Friday Film: "Launch 'Em" (1956)

This U.S. Navy Film Launch 'Em was filmed by pilots aboard the USS Hancock in 1956. The film was made while the carrier cruised home from her Far East deployment, apparently with the unofficial blessing of the Eisenhower administration. A legendary film among Naval Aviators, it disappeared from view in the very early 1960s, as it became politically incorrect and taboo. Pilots are fighting in the ready room. Flight deck crewmen starting jet engines with cigarette lighters. These and other hi-jinks might not be regulation, but they do appear in Launch 'Em.

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