Spencer Ridenhour has been through this before.

His father, Al Ridenhour, is a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, and for the past seven months, Lt. Col. Ridenhour has been leading a battalion in the ongoing conflict in Iraq.

Ridenhour, a redshirt freshman linebacker on the Penn State football team, was only 5 years old the last time his father was deployed in the Middle East during Operation Desert Storm.

This time, Ridenhour said, was a lot harder.

"You appreciate your dad when you get older, you know what I'm sayin'?" he said. "It's like this whole new chapter in your life -- when you start playing college football, especially. You get into bigger levels of your life with your dad not being around, that's kind of hard for you."

Ridenhour's father was state-side this week and able to see his son in action against Cincinnati last weekend, a brief reprieve before he returns to Iraq on Sept. 27.

After the game, Penn State coach Joe Paterno spoke with Ridenhour's father.

Paterno said he assured the elder Ridenhour, a former college football player himself back at Southeastern Oklahoma State, that his son was well taken care of with the football team.

"You wish you knew what to tell him except, God bless ya," Paterno said.

When the Colonel arrived in State College on Friday, the younger Ridenhour didn't have enough time to catch up with him immediately.

"I had class," Ridenhour said. "I couldn't be like, 'Hey, Dad. How ya doin'? Wassup?' "

Ridenhour had to wait until after class and practice to finally get a chance for some father-son quality time.

The two went for a drive around the State College area in the waning afternoon.

"We were just talking," Ridenhour said. "Just getting back to it like old times."

They did what most students do when parents come to town.

"I took him over to Best Buy," Ridenhour said. "We bought some CDs and stuff."

The essentials.

Even when the elder Ridenhour is in combat, the two still try to chat one or two times a week. They don't like to talk much about what's happening in Iraq. Usually, they talk football or schoolwork.

"He's been with me since I've been playing Pop Warner," Ridenhour said. "With school he's all about the grades, and that's something important right there. Not a lot of people have that -- someone that makes that much of an impact on you."

The resemblance between father and son is striking. Both have the same elongated face, shaved head and dark skin. They look more like brothers.

Ridenhour said they both have to stay strong for each other and -- more importantly -- for his mother, Lani Ridenhour, back in White Plains, N.Y.

"I'm over here -- four, five hours away -- and he's over in another country. That's a lot for her," Ridenhour said.

Yesterday, in Baghdad, insurgents killed at least 160 people in one of the more deadly waves of bombing attacks in recent memory.

Mounting criticism about the handling of the conflict has caused many to begin to question the United States government, especially family members of military personnel who haven't been as lucky as Ridenhour.

Ridenhour knows, though, that he can always trust whatever news his father relays back home.

"I try to block it out," Ridenhour said. "I knew he was alright by the fact that he told me he was alright. My father is a very honest man, and just by that I know that for sure he's all right."