Couple up: the fogging was so severe the HUD's combining glass was coated with condensation, which caused the symbology to fade under the moisture.

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The Hornet often is described as so advanced the only limiting factor is the pilot at the controls. The aircraft has all the bells and whistles expected of a modern fighter, with the operational simplicity suitable for a single-seat aviator. On a late-night recovery onboard USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), a system rarely exercised to the fullest extent of its capability saved not only the aircraft, but quite possibly the pilot.

The ship had wrapped exercises near Hawaii a week earlier and just had moved into the Guam operating area to conduct large-force-strike training. The ship was about 150 miles from the nearest landing field, operating under a "blue water" mindset. The transition from the cool, dry air of Southern California to the warm, wet air of the tropics finally was about to get the best of me. That night, I would learn what it's like to land aboard the carrier with my eyes closed--not where you want to be.

I was the overall strike lead for the night's air-wing strike of 28 fixed-wing aircraft. The launch and mission execution went exactly as briefed, or so I'd like to think. The flight-deck handler had worked out an excellent recovery plan, which allowed an "open deck." As soon as the launch was complete, the deck would be made ready to recover aircraft. The preflight brief called for all aircraft to recover as soon as their tasking was complete.

The overall success of my mission could be measured in the management of fuel and ultimate recovery of all aircraft. First to recover were the mission tankers and the suppression-of-enemy-air-defenses (SEAD) package, followed by the red air and fighters. As a striker, I would be one of the last aircraft to recover. The carrier-air-traffic-control center (CATCC) did a super job cycling the initial 10 to 15 aircraft down through the marshal stack. However, by the time I was to come aboard, the approaches had degraded to vectors.

"Sting 301, marshal. Vectors for recovery. Turn right to 330 degrees, descend to angels 1.2; you are following a Rhino in the hook at six miles."

Just moments before this call from marshal, the flight had knocked-it-off and fenced out. With my standard penetration checks complete, I was ready to come aboard. From out of 24,000 feet, I went for the assigned 1,200 feet. Without giving the icy-cold-cockpit conditions a second thought, I descended with the throttles at idle, speedbrake deployed, and about 15 degrees nose-down. The aggressive descent profile took just a couple minutes to arrive at angels 1.2. The throttles came up from idle to maintain level flight, and the aircraft's environmental-control system began to work overtime in the warm, thick, moist air near sea level.