Mr. Martinez was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He attended California State University at Dominguez Hills and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history. He also attended graduate school and is still in the course of those studies.

From 1979 thru 1985, Mr. Martinez was a seasonal ranger at Little Big Horn Battlefield and the USS Arizona Memorial. He began his permanent career in 1986 at the USS Arizona Memorial. Over the years, Mr. Martinez has been deeply involved in the field of interpretation and education. He was an interpretative skills trainer for six years with the National Park Service.

Later, he was asked to be a planning member for the rewriting of interpretative standards for the National Park Service rangers. At the Memorial, he served as an Interpretive Specialist and presently holds the position of Park Historian. He has served as historian from 1989 to the present.

Mr. Martinez’s activities in and out of the park are varied and numerous. He has lectured on a wide variety of historical topics and written and published many articles on Pearl Harbor, the Pacific War and American history subjects. He has co-authored a new book, Kimmel and Short and Pearl Harbor, published by the Naval Institute Press in the summer of 2005. He has presented papers at prestigious gatherings such as the Organization of American Historians, the National Council on Public History, the Western History Association and the Oral History Association. Currently, Mr. Martinez is an adjunct professor at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.

In the world of entertainment, Daniel Martinez has appeared as a camera personality on network programs for ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN. On the cable network, he has made appearances on the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, the Learning Channel, the Military History Channel, the National Geographic Channel and the Travel Channel. Currently, he is the host and historian-in-residence for the Discovery Channel’s “Unsolved History”.