Kerry Arthur Danes was born in 1958 at Longreach, Queensland and joined the Australian Army in August 1976 at age 17. He took extended leave without pay in 1998 (aged 40) to try his luck in a civilian job in poverty-stricken Laos and enjoyed a relatively opulent comfortable expatriate lifestyle. His wife, Kay, and their three pre-teen children followed. After three years away, Danes returned to Australia in late 2001 (aged 43) and resumed paid military service sometime thereafter. In 2018, he reached the compulsory retirement age of 60 for Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel, and was serving part-time with the Army Reserve as at December that year. According to Danes, his overseas military postings included Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the West Bank and Yemen.
