Vietnam to write a comparison of modern-day Vietnam and Iraq for Nguoi Viet Daily, the largest Vietnamese newspaper in North America.



Danelo's first book, Blood Stripes: The Grunt's View of the War in Iraq, was published in 2006.  A third-person account of five corporals and sergeants who deployed to Iraq in 2004, Blood Stripes was awarded the 2006 Silver Medal (Military History) by the Military Writers Society of America. It was also named a Notable Book of 2006 by the U.S. Naval Institute and is on a mandatory reading list created by General James Mattis for Marines deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan.

From 2006-2007, Danelo edited ON Point, an internationally-themed website specializing in news and analysis of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  That year, the Naval Institute selected Danelo as "Co-author of the Year" for his work as their first foreign correspondent.  He also wrote for the Los Angeles Times, New York Post, Marine Corps Gazette, Military.com, and Parade Magazine.