The USS Lexington CV-16

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Summarized History of The U.S.S. Lexington

Prepared for her launching in less than 16 months, USS Lexington was originally to be named USS Cabot. A petition submitted to the Secretary of the Navy by the vessel's construction work force asked that she be named for the CV-2 scuttled by the Navy after sustaining serious damage in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May, 1942. Lexington served as the flagship of Fast Carrier Task Force 58 under the command of Admiral Marc Mitscher. Mitscher is credited with making the aircraft carrier task force the predominant naval weapon system of the 20th century while aboard Lexington in the western Pacific. Lexington participated in every major naval campaign from Tarawa to Tokyo and was hit twice by the enemy. Lexington was nicknamed "The Blue Ghost" by the Japanese propagandist Tokyo Rose because she never wore the typical camouflage paint of all the other U.S. aircraft carriers.

After World War II, Lexington was modernized and recommissioned in 1955 for Cold War service in the western Pacific. In 1962, she was assigned to serve as the Navy's training aircraft carrier, a duty which she performed until her decommissioning on November 26, 1991. With a half century of service, Lexington holds the record for the longest service, the most aircraft launched and recovered of any of the world's aircraft carriers, and was first Navy ship to embark female crewmembers. USS Lexington offers Science- Aboard-Ship education programs for students and conducts youth overnight encampments.

A More Detailed History of the USS Lexington CV-16

Class: Essex Aircraft Carrier
Launched: September 23, 1942
At: Bethlehem Steel Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts
Commissioned: February 17, 1943
Length: 910 feet
Beam: 142 feet
Draft: 30 feet
Displacement: 33,000 tons
Armament: (original): 90 aircraft, twelve 5-inch/38 caliber guns, 40mm and 20mm anti-aircraft guns

The fifth Lexington (CV-18) was laid down as Cabot July 15, 1941 by Bethlehem Steel Co., Quincy, Mass.; renamed Lexington June 16, 1942; launched September 28, 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Theodore D. Robinson, and commissioned February 17, 1943, Capt. Felix B. Stump in command.

After Caribbean shakedown and yard work at Boston, Lexington sailed for Pacific action via the Panama Canal, arriving Pearl Harbor August 9, 1943. She raided Tarawa in late September and Wake in October, then returned to Pearl Harbor to prepare for the Gilbert Islands operation. From November 19 to 24 she made searches and flew sorties in the Marshalls. covering the landings in the Gilberts. Her aviators downed 29 enemy aircraft on November 23 and 24.

Lexington sailed to mid Kwajalein the 4th of December. Her morning strike destroyed a cargo ship, damaged two cruisers, and accounted for 30 enemy aircraft. Her gunners splashed two of the enemy torpedo planes that attacked at midday, and opened fire again at 1925 that night when a major air attack began. At 2322 parachute flares silhouetted the carrier, and 10 minutes later she was hit by a torpedo to starboard, knocking out her steering gear. Settling 5 feet by the stern, the carrier began circling to port amidst dense clouds of smoke pouring from ruptured tanks aft. An emergency hand-operated steering unit was quickly devised, and Lexington made Pearl Harbor for emergency repairs, arriving 9 December. She reached Bremerton, Wash., December 22nd for full repairs completed on February 20, 1944.

Lexington sailed via Alameda, Calif., and Pearl Harbor for Majuro, where Rear Adm. Marc Mitscher commanding TF 58 broke his flag in her on the 8th of March. After a warm up strike against Mille, TF 58 operated against the mayor centers of resistance in Japan's outer empire, supporting the Army landing at Hollandia on the 13th of April, and hitting supposedly invulnerable Truk on April 28th. Heavy counterattack left Lexington untouched, her planes splashing 17 enemy fighters; but, for the second time, Japanese propaganda announced her sunk.

A surprise fighter strike on Saipan on the 11th of June virtually eliminated all air opposition over the island, then battered from the air for the next 5 days. On the 15th of June Lexington fought off a fierce attack by Japanese torpedo planes based on Guam, once again to emerge unhurt, but sunk a third time by propaganda pronouncements. As Japanese opposition to the Mariannas operation provoked the Battle of the Philippine Sea the 19th and 20th of June, Lexington played a mayor role in TF 58's great victory. With over 300 enemy aircraft destroyed the first day, and a carrier, a tanker, and a destroyer sunk the second day, American aviators virtually knocked Japanese naval aviation out of the war; for with the planes went the trained and experienced pilots without whom Japan could not continue air warfare at sea.

Using Eniwetok as her base, Lexington flew sorties over Guam and against the Palaus and Bonins into August. She arrived in the Carolinas on the 6th of September for 3 days of strikes against Yap and Ulithi, then began attacks on Mindanao, the Visayas, the Manila area, and shipping along the west coast of Luzon, preparing for the coming assault on Leyte. Her task force then blasted Okinawa 10 October and Formosa 2 days later to destroy bases from which opposition to the Philippines campaign might be launched. She was again unscathed through the air battle fought after the Formosa assault.

