RADM William J. McDaniel, M.D., USN (ret) was born and raised on a small farm in Oklahoma. Attended college on a full wrestling scholarship and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physiology in 1964 from Oklahoma State University. In 1964 he began studies at the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine and received his Doctor of Medicine Degree in 1968. He completed his internship at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1969.
Dr. McDaniel served 32 years in the Navy. After a tour in Viet Nam with the Marines, he became an orthopedic surgeon, then transitioned to administrative medicine. In his tours he commanded 4 hospitals, each of which was exciting in a different way. The highlight came when his staff successfully met the challenge of Hurricane Hugo, which succeeded in closing 9 of the 10 hospitals in Charleston, SC.
His duties as the Surgeon for the Pacific Command required him to visit virtually every country in the Pacific. Along the way he managed to remain active athletically, winning 5 Navy wrestling championships, 2 National Military championships, and a silver medal in the World Military Championships. He also served as an Olympic physician in the 1984 Olympics.
Since retiring from the Navy in 1997, he has worked at many consulting jobs, including working for the Chief of Naval Operations for 6 months as Chairman of a Blue Ribbon Panel investigating Bethesda Naval Hospital. In an effort to remain somewhat youthful, he completed hiking the 2174 mile Appalachian Trail in 2004.
Finally, in 2005 he led the efforts of the Naval Hospital Ship USNS Mercy in relief of the tsunami-devastated Banda Aceh, Somalia; he remained there 3 months, living the last month in a tent on Nias Island, Indonesia, following the 29 March 8.7 earthquake near that island.
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