My brother Bill was also a Navy pilot.  He was a flight surgeon--the guy that says yes you can fly, or no, you can't.  He was the flight surgeon for NASA, on point for the guys that were in the capsule that burned on the ground.  Gus Grissom...and two others.

Bill said the the most frightening thing he ever did was take a night cat shot.  The carrier is pitch black.  No lights.  The sky is pitch black.  And then they pull you back in the sling shot and Wham!  He said that it is "Jolt acceleration."  Accelerating acceleration. 

And when you come back aboard, it's at full speed--and if you aren't properly belted in, it will snap your head off when you hook the wire and are jerked to an instant stop.  Doing that over the years doesn't do your back any favor either.

He corrected me on one point that I didn't know.  Bill flew twenty years after Ken, and things had changed in aviation.  But Bill said one thing didn't change.  The LSO still controlled the deck.  He was never obsolete.  Every plane that came aboard was rated by the LSO.  (And there were four wires.)  

If you caught the first, or fourth wire, the LSO gave you a demerit.  It meant you weren't on a perfect glide path coming in.  If your wings jiggled, demerit.  The meatball--Bill said they just called it "The Ball"--guided your path, but the LSO was always able to override the ball.  He held a "pickle" that if he punched, red lights flashed everywhere.  Which meant you were on path to kill yourself--and needed to pull up, abort, bolter.  You weren't going to make it and would kill others as well.  Bill said the LSO had the final say.  His judgement was law.

Planes changed.  The carrier changed.  The LSO didn't.