photo #2504802

I know it doesn’t look like much since any sense of speed is not there, but these are your local, friendly neighborhood nuclear aircraft carrier catapult officers as a 30-some odd ton F-14 Tomcat wing passes a few feet over your head when the “launch” button is depressed. You had to hunker down else that lowered flapon the wing does a tap dance on your head. The jet gets a lot of its speed at the front end as it is accelerated from zero to 150 in 2 and a half seconds. Waist launch, topside, USS DWIGHT D EISENHOWER, Summer 1994.