Me. Carrier Quals on USS RANGER in September 1978. Flying a Tomcat (BuNo 160659) from VF-124 out of Miramar. It was Friday the 13th (of course) of September at 2345 at night. We were on CAT 2 for what was going to be our fourth cat/trap of the evening on our way to 10/6. Light on fuel; I seem to recall about 4500 pounds (70 mile BINGO to NKX). Military power shot. As soon as the cat fired, it's obvious to me (in the back seat) that we were no longer connected to the catapult. My sense was that we'd had the launch bar ripped out, becuase after the initial "jolt" of the cat firing, we were just starting a very graceful takeoff roll just as yuou would at the field. I said to the pilot "Okay, we're of the cat, can you stop? Can you stop?" In retrospect, had we pulled power to idle and stepped on the brakes, we'd have stopped very nicely. However, my pilot was doing "the right thing"...focused on the gauges (black as hell, no horizon) and didn't have the peripheral sensory/visual cues that I was afforded. His "seat of the pants" feel was that we were experiencing a "soft cat shot", so he staged the engines up into burner, which just made us "roll a little faster" towards he bow. As I could see the bow coming up and the airspeed not even off the peg yet, I said "Standby to eject." He responded "Wait a minute, I've got it...". I made the decision to see what happened to the nose after the nose gear left the deck; assumed the position; grabbed the lower handle and waited for the end of the deck. My last look at the airspeed indicator showed "alive...but only 80 knots". As soon as the nosewheels rolled of the deck, the nose pitched down and I pulled the handle. I had a pretty "text book" ejection; one half-swing after chute deployment, and into the water directly ahead of the ship. Looked over my left shoulder and saw RANGER-Boat steaming directly towards me...it looks exactly how you would imagine. I had enough time for about three big "sculls" to my rear to clear the bow, and the bow wave action kept me from ever contacting the sides. I was picked up quickly, and there's a somewhat longer story about the problems my pilot bud had getting all rolled up in his canopy by the wave action and being pulled down, but we'll save that or another day. Both picked up uninjured; got new flight gear and completed quals two later. We both missed "the big show", however...I've talked to numerous guys who were getting ready to go on Cat 1; guys on the flight deck, the LSOs on the platform, and guys up in "Vulture's Row" in the superstructure. Airplane disappeared under the bow. Two seats fire...that's us. Then..."like an Atlas Aegena rocket" in full zone 5, the airplane staggers bck into view and staarts to go pure vertical over the ship, essentially flying an uncommanded loop. Over the top and back down headed (in everyone's opinion) "straight back for the deck. LSO's hit the escape chute and some get all the way down to the hangar bay before they stop running. As the airplane is coming down the back side, it just rolls off slightly to the left and impacts the water off the port side. Sploosh! Mishap investigation reveals that the T-bar portion of the launch bar had a "flat spot" which could cause the shuttle to apparently engage it, but not have it gully seated in the jaws of the shuttle. When the cat fired, it just spit the bar after breaking us out of the holdback assembly. Airframes change fleet-wide fixed he problem.