Now covering the Leyte landings, Lexington's planes scored importantly in the Battle for Leyte Gulf, the climactic American naval victory over Japan. While the carrier came under constant enemy attack in the engagement in which Princeton was sunk, her planes joined in sinking Japan's super battleship Muea~hi and scored hits on three cruisers the 24th of October. Next day, with Essex aircraft they sank carrier Chitose, and alone sank Zuikoko. Later in the day, they aided in sinking a third carrier, Zutho. As the retiring Japanese were pursued, her planes sank heavy cruiser Nachi with four torpedo hits on the 5th of November off Luzon.

But in the same action, she was introduced to the kamikaze as a flaming Japanese plane crashed near her island, destroying most of the island structure and spraying fire in all directions. Within 20 minutes major blazes were under control, and she was able to continue normal flight actions, her guns knocking down a would-be kamikaze heading for carrier Ticonderoga as well. On the 9 of November Lexington arrived Ulithi to repair battle damage and learned that Tokyo once again claimed her destroyed.

Chosen flagship for TG 58.2 on the 11th of December, she struck at the airfields of Luzon and Formosa during the first 9 days of January 1945, encountering little enemy opposition. The task force then entered the China Sea to strike enemy shipping and air installations. Strikes were flown against Saipan, Camranh Bay in then Indochina, Hong Kong, the Pescadores, and Formosa. Task force planes sank four merchant ships and four escorts in one convoy, and destroyed at least 12 in another, at Camranh Bay the 12th of January. Leaving the China Sea on the 20th of January, Lexington sailed north to strike Formosa again the 21st of January and Okinawa again the 22nd of January.

After replenishing at Ulithi, TG 58.2 sailed on the 10th of February to hit airfields near Tokyo the 17th and 18th of February to minimize opposition to the Iwo Jima landings on the 19th of February. Lexington flew close support for the assaulting troops the 19th to the 22nd of February, then sailed for further strikes against the Japanese home islands and the Nansei Shoto before heading for overhaul at Puget Sound.

Lexington was combat bound again on the 22nd of May, sailing via Alameda and Pearl Harbor for San Pedro Bay, Leyte, where she joined Rear Adm. T. L. Sprague's task force for the final round of air strikes which battered the Japanese home islands through July until the 15th of August, when the last strike was ordered to jettison its bombs and return to Lexington on receiving word of Japanese surrender. During this period she had launched attacks on Honshu and Hokkaido airfields, and Yokosuka and Kure naval bases to destroy the remnants of the Japanese fleet. She had also flown bombing attacks on industrial targets in the Tokyo area.

After hostilities ended, she continued to fly precautionary patrols over Japan, and dropped supplies to prisoner of war camps on Honshu. She supported the occupation of Japan until leaving Tokyo Bay on the 3rd of December with homeward bound veterans for transportation to San Francisco, where she arrived on the 15th of December.

After west coast operations, Lexington decommissioned at Bremerton, Wash., April 23, 1947 and entered the Reserve Fleet there. Designated attack carrier CVA-16 on October 1, 1952, she began conversion and modernization in Puget Sound Naval Shipyard September 1, 1953. receiving the new angled flight deck.

Lexington recommissioned August 15, 1955, Capt. A. S. Heyward, Jr., in command. Assigned San Diego as her home port, she operated off California until May 1956, sailing then for a 6-month deployment with the 7th Fleet. She based on Yokosuka for exercises, maneuvers, and search and rescue missions off the coast of China, and called at major Far Eastern ports until returning to San Diego on the 20th of December. She next trained Air Group 12, which deployed with her on the next 7th Fleet deployment. Arriving Yokosuka June 1, 1957, Lexington embarked Rear Adm. H. D. Riley, Commander Carrier Division 1 and sailed as his flagship until returning to San Diego on the 17th of October.

Following overhaul at Bremerton, her refresher training was interrupted by the Lebanon crisis; on July 14, 1958 she was ordered to embark Air Group 21 at San Francisco and Pail to reinforce the 7th Fleet off Taiwan, arriving on station on the 7th of August. With another peacekeeping mission of the U.S. Navy successfully accomplished, she returned to San Diego on the 19th of December. Now the first carrier whose planes were armed with air-to-surface Bull pup guided missile, Lexington left San Francisco April 26, 1959 for another tour of duty with the 7th Fleet. She was on standby alert during the Laotian crisis of late August and September, then exercised with British forces before sailing from Yokosuka the 16th of November for San Diego, arriving on the 2nd of December. Through early 1960 she overhauled at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

Lexington's next Far Eastern tour began late in 1960 and was extended well into 1961 by renewed tension in Laos. Returning to west coast operations, she was ordered in January 1962 to prepare to relieve Antietam (CV-16) as aviation training carrier in the Gulf of Mexico, and she was redesignated CVS-16 on October 1, 1962. However, during the Cuban missile crisis, she resumed duty as an attack carrier, and it was not until December 29, 1963 that she relieved Antietam at Pensacola.

Into 1963, Lexington has operated out of her home port Pensacola, as well as Corpus Christi and New Orleans, qualifying student aviators and maintaining the high state of training of both active duty and reserve naval aviators. Her work has been of increasing significance as she has prepared the men vital to the continuing Navy and Marine Corps operations over Vietnam, where naval aviation has played a major role in defending the cause of freedom. Lexington marked her 200,000th arrested landing October 17, 1967, and was redesignated CVT-16 on January 1, 1969.

Lexington received the Presidential Unit Citation and 11 battle stars for World War II service.

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