I spent yesterday writing about the LSO (Landing Signal Officer) on a carrier.  Back before the Navy went to the mirror and made that job obsolete.  There weren't very many of LSO's.  When Ken became an LSO he was one of only three in the Marine Corps.

I've read myself silly on the subject and as I've read, I've remembered things he said about a day at the "office."  Oh...how I wish I had listened closer, because I don't know a single soul to ask about it now.  Ken would be ninety this year.   How many pilots are left who remember the LSO?

I asked on Facebook if there was anyone out there who remembered trapping wire with an LSO that could help me.  They would be in their nineties.  I didn't really expect an answer--and that's what I got.  Nothing.

I do remember that Ken said, "The most terrifying thing a pilot ever does is land on a carrier at night in bad weather.  Especially when you're low on fuel."  Or any kind of weather for that matter.  Because the deck is pitching side to side as well as up and down.  The LSO was critical in getting you aboard.

I'm 70 pages into this novel I'm writing.  Part is true, some is fiction.  Only a couple of hundred more pages before I have a book.  It's harder writing because I have no idea what I'm writing about.  I'm reading Ken's books and flight logs.

I've stood on a carrier and seen the LSO platform.  It extends off the side of the ship.  If a plane crashes, the LSO has two options.  Fall backwards into a chute like a water slide, or go over the side--which isn't a good option.  In fact, it's a very bad option. 

I didn't like to think about what he did at the time.  Better to kiss him as he went out the door to go to work, and wish him a happy day.  That would be a day in which nobody got killed.