His 3-year-old grandson peddles the tricycle as quickly as little legs will allow while 58-year-old Danny McDaniel answers the child’s taunt to catch him if he can.

Days like this have filled the past two years of the retired soldier’s life. All that has changed, though, since he was ordered two weeks ago to report to Fort Bragg, N.C., to await further assignment.

Grandpa is going to war.

Uniforms weighed down with an assortment of medals have been culled from the back of the closet. As the dry-cleaning bags hit the garbage, “Pa-Pa” is transformed from tricycle-pursuer into warrior and officer Col. Danny McDaniel.

“One of the things that brought me into this recall was they were looking for a medical type, specifically a veterinarian who had been in combat,” he says. Mr. McDaniel is a seasoned soldier who saw active combat in Vietnam in his early 20s, and upon returning to the states earned his degree in veterinary medicine.

After running his own veterinary practice in Jackson, Miss., for a few years, he chose to return to the Army and put to use his leadership skills running medical and educational programs for the Army Reserve. When he retired, he stepped down as commandant of the Regional Counterdrug Training Academy in Meridian, Miss., one of five academies that train federal and local law enforcement for anti-drug and counterterrorism operations.

Living next door to two of his four young grandchildren, Mr. McDaniel had immersed himself in their lives, volunteered at Oak Grove United Methodist Church and at the local animal shelter. This year, he is a Junior ROTC instructor and assistant soccer coach at Quitman High School in Quitman, Miss.

The recall to service doesn’t surprise Mr. McDaniel. “I could fight this. I mean, I could go and say that my knee hurts. I’ve had back surgery and could probably get out of it. But I am just not that kind of person. Legally, until I’m 60 years old, I am still a deployable asset.

“I raised my right hand 30-something years ago and agreed to defend the country and do whatever they felt like I needed to do, and I feel honor-bound to that obligation.”

With a grin, Mr. McDaniel admits he is excited about the assignment, which will place him in Iraq, then Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa, where terrorism is believed to be gaining a foothold. As a member of the 352nd Civil Affairs Battalion, he will be involved in nation-building projects.

While he is looking forward to the challenge, Mr. McDaniel’s soft-spoken wife, Linda, steels herself against the risk.

She fights back tears as she says, “I try not to think about it.” When her husband told her that he might be called out of retirement, Linda says she got angry at first.

“I said, ‘It’s not fair, you’ve done your time, you’ve served in Vietnam.’ But I live with him every day and it’s a duty, an honor thing with him, and it comes through very strongly.” She has resolved to manage the situation day-to-day and, instead of approaching it with trepidation, to reflect on the pride she has for him instead.

Mr. McDaniel acknowledges the unease that he feels about how his redeployment will affect his 83-year-old mother, Sue. During the Vietnam War, she lost contact with him for several months when he was in combat.

“It was a tough time for her, really tough,” Mr. McDaniel says, “and, when I sat down with her and told her that this was happening, at first she said the same thing that a lot of people said: ‘They can’t do that, that’s not fair.’ And so I explained to her that it was my choice.”

Prayer has strengthened Mr. McDaniel’s resolve to carry out his new assignment. “I pray every day, and basically my prayer is, ‘I realize this is what you want me to do. Help me do a good job.

“I learned in Vietnam not to pray, ‘Don’t let me die’—that’s asking too much,” he says. “So I learned to say in my prayers every day, ‘Don’t let me let my buddies down; let me do my job. If I gotta go, let me go with honor.”

Ms. Snider is a multimedia producer for United Methodist News Service. She is married to Terrell McDaniel; Danny McDaniel is her brother-in-law. For more UMNS stories, see www.umc.com.

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