Yes to the ladder question.
Regarding multi-ship take-offs, in my early days on the F-4 we used to do 3-ship 'Vic' take-offs. I was one of a flight to spend a few days at Spangdahlem with a USAF F-4D outfit on a radar bombing contest (which we won!) and the Yanks hadn't been allowed to do Vic take-offs for years, if ever. When I found this out one evening I proudly announced that we would do one or more the next day for their benefit. First message we got that morning from RAFG was that Vic take-offs had been outlawed because - we understood - some barely-current wingco had just made a pig's ear of one, nearly clobbering the leader in the process, and had blamed the aircraft rather than his own ineptitude. So that was the end of that particular era. As it happens, a Vic was no more difficult that a standard pairs take-off and even more impressive.