If the hook missed—a "bolter"—he needed enough speed to lift off the short deck before he tumbled into the sea. CLANG.
As the jet lurched to a halt, the tension on the wire eased. Jax pulled the throttles back to idle. A yellow-shirted flight deck director gave him the signal to raise the hook. The steel cable, now released, was pulled back into place by the deck crew, ready for the next pilot in the stack.
Lieutenant "Jax" Miller nudged the stick of his F/A-18 Super Hornet, the horizon of the Pacific Ocean tilting sharply as he banked into the carrier’s landing pattern. Below him, the USS George Washington looked like a postage stamp lost in a dark blue void.

