Took some speed, a multimillion dollar jet armed to the teeth and...

* The U.S. pilots were never told that the Canadians were training with live ammunition -- the tracer fire the pilots saw -- because the command center did not require such exercises to be reported down the line. * Canadian ground commanders failed to stick to their timetable for their training exercise. * No one, including the Canadian commander on the Airborne Warning and Communications System (AWACS) jet that provided traffic control for the pilots, knew what the Canadians were doing on the ground. Just after 6 p.m. on April 16, Umbach and Schmidt took off in separate F-16s from Kuwait's Al Jaber Air Base, according to a chronology compiled by U.S. and Canadian military investigators. The fighter jets streaked east at 600 mph, following the Persian Gulf to avoid Iran's restricted airspace. At Pakistan, they turned north to northeast Afghanistan. After the four-hour commute, their job was to circle in case they were needed to support ground troops. The patrol was uneventful, like the previous 12 missions they had flown in their first month in the Middle East. They turned for home about 1 a.m., and both pilots popped ''go pills,'' amphetamines supplied by the Air Force to help pilots stay alert. Less than an hour later, over Kandahar, Schmidt spotted the phosphorescent glow of tracer bullets, which ground forces use to see their shots. The pilots' pre-flight briefing did not mention any training exercises. Schmidt radioed the controller in a nearby AWACS jet for permission to fire at the shooters. According to radio transcripts, he was told, ''Stand by.'' Umbach, in charge of the mission, said, ''Let's make sure that, uh, it's not friendly.'' Ninety seconds later, Schmidt saw more tracer fire. He estimated it was rising 10,000 feet and appeared to be tracking Umbach's jet. Umbach confirmed he could see trailing heat plumes from the bullets on his infrared display screen. Schmidt told the AWACS controller, ''I've got some men on the road and it looks like, uh, like a piece of artillery firing at us. . . . I am rolling in in self-defense.'' Umbach and Schmidt ran through a series of checks to line up the laser sights. Schmidt fired and said, ''Bombs away.'' Schmidt radioed that it was a direct hit. Ten seconds later, the AWACS controller ordered: ''Disengage! Friendlies Kandahar.'' Umbach asked: ''Can you confirm they were firing at us?'' The controller responded, ''You are cleared, self-defense.'' ''I hope that was the right thing to do,'' Schmidt said to Umbach as they flew back to Kuwait. ''Me, too,'' Umbach said.