Fresh off a 10-month extended deployment on USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), the one thing we didn't do a lot of was landing on runr ways, much less on wet runways. The idea was to crawl, then walk before we start to ran; this flight was supposed to be part of the walking phase. We briefed a section-bombing hop down to Dare County, which, because of weather and range time, would be a challenge to complete. Both aircrews manned-up, and, like any good Tomcat, we had to troubleshoot. After failing to get the starter to engage the right motor, we swapped jets while our lead got ready to pull out of the line. The weather started to move in, and it didn't look like we would make our range time. We signaled to our lead to press without us, and we would proceed as singles.
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