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The development of new technologies, weapons, tactics, and doctrine that had begun in the immediate post-war period continued well into the 1950s.  New generations of jet-propelled carrier aircraft began to replace World War II piston-engined aircraft, at a pace that resulted in most carrier air wings operating a mixed bag of piston-engined aircraft and jets.  The slow acceleration time of the early jet engines, heavier aircraft with design deficiencies, poor flight deck illumination, and inadequate approach control facilities on board ship all combined to complicate shipboard operations to the extent that the accident rate in the early 1950s was the worst in the history of peacetime naval aviation.

But eventually the solutions did come.  By the late 1950s, naval aviation was moving into its fourth generation of tactical jet aircraft.  From the British had come the angled deck, steam catapult, and mirror landing system, later to be replaced by the Fresnel lens.  The Essex-class carriers of World War II were modernized to accommodate high performance jets.  The so-called "super" carriers like the Forrestal arrived and the nuclear-powered carrier was on the horizon.  Standardized training for air crews had been instituted and eventually aircrews, aircraft, and ships were at the same level of development and performance.    

All of this was accomplished while maintaining two carriers on station in the Mediterranean, two or three carriers in the western Pacific, and fighting a "limited war" in Korea!