Recent postings spoke to the danger of the flight deck and specifically the uneasy feeling when observing the holdback guy in action, especially when launching F-8 Crusaders. Those of us who worked on the flight deck certainly did not have a monopoly on dangerous jobs on the ship. No doubt there was some pretty hairy moments in Engineering, Deck and even in the galley and other departments and divisions. In my opinion the pilots themselves had the job with the most significant pucker factor of all. That being said, if you worked on the flight deck-you had a dangerous job! Most indoctrinations for working 'on the roof' included the admonition, "keep your head on a swivel." How very true...your personal safety relied on many, many others doing their job and for which you had absolutely no control. (See recent posts re: Shipmate Oglesby).
A commonality among holdback men is that they were all young and most were relatively small in stature so they could fit under the aircraft. Seasoned veterans were too wise to do it. On the F-8, the guy would lay on the holdback track just off the centerline so the nosewheel wouldn't run over him. He was on his back, head forward and the AC would taxi over him. He would pull down the AC holdback fitting and attach the tension bar which was attached to the cat holdback assembly which was anchored in the holdback track. He would remain in that position until the AC was tensioned and went to full power at which time he would roll out. This in itself was difficult as the F-8 was very low to the deck and some versions of the AC had stabilizer(?) fins that made exiting from under the AC even more difficult. When I was on the 'Hawk', there were no lights allowed on deck except the directors yellow wands, the Cat Officer red/green wands and the holdback man was the only one allowed a white light to distinguish the colors of the tension bars. His 'white' light was a standard Navy flashlight with the red circle cut from a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes and a pin hole in the red circle. Others on the flight deck were allowed red flashlights. Sometimes on a moonless night it was so dark that the only way we could tell what type of plane was next to be launched was by the sound of the engine, We could distinguish between an A-4, F-8, F-4 etc. The Spads were easy due to the flames at the cowling but the props were invisible and extremely dangerous. Note: the first flight deck fatality on the Kitty Hawk was an air wing guy who walked into a prop and was decapitated.
If there was a perceived problem with the cat hook-up or any other question with the safety of the launch, we were allowed a quick scan of the AC and hook-up with an Aldis lamp, a version of a spotlight.
The only time I remember significant illumination on deck at night was when we had to rig the barricade for real when an A-3 hit the ramp. As it turned out, the plane crashed in the water before he had a chance to return onboard. In later years and today, the nighttime flight deck is illuminated during ops with sodium vapor lighting which makes it a whole lot safer for everyone.
I was going to relate an amusing story about a holdback man but this post is already too long.