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.

Rasmussen, also recovering from a series of night flights, had about two hours' sleep.

Somehow he too looks fresh.

They dress quickly in a small dark room where their squadron hangs its helmets and green survival vests filled with a first aid kit, radio, water, flashlight and sometimes a non-regulation item like the old green bandanna Smith uses to wipe away sweat.

A 9 mm pistol slips into holsters on their chests.

What they do not take could be a matter of life and death as well: Nametags and all insignia are removed from their brown overalls. The less the enemy knows about you the better, Smith says.

With the sun over his left shoulder, Smith takes his F/A-18 Hornet attack fighter off the flight deck first, his engines glowing orange. Rasmussen follows about two minutes later and quickly becomes a black dot that disappears against the cloudless sky.

Rasmussen, of Wisconsin, has been a Hornet pilot for almost 12 months after transferring from the navy's S-3B Viking airborne fuel tankers. A native of Washington state, Smith has flown Hornets for the past three years.

Each jet is carrying two laser-guided 500-pound bombs and an old-fashioned "dumb" bomb under its wings.

Both pilots have already dropped ordnance once during this war. Smith hit a concealed military vehicle. Rasmussen bombed a barracks near Karbala.

Fighting a stiff wind during this long flight, Rasmussen has time to think. He passed over many airports and knew that in an emergency he would not be able to land at any of them.

"It's just a strange feeling flying over a hostile area that you don't want to go down in. Your sanctuary is being in the air," he says.

Two nights earlier he was shot at for the first time when five surface-to-air missiles came a little too close.

"They got up a lot higher than I was expecting," he said. "After I saw it I felt nervous and a little bit exposed."

Smith had his first taste of ground fire from missiles the night before.

"That was a little hairy," he said.

With those memories still fresh they headed northeast of Karbala, farther than they had ever flown before.

Dropping lower, each pilot circled to hunt for the concealed T-72 tanks. Rasmussen scanned the area through binoculars.

"There were a lot of revetments down there. I didn't get my eyes on every single one but I looked in quite a few and there was nothing there," Smith said later.

The tanks were gone.

"They must have moved out last night," he said.

Almost three hours after they took off, the pilots returned, calling their mission a success even though bombs were still attached to their wings.

A daytime flight in good whether was a chance for Rasmussen to get a clearer picture of Iraq's roads, rivers and other features that could be helpful in future missions.

"After today I feel a lot more comfortable," he said.

Smith said that finding the target area and noting that the tanks were gone would be useful information for war planners.

"We kind of helped out the effort today," he said.

WAR.WIRE