This picture has been making the rounds all over the internet, and the interesting part for me is that I was on the Enterprise when this car was shot off the catapult.  They set this up to give the kids a thrill during the “Tiger Cruise,” which was an opportunity for the kids of the sailors onboard the ship to cruise back with us from Pearl Harbor to Oakland.  The car they used was a ‘61 Plymouth which belonged to the Marine Corps detachment on the ship; it was their duty vehicle in the Philippines whenever we pulled into Subic Bay.  They decided since the thing didn’t even run anymore that they would gut it, take it home with us and launch it off the flight deck.  I got to see it in person.  This was the cruise I made in ‘78, shortly after Mindy & I got married.  I have the same photo in my cruise book; the caption reads, “Now launch the alert Plymouth!”

USS Enterprise, 1978.  Story here and here.

(Via xplanes)