Landing on an aircraft carrier

Ethan, in the summer of 1966 during our midshipman summer indoctrination in Pensacola, Florida, I got to make an arrested landing in a T-28 Trojan on the USS Lexington (CV-16)... this is a T-28... it has a VERY powerful engine which made it very easy for us to take off again:
This is the USS Lexington (CVS-16)... it's now a museum in Corpus Christi, Texas:
This is what it looks like making the final approach before you touch down on the carrier. This video is of an A-6 Intruder landing... I had several Naval Academy friends who flew this aircraft. See if you can see the little green light on the left side of the flight deck. This is called the "meatball" and helps the pilot correct his final approach/decent.


Here is a video taken from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier as they recover several jets (they call it a "trap"). This is always a VERY dangerous operation but it's especially dangerous at night. While I was in Vietnam one of my destroyer's duties was to be in what is called a "plane guard" station behind the carrier's starboard quarter about 2000 yards (approximately one mile) while the carrier (as I recall the USS Kitty Hawk and the USS Constellation) recovered aircraft returning from bombing runs into North Vietnam. At night the returning pilots could see our masthead light and better line up their final decent with the meatball. I can remember hearing the whine of the jet engines as these young Naval aviators flew just over the top of our ship's masthead light... in the pitch black darkness... low on fuel... exhausted from hours of being shot at and now they had to face the extreme stress of touching down and trying to catch one of the four arresting cables to stop their plane. As soon as their landing gear touched the flight deck they had to give their plane FULL power for an instant (called hitting the "after burner") so if they missed one of the cables they still had enough speed to get back in the air, circle and try to land again. (click on this image to see some arrested landings... some miss and have to go around again):Naval Aviators are the world's BEST pilots... here are the wings they earn after successfully completing flight school:I love you, Ethan... be sure to tell Caleb that I love him too.
Granddaddy
PS. I'm still trying to figure out how I can read to you over the phone?... call me sometime 931-598-9160.
Lord, bless the Dails and put Your hedge of protection around them... prosper everything Phillip puts his hand to and heal baby Caleb completely... in Jesus' Name... AMEN and AMEN.