While his daughter was learning her ABCs at Colinas del Norte Elementary, David Boling of Rio Rancho was half a world away, working with IEDs.

All in a days’ work, it seems, for Boling, 38, a third-generation army guy who is well skilled at disarming the Iraqis’ improvised explosive devices. Technically, he said, his job is defined as “explosive ordnance disposal — bomb squad, for short,” he said.

There’s no need for little Katherine Boling to know just how dangerous daddy’s work is. When he came home recently for an 18-day stay, all she wanted to do, said her mom Wendy, was “to go to a movie and sit in the recliner and watch UFC fights.” Little Nathan, the couple’s year-old son, seemed to recognize his dad despite his youth and not having seen his dad in person the past 11 months. But being away at war is different today than it was when Boling’s father and grandfather were in the army. He chats with his wife and regularly sends e-mails back home, so Nathan was able to see pictures of daddy in camo all the time.

David Boling was happy to hear that. He has studied martial arts his entire life and he isn’t the type of guy you’d want to mess with.

“I was an army brat. I grew up all over the place,” Boling said while home on leave last month. He graduated from high school in Reston, Va., in 1988. Although college was an option, it wasn’t his cup of tea.

“I didn’t want to stay in school. I was ready for a break and (joining the army) was essentially the family business.”

Due for a promotion to E9, sergeant major, and a possible reassignment soon, Boling anticipates remaining in the service until he’s got 25 years in. “Maybe 30.” He’ll catch his father, Joseph Boling, who did a tour of duty in Vietnam, when he hits 28 years in the army.

He began with a stint in the infantry, and then was trained in his current line of work at the Naval Explosives Ordnance School at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.

It’s a good life, despite the dangers in Baghdad; he’s stationed at Al Taji Camp, northwest of downtown Baghdad. Al Taji is a former Iraqi air base, which is now home to army helicopters.

“Ninety-nine point nine percent of the time it’s boring,” he said of his life in Iraq. “I’m like a police officer dealing with IEDs.

A typical day?

“I get up, go to the gym, run, check e-mail. The e-mail includes intelligence. We meet in the morning, hash out administrative stuff — and sit around and wait,” he explained. He commands an eight-member response team.

“I look forward to hearing from various teams everyday. If I hear from them, you know they’re OK.”

It’s not always boring. “We’ve had guys drive by and shoot at the guard towers,” Boling said. “We’ve had IEDs located.”

He feels safe, although there has been “one fatality within our unit of 41 people, plus three minor injuries (that were war related),” he said. “In a leadership position, I’m not out as much as I would like to be. All my guys are deployed.

“The overall mood is good,” he added. “Morale is high.

“Yes, everyone wants to come home but not cut and run,” he said. “Our casualties will have been for naught.”

He and Wendy have been married seven years, recently moving to Northern Meadows, where she is closer to family members than she was in their previous homes in Ft. Carson, Colo., and at White Sands Missile Range.

“This deployment has flown by,” she said. “When I was at White Sands, it dragged.”

A native of Moriarty, where her family runs the Tillery auto dealership, Wendy Boling hopes to someday get back into the movie business. She’s had a couple of small parts, including the television series “The Lazarus Man,” in which she played General Custer’s sister, and the movie “My Best Friend’s Wedding.”

There’s always something to look forward to, the couple agreed, especially when David’s on his way home. He’ll be back in Rio Rancho again in February.

“We get to travel and we get to move a lot,” she said.