Top gun: A Navy pilot takes us inside the war against terror. (News Special).

On September 11, Lt. Dan Hughes and the crew of the U.S. aircraft carrier Enterprise had just completed a six-month cruise, including six weeks in the Persian Gulf. Hughes, an F-18 Hornet fighter pilot, had flown several patrol missions over Iraq. He was looking forward to returning to his wife and three children in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

But when Hughes turned on the news that day, he knew his return home would be delayed. The Enterprise was the closest carrier to Afghanistan, and was ordered to the Arabian Sea for possible combat duty. "We were in the right place at the right time, and we were ready," says Hughes, 29. "This is what we trained for."

Junior Scholastic spent a day with Hughes at the Oceana Naval Air Base in Virginia Beach, where his squadron is now based. As fighter jets roared overhead, he talked about his experience as one of the first pilots to take part in the U.S. military action in Afghanistan, which began on October 7.

It was Hughes's first combat duty. "You really don't know what to expect. There's a lot of adrenaline pumping," he told JS. "You're concentrating so hard, and you're so drained after that first flight."

"Here Is Your Target"

Whenever Hughes flew a bombing mission, his day began in the carrier's "Ready Room," where he would get an intelligence briefing and his assignment: "Here is your target, go hit it."

Then, he would prepare for his flight. The F-18 Hornet is a 56-foot-long single-seat fighter with a top speed of 1,140 miles per hour. As Hughes puts it, "You don't fly the jet, you strap it on." In the cockpit, the pilot puts on his oxygen mask and secures himself in a harness that keeps him steady in his seat in case he has to eject. Under the seat is a survival kit with enough gear to survive for 24 hours.

The Enterprise was stationed in the Arabian Sea, and its fighter planes had to fly over Pakistan to reach targets in Afghanistan (see map). Many of the missions required six-hour round-trip flights. But since the F-18 carries only enough gas for a few hours, pilots had to refuel in the air. Typically, as Hughes would approach Afghanistan, an Air Force refueling plane would meet him in the air and link up for a 15-minute refill. He'd get another refill on his way back to the carrier. "It was definitely an orchestra of moving parts up there," says Hughes.

Once Hughes reached his targets, he dropped bombs including the military's new Joint Direct Attack Munition. The JDAM is a 2,000-lb. "smart bomb" programmed with a target's exact coordinates and guided to that spot by satellites circling the Earth.

Enemy Fire

Afghanistan's former Taliban government had no planes to challenge U.S. jets in the air. However, Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorist forces did have surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and anti-aircraft artillery weapons (AAA). Because U.S. planes flew so high, and usually in the dark, "it was almost impossible for them to hit us," says Hughes.

But on one of his last missions, Hughes met a barrage of AAA fire. "I don't think it was really aimed, but I could see it, and it made me think, 'OK, when I get back I'm looking for bullet holes."' He didn't find any, "but that was the only time I thought that they might have come close," he says.

At the end of a mission, Hughes had to land the Hornet on the deck of the carrier--a moving target. It's an incredible feat that's a daily routine for jet pilots like Hughes, who calls it "a controlled crash." When the plane hits the deck, it is "trapped" by metal wires and a hook and jerks to a stop.

"To be able to drop bombs with precision accuracy, meet an Air Force tanker at a spot in space, get your gas, drop your bomb, come back, and then, oh, by the way, land on n postage stamp in the middle of the Arabian Sea--you can't describe the amount of pride you feel every time you do that," says Hughes.

Since returning home, Hughes has seen firsthand the support Americans are offering U.S. troops. He says it makes a difference to soldiers serving overseas. "When my wife told me how everybody had American flags on their vehicles back home, it brought tears to my eyes," he says. "We had this newfound sense of pride and respect in ourselves."

RELATED ARTICLE: Fast Facts about the F-18 Hornet

* IT'S FAST: top speed over 1,100 miles per hour.

* IT'S BIG: 40 feet 5 inches from wing tip to wing tip.

* IT'S EXPENSIVE: each plane costs about $24 million.

* IT'S HEAVY: 51,900 pounds fully loaded.

* IT'S SNEAKY: painted gray, to avoid night detection.

NEWS/SPECIALS

1. True or false? A scare in 2001 was the threat of deadly anthrax striking people through the mail. (True)

2. What is considered the top news story of 2001? (The four hijacked planes and September 11 terrorist attacks that killed more than 3,000 people)

3. What is the goal of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001? (To improve the performance of U.S. public schools.)

4. One of the top news events of April 2001 involved a collision between a U.S. surveillance plane and a jet fighter from what country? (China)

5. Which professional football team has been urged to change its name? (The Washington Redskins)

6. Venus and Serena Williams competed against each other for the 2001 U.S. Open tennis title. Who won? (Venus)