CHEERLEADING FOR HIS DAUGHTER

All the way from Baghdad.

In a way, Louis Friedmann is just another excited soccer dad.

The compelling photos he takes. The quirky yet inspirational signs he creates. The proud grin he displays.

But if that is all you see, then you aren't seeing the full picture.

What about the photograph that displays the words ''Bringing out the Big Guns again FRA.'' What about the fact that there actually are big guns — guns attached to tanks and surrounded by a vast expanse of desert sand — dominating the landscape.

Suddenly, Louis Friedmann is more than just a dad enamored with his daughter Kathryn, her Goodpasture Christian School soccer team and his digital camera. He is a soldier, a commander, a member of the 130th Rear Area Operations Center. He is part of the Tennessee Army National Guard Unit base in Tullahoma that was deployed from Fort Campbell to Kuwait in April. He is in Iraq now, more than 5,000 miles away from his daughter, his wife, his son.