 While other men walked the dusty roads of history, Navy men turned their faces to a clean wind, challenging the sea to adventure and discovery. In conquering the sea they conquered themselves, making courage and excellence a proud tradition. Then they looked up from the decks of their ships and conquered the sky, bringing the Navy into the world of flight. Naval aviators are a very special breed of men who have met the challenge of sea and sky, for in all the world only a few have mastered the sky from the deck of a ship at sea. This is a classroom, the course Naval Aviation at Pensacola, Florida. The students are practicing precision landings. Following a beam of light called the meatball, they aim for a 10 foot spot on the runway. As the LSO or landing signal officer, their instructor talks them in on their approach and grades their performance. It is essential that they be proficient at these landings because soon, for the first time, the young pilots will land their planes aboard an aircraft carrier at sea. I've never even been in a small plane before, except for the big bus in the sky, that was about it. It just amazed me when I think back on it, that now I'm actually flying a jet. You get up there, and you start thinking about what you used to think of as a kid. And there you are doing it. It's really not something mystifying at all. I mean, it's something, it sounds like driving a car, but it's... It takes work, I think, when you're on the ground, you feel kind of trapped. You ever felt that way? And every time you look around, you see something as man as a bill. When you get upstairs, you're going, hey man, well, his bill is real small compared to everything else. And it gets smaller. I think sometimes too, though, flying is a job, you know, like any other job. You get up there and there aren't regular hours to it. And like they say, flying is, especially flying a jet, is nine-tenths boredom and one-tenths dark terror. Your mind kind of works like a computer. You plug all these things in. You really amaze yourself because after a pass, you figure out, well, I was a little wide there, a little long in the groove. And you figure out the corrections you make and you plug them in, you know? It's like, I don't know anything about computers, but I assume that's what you do, you know? You find out the variables and what you need to make a good pass, you plug it in, you do it. Your mind works like a computer. It amazes me. And I'm sure most of us feel, or all of us feel completely confident in it. There are a lot of things that we don't know about flying, but we no longer are scared by it and we can just go out. This has been the first time I felt like I can just go out, hop in a bird and feel completely comfortable and know what I'm doing every time. It could be something like an athlete training for a race. He trains for weeks and maybe even months, all for one race, even one a year at the most. And now tomorrow, that's our point. Maybe it'll only be 30 minutes worth of time. But like you said, during that time, you're going to be successful. I mean, getting out to the boat isn't something that... There's that point, like he says, where you come around before you pick up the ball. And it's all pretty much just like it's been in training. And then once you pick up the ball, you got it. They didn't always fly jets. Although college graduates, they, like all young men entering the service, were subjected to those first few weeks of becoming accustomed to the military environment. This course is too different. An officer indoctrination course prepared the student aviators for basic flight training. It is here they prove they had what it takes. Motivation, willpower, stamina, and the sincere desire to fly. This was the beginning. The evolutionary process of becoming naval aviators is continued at Softly Field. The business of the ready room reflected the anticipation of early flights. The countless briefs and debriefs never became routine as each successive flight grew more demanding. Like an athlete before a game, the young pilots spent their pre-flight hours in mental preparation, memorizing procedures, and waiting. It was now time to solo, time to prove one's abilities to the instructor, but more importantly to oneself. It was during these early flights that the self-confidence was developed, which would prove so valuable throughout the young pilot's career. That was the beginning. Now commissioned and flying jets, the students and their instructor get together at the club for an informal bowl session. It is a time to pay off pitchers of beer for poor practice landings, but also an opportunity to relate with a veteran carrier pilot. Let me be kind of fun to see what you think of carrier landings before and afterwards. So, let me know what some of your expectations are, you know, and going to meet the big steel hull for the first time. What do you think, Steve? What's it going to feel like to get a catch up for the first time? I'm going to be sweating. I'm going to be sweating the most as I roll over the shovel, I think. I'm going to really be sweating. And then like you said, I