An AFP report profiles a tank-hunting mission over Iraq by F/A-18 pilots from the USS Kitty Hawk. Advice of the day: "Don't get your asses shot off."
As pilots gather for a bombing mission over Iraq the talk is technical -- of fuel, wind speed and radio frequencies. Even what could go wrong is dealt with clinically. "There are some threats out there," Lieutenant Anthony Smith, 28, tells a small group of navy pilots based aboard this aircraft carrier in the Gulf. On a wall to his left a large calendar made from yellow fabric speaks of family far away. It is plastered with pictures of women, children, and green shamrocks, one of them bearing Smith's nickname, Salsa. Lieutenant Commander Vic Bindi, who is quick with the jokes and the straight talk, has some parting words of advice: "Don't get your asses shot off."
Smith and his partner, Lieutenant David Rasmussen, 31, will make a round trip journey nearly all the way to Baghdad in search of Iraqi tanks that must be destroyed. The odd hours of war don't seem to show on Smith as he straps on his gear. It is early Friday afternoon but Smith has been awake less than three hours. He was catching up on sleep before this, his first daytime mission since the war began more than a week ago. "I got up a little later than what I should've," said Smith, of Strike Fighter Squadron 192, which calls itself the World Famous Golden Dragons.
Posted by Alan at March 29, 2003 08:26 AM