So as I was working in my hobby room on an M3 Lee, I ended up watching the movie "Men of the Fighting Lady" from 1954. Great film, lots of great footage of F9F-5 launches, flights, and recoveries. It also included the crash scene from the 1976 movie Midway (when Charleton Heston's character dies crashing his F9F onto the flight deck - it was the movie I had on before the "Men of the Fighting Lady.") The movie has a lot that the movie Top Gun borrowed: launch operations without the music soundtrack, a pilot escorting a disabled wingman back to the ship and landing (based on a true story), and a couple of other minor things. Lots of great reference material. Not sure how I missed this movie before, except it doesn't seem to be played a lot on TV.
And that led me to this great clip I found: https://youtu.be/_gA_SSeoMWU
Color footage of flight ops from the deck of the USS Leyte in the Korean War. A really fun watch and even more reference materials. Launches and landings of F9Fs, F4Us, old A-1s, and the rescue helos. It was so good I felt the need to share.
And now I have to watch the Bridges of Toki-Ri as a follow up.