51,000th Landing Cake

The crew of the aircraft carrier Intrepid kept a running count of arrested landings—when an airplane’s tailhook caught a steel cable across the flight deck, bringing the plane to a stop. Officers called upon the ship’s bakers to create cakes in celebration of arrested landing milestones, usually after each thousand safe landings. In this photo, pilots in squadron VF-162 celebrate the 51,000th arrested landing on board Intrepid.