Alert 5 moves onto the cats.

There is also an Alert 15, where the pilots stay suited up in the ready room, and an alert 20. I don't know where these pilots wait.

A Letter from Mike, one of our readers

The metal fingers that made up the back end of the tail pipe were called  turkey feathers. Also you mentioned that this was the first cruise  using the Tomcat. You are correct. Another problem that was encountered  was that the JBD's, (jet blast deflectors). They weren't big enough to protect you from the jet blast put out by the Tomcats. The flames would  come over the top and around the side of the JBD's, effectively cooking  the hell out of anyone in that area. I was working the flight deck as a  flight deck trouble shooter at the time. I quickly learned to seek cover  when a Tomcat went to full military prior to launch. I recall one  incident when I was working on one of our A-6's on the starboard bow. A  Tomcat cam by on its way to the bow cat and turned. The ship took a  starboard list just at that point so the pilot gave it some throttle to  keep from rolling backward. I and my partner had to grab onto the main  strut of our plane to keep from being blown over the side. I recall the  heat as being intense. You could not breath, your neck and other exposed  skin was being fried, but there was no way you were going to let go, as  the alternative was not pleasant. 

Another bit of trivia. We joked that the tail letters on the aircraft, 
  NH, stood for, Never Home.