Popeye was referring to World War II and the Essex class that was put out during that war. They operated very well and there were no anti-ship missiles...although you could call a kamiikazi perhaps a manned anti-ship missile. But the US did not lose fleet carriers to those attacks, though it was a close thing a couple of times, ie the USS Franklin.
After the war the US reduced numbers of ships (and carriers) drastically...from a hundred carriers down to something like 18.
They put angled decks on some of the older carriers when the time came...but then they built the Forrestal Class, followed by the Enterprise, followed by the Nimitz class. All of which have been supreme carriers.
When the angled decks were placed on the older carriers, none of them spent "years" in dry dock, and they didn't become different vessels. They added the angle decks, better cats, and then they kept doing what they were designed to do.
