Fighter Pilot

Norwegian women, who long ago shattered the dominance of men in politics, are breaking into one of the last male bastions--the military. Women have taken jobs as fighter pilots and submarine officers and can be found in foreign hot spots as part of United Nations peacekeeping forces. And if a war erupts, Norwegian women are not barred from combat as they are in several other North Atlantic Treaty Organization states.

Air Force officials say that a missing fighter pilot probably died instantly when his jet collided with another plane over the Atlantic Ocean. Authorities called off the search for Capt. Nicholas Giglio, who had been missing since Thursday night's crash. Air Force Col. Joe Guastella said experts analyzed data from the second plane, which landed safely, and interviewed the surviving pilot to determine Giglio's fate. The colonel said investigators believe that parts on the bottom of the second plane pierced the canopy of Giglio's plane when they collided about 30 miles northeast of Charleston.

Malcolm T. Wordell, 84, a World War II fighter pilot who won the Distinguished Flying Cross three times for shooting down seven planes. The ace flier also had the distinction of graduating from the Naval Academy without a demerit. An Arts & Entertainment cable channel documentary said he was the only midshipman ever to do so. Wordell's war exploits as a Navy pilot in North Africa were detailed in the 1992 book "Wildcats Over Casablanca."

An American fighter pilot reported destroying an Iraqi jet in an engagement over Iraq today, saying he watched the enemy craft explode in "a huge fireball" after being struck by a missile. Capt. Steve Tate of the 71st Fighter Squadron relayed the first report from a pilot of an aerial kill over Iraq. He said he was escorting a bombing mission early today when an Iraqi fighter jet suddenly appeared on his tail. Tate, of Watersmeet, Mich.

Even after 43 years, an American World War II fighter pilot kept wondering about the Japanese plane he shot down near Shanghai in 1945--the one that flipped on its nose but didn't burn. Now the former pilot from Pennsylvania thinks he knows, thanks to Henry Sakaida. Sakaida believes he has discovered the identity of the Japanese pilot. "The guy lived!" Sakaida said when he finally found a big missing piece to his unique puzzle.

As the Hornet jet screams out over the gray-blue Pacific, past the sailboats putting out from Dana Point, past Catalina Island and into the empty aerial corridors beyond where sky, sea and mist tumble riotously together, Mach 1 passes with a thrilling shiver across the wings. And the digital airspeed indicator mounted in the canopy keeps ticking. The 35,000-pound fighter jet accelerates to 800 m.p.h. over the ocean swells--a hissing, roaring cannon of speed, and there are no ears to hear.

As he crouches in the cockpit of the Mirage F-1 and barrels toward the American F-14 at Mach 1, is the Iraqi pilot attacking or preparing a feint? When he turns and runs, is that an opening for the American to attack or a deadly setup? And what will the enemy do if he encounters a pride of Tomcats deployed in a high-low stack? On this 31-year-old Forrestal-class aircraft carrier steaming off the Arabian Peninsula, Navy fighter pilot Scott Segers struggles for answers to those questions.

Her F-16 score sheet said one thing: Maj. Jacquelyn S. Parker qualified for the next level of combat fighter training. Her male commanders said another. Time after time, word came down to Parker from the higher-ups: Go back and do it over again. "They'd say, 'You're just a little short of where you need to be,' " Parker recalled of her supervisors at the New York Air National Guard's 174th Fighter Wing in Syracuse--known as "The Boys from Syracuse." "I'd say, 'What is it?'