For MSOCS, MGD and others persisting down the guides badge route, it is worth remembering that for many years the QRA task could only be discharged with significant risk to the crews. The WIWOL mates and Leuchars F4s operated without the benefit of an INS or an HF radio, often outside radar cover, and at a range where SAR was unlikely to find you, never mind reach you before hypothermia set in (assuming the sea state let you get in the dinghy in the first place). So a simple fire or double PC failure was likely to prove terminal.
And as Ali Q pointed out, the other trick was to try to wipe you off into the sea on the inside of a descending turn. It was the no IN/HF combination that led to a Tremblers crew hitting a tanker 200nm from land, with the low fuel light on, and minus the tanks and missiles they had to jettison just to reach the tanker. Saved by a US AWACS, but it did generate a good song!
Apart from that, the most difficult bit was managing to stay awake on the way home after the 0200 no-notice launch.