The USS Kitty Hawk Refueling from the Tanker USS Sacramento AOE-1 along with the DD-946

We normally refueled about every five days. Here's how the process works, the tanker/supply ship pulls along side the aircraft carrier, in this case the USS Kitty Hawk. Once the two ships have synchronized their speed and heading, a man on the carrier uses a gun to shoot a small line to the tanker. The gun looks a lot like a shotgun. A man on the tanker catches the line, or at least tries to catch it, it many times takes several tries. Once he has the line, he attaches a larger line to it and it is pulled back to the aircraft carrier. Now the aircraft carrier attaches a cable to the line and passes it back to the tanker. Finally, the tanker uses the cable to pass a hose back to the carrier.

There are several hoses passed to the aircraft carrier. 

There is no need to pass fresh water back and forth because each ship has its own distilling apparatus for their fresh water supply.

On December 7th, 1965, exactly 24 years after Pearl Harbor, while refueling and rearming from the USS Sacramento,