HER SKY-HIGH DREAMS HAVE PAID OFF.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

WINNETKA - She's come a long way from that little girl in third-grade science class at St. Mel's Catholic School in Woodland Hills - the one who used to look out the window at those blue skies and daydream about hanging out up there someday.

Maybe she would be an astronaut. Or a fighter pilot.

Nah, those were boy things. Little girls in 1984 couldn't grow up to be astronauts or fighter pilots, could they?

No? Well, if you've got a young daughter with big dreams, make sure she knows there's no limit anymore.

Trena Emerson, that little third-grader at St. Mel's 18 years ago, is now a 27-year-old Air Force combat fighter pilot.

She's just finished a three-month tour of duty in Saudi Arabia, protecting the skies over the no-fly zone in Southern Iraq for Operation Southern Watch.

``She telephones and e-mails us often to let us know she is safe,'' says her mom, Nancy Horrell of Winnetka.

``We know she's been in a couple of skirmishes over Iraq, but when I ask her what happened, she can only say, 'Watch CNN tonight.' She's very careful of what she says over the Internet or on the telephone.''

But Nancy and Trena's stepfather, Dean Horrell, will soon be catching up on their daughter's tour of duty in the skies over Iraq when she comes home on leave to get ready to add another chapter to this storybook life of hers.

The former head cheerleader and 1993 homecoming queen at Crespi High, and valedictorian for her 1994 graduating class at Louisville High School in Woodland Hills, is coming home to see her parents and make wedding plans.

In August, she's marrying - who else? - an Air Force fighter pilot, just like she is.

Sweet dreams, little girls. The future's anything you want it to be.

The last time I told you about Trena was in November of 2000 when she was driving a U-haul alone from her parents' home in the San Fernando Valley to Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico for flight training in F-16 jet fighters - just in case.

Well, just in case came Sept. 11, while Trena was still stationed at Cannon in the Top Gun school. There are no longer restrictions against women flying in combat.

``Sept. 11 changed everything,'' said Horrell. ``You don't think your little girl is ever going to see combat conditions, but Sept. 11 changed that scenario.''

Nancy and Dean talked about it with Trena the last time they were all together, at Thanksgiving last year. A week later, their daughter was headed for Saudi Arabia, ready to put her special training in night-vision flying to real use.

The words of her instructor pilot at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas, Capt. Matt Basler, to me in 1999 were about to be tested.

Trena had just won the coveted ``Top Stick'' award in her class of 67 men and three women, and was now on her way to Top Gun school when Basler said, ``I have no doubt whatsoever that she will be one of our top combat pilots one day.''

That day has arrived.

And now, the little third-grader who looked up at the sky in 1984 and daydreamed about being a fighter pilot someday is on her way home from being just that.

And she says she's got a message for young girls.

``Any goal that you set can be reached,'' Trena said. ``It's just a matter of how bad you want it.''

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Trena Emerson, who once looked out her classroom window and dreamed of flying, is an Air Force combat fighter pilot who just finished a tour of duty in Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Southern Watch.