SFGate.com - A day after promotion, soldier dies in Iraq. About 6 weeks ago, his messages home 'sounded like it was getting pretty scary.

Timothy Kiser re-enlisted in the military last year, when he was 35 and seeking a career change. The Redding resident always regretted leaving the service after serving a three-year Army hitch shortly after graduating from Fremont's Irvington High School, and hoped to serve as a medic, then train to be a physician's assistant when he got out.

But at the last minute, his job assignment changed, and in January Kiser found himself driving a humvee in Iraq -- he had driven a truck for years in civilian life -- and scouting for improvised explosive devices. Thursday night, while he was on patrol, one exploded near his vehicle, killing the 37- year-old Kiser a day after he was promoted to sergeant.

Hours later, his wife, Rhonda, would open the birthday card he sent to her two weeks early.

"He also sent a Mother's Day card to me and his mother," she said.

Timothy Kiser had told Rhonda Kiser "a hundred times that he wished he had never got out of the Army," she said. He had enlisted as a 17-year-old after graduating early from high school. He liked the structure and the order of military life, and he wasn't afraid of going to Iraq as a soldier in the Army National Guard, his wife said.

Kiser's coping mechanism there, as it was all his life, was his humor. "My standard line to him was, 'You're cracking yourself up again, Tim,' " Rhonda Kiser said.

Kiser was born Feb. 5, 1968, in Cincinnati, and moved to Fremont when he was a little over a year old with his mother, Jacquie, and his brother, James.

After returning from his first stint in the Army, he drove a truck for a while, got married and had two children, then divorced. For a while he was a real estate agent in the Redding area; Rhonda worked as an agent in the same office. They married, and he helped raise her two children from previous marriage.

"He was just like a big kid," said his 18-year-old stepson, Kyle Thompson. "Anything kids were into, he was into."

Kiser enjoyed boating around Shasta Lake on his cabin cruiser and played golf regularly. And he was a practical joker, often disguising his voice with an English accent in prank phone calls.

"When I managed a health club, I actually had to mention Tim as part of my new-employee orientation," Rhonda said. "I'd tell people, 'If this guy calls up in an English accent and tries to keep you on the phone by asking a thousand questions about how to get a health club membership, just hand me the phone. It's my husband.' "

His family blessed his decision to return to the military, saying they'd follow him wherever his new career took him. But first, he'd have to serve a tour in Iraq.

For the first couple of months there, life was relatively calm. He was stationed in the northern part of the country, where there was generally less violence. In addition to sending nearly daily e-mails and calling his wife and stepchildren, Kiser corresponded with his teenage children from his first marriage, said his former wife, Jennifer Krock.

"He seemed really proud of the work that he was doing and thought it was important," she said.

But his mood started to change about six weeks ago, when the environment became more dangerous. One night, he was driving a group of medics when a bomb exploded near his truck. Kiser was fine, but one of his riders suffered minor injuries.

"After that, it sounded (from e-mails and calls) like it was getting pretty scary over there," Thompson said.

Then, his wife said, Kiser started "feeling miserable. He wanted to come home.

"You believe, you really do, that he'll come home," she said. "That the odds are in their favor when you think of all the people over there. But obviously, playing the odds doesn't work."

Kiser's survivors include his mother and stepfather, Jacquie and Ronald Dunn of Milpitas; wife Rhonda Kiser of Redding; brother James Kiser of Manteca; sons Austin Kiser and Jordan Kiser of Mount Shasta; his former wife, Jennifer Krock of Mount Shasta; stepson Kyle Thompson and stepdaughter Danyelle Thompson of Redding; a half-sister, Shannon Huhn of Milford, Ohio; and his stepsister, Shawn Dunn of San Jose.

Services will be held at 1 p.m. Monday at Allen & Dahl Funeral Chapel in Palo Cedro (Shasta County), followed by a military burial at Cottonwood Cemetery.