His notable assignments included Commandants of Cadets at the United States Military Academy and Chief of Field Artillery.

During World War I, Danford commanded several units and trained National Guard and regular Army artillery soldiers for service in France, and received promotion to temporary brigadier general.

After World War I, Danford continued to serve in high profile assignments, including Commandant of Cadets at West Point.

After retiring from the Army, Danford commanded the wartime civilian auxiliary of the New York City Police Department until the end of World War II in 1945, and was active in West Point alumni affairs.

[2][3] Danford was educated in New Boston, Mannon, and Aledo and at the academy which was part of Mount Vernon, Iowa's Cornell College.

[1] While serving in the Philippines in 1908, Danford assisted Edmund L. Gruber in authoring the lyrics to "The Caisson Song", which was later adapted into the "U.S. Field Artillery March" and then "The Army Goes Rolling Along".

[1] In 1916, the 10th Field Artillery was activated for federal service in World War I, and Danford commanded the regiment during its initial training at Tobyhanna Army Depot.

[1] From February to July 1917, Danford was assigned as assistant professor of military science at Yale University,[7] and served as the mustering officer for members of the Connecticut National Guard as they entered federal service.

[9] It quickly became the Army's standard reference work for training field artillery soldiers, and went through numerous printings during and after World War I.

[1] Danford returned to Fort Sill in December 1917, this time to assume command of the 129th Field Artillery Regiment, a Missouri National Guard unit which he led through its initial organization and training after it was federalized for the war.

[1][7] Among the regiment's soldiers was Harry S. Truman,[11] who later said he learned more practical, useful information from Danford in six weeks than from six months of formal Army instruction.

[1] Danford attended the United States Army War College from 1928 to 1929; after graduation, he was assigned to the 13th Field Artillery Regiment at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

He then proceeded to Camp Jackson, South Carolina, established this depot, and administered it during the remainder of the war with rare ability and judgment.

[20] The Army arranged for an investigation by a panel which included famed jurist Learned Hand and retired generals Troy H. Middleton, then president of Louisiana State University, and Danford.

[20] The board found that some of the accused cadets, most of whom were on the football team, had been receiving the answers to exams ahead of time through upper class students who were assisting them as tutors.