Christopher Moody lives an apparently idyllic life high on a hilltop near the central coast of Maine with his wife of 10 years, MaryKate, and their young daughter and son. The Camden Hills border the tree-studded family homestead to the south and the hills of the Knox Ridge can be seen to the north.

It’s hard to believe a terrorist war half a world away could affect the native Mainer who, at 34, has built his life around traditional values of loving his family and helping his community. Yet Moody is preparing for the day when he might have to leave the home he helped build to give chase to a Middle Eastern terrorist and his consorts who shook the United States to its foundation 11 days ago.

Most days Moody teaches mathematics and science to seventh and eighth graders at a middle school in SAD 40. When classes end for the day, Moody switches roles and becomes an athletic director and basketball coach for his school’s seventh-grade girls and boys teams.

Moody also is a lieutenant and platoon leader in the Maine Army National Guard. Viewed by colleagues and superiors as a capable officer and leader, he heads the 152nd Maintenance Company out of Augusta, a job that, in peacetime, takes him away from home one weekend each month and two weeks in the year for training, usually in the summer.

In tense times like the present, Moody’s military obligation, which he shoulders willingly, occupies more space in his head than he cares to admit.

His spunky, talkative daughter, Katelin, is a 4-year-old strawberry blonde. Bedecked in a pink fairy costume, she recently told a reporter “Angus King” is the governor, “Bush” is the president and she would “see the Army kids” if her dad is called up.

Jack, Moody’s handsome brown-haired son, is 2. A quiet child, he turned the pages of a picture book on a recent afternoon. Watching his children, Moody’s dark eyes became pensive.

The thought is “almost nauseating … it is nauseating,” Moody said, of leaving for God knows how long at a critical stage in his kids’ lives.

Still, Moody doesn’t question the correctness of his country’s decision to go to war.

He praises the president’s methodical approach in preparing for combat. If the call to arms reaches Moody’s door, he will obey in a second. His pride and commitment to the Maine Army National Guard, a feeling that has stayed with him since he joined the reserves at 17, is strong.

Maine apparently has missed the first round of call-ups by the Bush administration for Operation Infinite Justice. Troops as close as New Hampshire have been called to active duty.

The prospect of being called up in future weeks remains high, especially for skilled soldiers like Moody, who can repair trucks, backhoes, construction vehicles – almost any military machine on wheels. He could go anywhere, Moody said, from Europe to Afghanistan. The military needs machinery in good working order, and Moody is well versed in mechanics.

“I grew up with a wrench in my hand,” said Moody, whose father, Albert Moody, a former Air Force helicopter crew chief, ran a local tractor repair and sales dealership until his retirement.

Moody joined the Army National Guard as a senior in high school. He spent the first 12 years of his Army Guard stint with the 112th Medical Company, an air ambulance unit, in Bangor, where he became a sergeant and helicopter crew chief.

He was commissioned an officer two years ago. Now he leads about 40 mechanics who work on army vehicles.

“I love the life. I get excited about it,” said Moody of his military role.

His platoon members respond positively to Moody’s down-to-earth style, according to Capt. Blair Tinkham, Moody’s immediate supervisor.

“He’s pretty much revamped that platoon,” Tinkham said from his office in Bangor. “They didn’t have a strong performance history [before Moody arrived], and through his leadership, he has totally turned around the performance of that platoon.”

Tinkham said, “The morale and esprit de corps has improved significantly since he took over,”

Part of the morale boost Tinkham mentioned may be attributed to the work of Moody’s 33-year-old wife, who is active in the Army Guard’s Family Readiness Support Group.

The support group operates statewide and MaryKate Moody is active in the 152nd’s chapter.

“It’s the backbone” for many military families should a unit be activated, according to MaryKate. In peacetime, the group sponsors social gatherings, especially at Christmas and in the summer.

In times when deployment is a possibility – like now – members gear up. They advise troop members to organize their financial and personal lives before the call to active duty comes.

Family members left behind should know when the car payment is due. Spouses or another trusted adult should have his or her name on the family checking account. A power of attorney should be signed.

Those struggling with finances should know that a maximum of 6 percent interest can be charged on loans and credit-card accounts for deployed National Guard members.

Chris Moody has yet to be deployed overseas, but said he has heard “all the horror stories” of the Bosnia deployment in the early 1990s. Some National Guard families risked everything financially when the breadwinner was overseas and the spouse left behind didn’t know how to manage.

“Preparation is the key” to avoiding such disasters, according to Chris Moody.

A part-time college student, MaryKate is from a family of 14 children. She has a degree in early childhood development and is studying to become an elementary school teacher.

Born in Philadelphia, MaryKate met Chris in high school. She will miss her husband, but thanks to a wide support system that includes her parents and in-laws who live within a 20-mile radius, she feels ready for whatever comes.

“We have a phone tree,” MaryKate said of the Family Readiness Support Group. “We’re in constant contact with each other.”

The specter of war is nothing Chris Moody wished for. But he is prepared.

The Army National Guard and its scholarship program allowed him to graduate from college debt-free. It has solidified his leadership skills, given him an identity. It has defined the meaning of hard work to him.

“In the Army National Guard, we practice and practice” in preparation for military action, Moody said. He compared the life with basketball where “as players we practice for a game we want to play. In the military, we practice for a game we really don’t want to play, but we’re prepared to win if we have to.”