think it's going to be an eternity between the time he gives the go and that thing really hurts. I think once I get in the air, I'm going to be too preoccupied with procedures. Do you ever get kind of a tug on the wire and all of a sudden it must lose? Only if you grab a wire and then the hook releases it. It's, for example, the hook is right here. And if you cut the wire just on the middle part of it without getting underneath, it could pull the wire out and then have the hook slip off. And so that's the reason for the procedure of going a hundred percent as soon as you feel impacted and staying there with a full pile of the aircraft until you know that you're going to stop. But you're dealing in exceptions. You can't afford not to expect the exception to the rule. That's the big ticket. It's just like in any procedure, you're learning the procedure for the exception, not for the norm. Although you have not much control over it, things are going to happen real quick and it's going to shake your brains a little bit. The young pilots set out on their final practice landing session. Their performance now would determine whether they would fly to the carrier the next day. Okay, Steve, you had a pretty good period. You're still, again, two passes, you're still a little late with your nose. Same as last time. The first one was an okay fast start. A little not enough firing close to the end of the little fast height of the ramp. Then the next one was fair just a little fast all the way again. And a little late nose. And one thing that complicates it is the fact that you're flying a little fast so it's harder to make a nose for it. Then Lee, you are a fast start low at the ramp. And a fair pass, not enough straightaway. A little not enough firing close. And a little rough nose again. A fast, I can't remember what the start was like, but just at the last there, one of these nose jobs again where you pick your nose up and just a little over the top right at the ramp. Just enough to change from a 3 to a 4 wire. You're in good shape until you go through that nose. I don't see that. I'm starting to fall or something. I'm trying to stop. Stop it with a little less, you're just over controlling is where it amounts to. You're just moving it more than needs to be moved. So everybody's feel quality and ready to go to the ship. It's a piece of cake if you're smooth. The plane stood ready as the sun burned off the early morning fog. 60 miles out in the gulf, the carrier steamed toward the rendezvous. It would soon be time to go. A little bit. I wouldn't do it either. No, I plan to stay real dry on this. You're such a watch mother. Yeah. Everybody's got a watch. Jim, such a watch mother. Yeah, pretty close to it. Yeah. Right now. Yeah, let's go. Flight to the carrier would be the longest 60 miles the students had ever flown. Although they'd simulated scores of carrier landings before, there was something very different about this flight. Something that could not be seen. Although they'd simulated scores of carrier landings before, there was something very different about this flight. Something that could not be simulated in any training situation. The runway would now be only 500 feet long, moving through the water at 25 knots, and subject to the rolling and pitching motions of the sea. This was the real thing, and it was a flight that had been thought about many times before. This is the tenseness of hitting the boat. The unknown, the variables that you haven't encountered before. The apprehension that you have is just sort of a nebulous sort of a thing that you really don't put any actions to. It's just a tenseness. An awareness that this is something new and different. Something that might not work just like everything else you've done. But no, you don't think about there's no fear. You're too busy. That's the feel of the deck. The first time would be a touch-and-go landing without the tail hook. Number two wire, not bad for the first. Landing completed. They would now move forward to their first launch from a steam catapult, which would literally throw them back in the air and into a series of landings that would soon become routine. All right, I guess. I went near to the base out there. Sorry. It was okay. The hardest landing was one back here. So that right, any time they hit it again and again. You've been on a rest, right? Okay, I lost two bottles there because I didn't put my hook down. I heard somebody laugh and all of a sudden it dawned on me. It was funny. I could say, hey, the hook's not down, ho-ho, you know. It was my hook and I faulted it anyway. I mean, our plan is to land it with half a flap somewhere. Come on, sir, debrief for someone right here. You're not going to change that, are you, Dave? All right. All back. Happy it's over with. I'm sure you learned something out there. This is what it's all about. Like you say, it is fast. Things happen very quickly out there, but as time passes, you will get better and better and better at it. The young pilots would have six more months of training before they received their Navy wings. But to them, this was the day they became naval aviators.