USS Lexington (CV-16)
USS Lexington is an built during World War II for the United States Navy. Originally intended to be named Cabot, the new aircraft carrier was renamed while under construction to commemorate the recently lost, becoming the sixth U.S. Navy ship to bear the name in honor of the Battle of Lexington.
Lexington was commissioned in February 1943 and saw extensive service through the Pacific War. For much of her service, she acted as the flagship for Admiral Marc Mitscher, and led the Fast Carrier Task Force through their battles across the Pacific. She was the recipient of 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation. Following the war, Lexington was decommissioned, but was modernized and reactivated in the early 1950s, being reclassified as an attack carrier. Later, she was reclassified as an antisubmarine carrier. In her second career, she operated both in the Atlantic/Mediterranean and the Pacific, but spent most of her time, nearly 30 years, in Pensacola, Florida, as a training carrier.
Lexington was decommissioned in 1991, with an active service life longer than any other Essex-class ship. Following her decommissioning, she was donated for use as a museum ship in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 2003, Lexington was designated a National Historic Landmark. Though her surviving sister ships,, and carry lower hull numbers, Lexington was laid down and commissioned earlier, making Lexington the oldest remaining fleet carrier in the world.
Service history
World War II
The ship was laid down as Cabot on 15 July 1941 by Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. In May 1942,, which had been built in the same shipyard two decades earlier, was sunk at the Battle of the Coral Sea. In June, workers at the shipyard submitted a request to Navy Secretary Frank Knox to change the name of a carrier currently under construction there to Lexington. Knox agreed to the proposal and Cabot was renamed Lexington on 16 June 1942, the fifth U.S. Navy ship to bear the name of the Revolutionary War Battle of Lexington. She was launched on 23 September 1942, sponsored by Mrs. Theodore Douglas Robinson. Lexington was commissioned on 17 February 1943, with Captain Felix Stump in command. After a shakedown cruise in the Caribbean, Lexington sailed via the Panama Canal to join the Pacific fleet.One of the carrier's first casualties was 1939 Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick. During the ship's initial voyage in 1943, Kinnick and other naval fliers were conducting training flights off her deck. The Grumman F4F Wildcat flown by Kinnick developed a serious oil leak while airborne and was unable to return to Lexington, crashing into the sea four miles from the ship. Neither Kinnick nor his plane were recovered.
Lexington arrived at Pearl Harbor on 9 August 1943, and participated in a raid on Tarawa air bases in late September, followed by a raid against Wake Island in October, before returning to Pearl Harbor to prepare for the Gilbert Islands operation. From 19 to 24 November, she made searches and flew sorties in the Marshalls, covering the landings in the Gilberts. Her aviators downed 29 enemy aircraft on 23 and 24 November.
Kwajalein raid
Lexington sailed to raid Kwajalein on 4 December. Her morning strike destroyed the, damaged two cruisers, and accounted for 30 enemy aircraft. The carrier was attacked at midday by six Tenzan Torpedo bombers of the 531st Kōkūtai, two were shot down by flak while attacking the carrier, but the task force was ordered not to open fire at night as Admiral Charles Pownall then in command believed it would give their position away. He was later replaced.At 19:20 that night, a major air attack began while the task force was under way off Kwajalein. At 23:22, parachute flares from Japanese planes silhouetted the carrier, and 10 minutes later, she was hit by a torpedo on the starboard side, knocking out her steering gear. Nine people were killed, two on the fantail and seven in the chief petty officers' mess room, which was a repair party station during general quarters. Four members of the affected repair party survived because they were sitting on a couch that apparently absorbed the shock of the explosion. Settling by the stern, the carrier began circling to port amidst dense clouds of smoke pouring from ruptured tanks aft. To maintain water-tight integrity, damage control crews were ordered to seal the damaged compartments and welded them shut, applying heavy steel plates where needed. An emergency hand-operated steering unit was quickly devised, and Lexington made Pearl Harbor for emergency repairs, arriving on 9 December. She reached Bremerton, Washington, on 22 December for full repairs, completed on 20 February 1944. The error in judgment concerning opening fire at night was never repeated, as thereafter gun crews were ordered to open fire anytime the ship came under attack. Following this attack, the ship was reported as sunk by Japan's Tokyo Rose, the first of several such assertions.
Battle of the Philippine Sea
Lexington returned to Majuro in time to be present when Rear Admiral Mitscher took command of the newly formed Task Force 58 on 8 March. Mitscher took Lexington as his flagship, and after a warm-up strike against Mille, the Fast Carrier Task Force began a series of operations against the Japanese positions in the central Pacific. She supported Army landings at Hollandia on 13 April, and then raided the strongpoint of Truk on 28 April. Heavy counterattacks 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 11 June nearly eliminated all air opposition over the island, then battered it from the air for the next five days. On 16 June, Lexington fought off a fierce attack by Japanese torpedo bombers based on Guam, once again emerging unhurt, but 'sunk' a third time by propaganda pronouncements. As Japanese opposition to the Marianas operation provoked the Battle of the Philippine Sea on 19–20 June, Lexington played a major role in TF 58's great victory in what was later called the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot". With over 300 enemy aircraft destroyed the first day, and a carrier, a tanker, and a destroyer sunk the second day, American aviators nearly knocked Japanese naval aviation out of the war; 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 sent aircraft on sorties over Guam and against the Palaus and Bonins into August. She arrived in the Carolinas on 7 September for three 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 on 10 October and Formosa two 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.
Battle of Leyte Gulf
Now covering the Leyte landings, Lexingtons aircraft scored importantly in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the climactic American naval victory over Japan. While the carrier came under constant enemy attack in the engagement, she was not damaged during the main battle. In exchange her aircraft served in the battle of the Sibuyan Sea, where they assisted in sinking the Japanese "super battleship", one of the two largest and most powerful battleships in the world and scored hits on three cruisers on 24 October, including a torpedo hit that crippled the heavy cruiser Myōkō, forcing her out of the battle alongside two destroyers to escort her.The next day Lexingtons aircraft served in the battle off Cape Engano against Japanese aircraft carriers. With aircraft, they sank the light carrier and in conjunction with aircraft crippled the light carrier . Meanwhile, her aircraft alone sank the fleet carrier. During the battle of the Coral Sea on May 8, 1942, Zuikaku air group landed two torpedo hits that were the primary reason behind Lexington 's sinking, thus Lexington avenged her fallen predecessor. Later in the day, alongside aircraft, Lexington aircraft sank the light carrier.
As the retiring Japanese were pursued, her aircraft then sank the heavy cruiser with four torpedo hits on 5 November off Luzon. Later that day, Lexington was introduced to the kamikaze as a flaming Japanese aircraft 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, as well as shooting down a kamikaze heading for. On 9 November, Lexington arrived in Ulithi to repair battle damage while hearing that Tokyo once again claimed her sunk. Lexington suffered 50 killed and 132 wounded in this attack.
Chosen as the flagship for Task Group 58.2 on 11 December, she struck at the airfields of Luzon and Formosa during the first nine days of January 1945, encountering little enemy opposition. The task force then entered the South China Sea to strike enemy shipping and air installations. Strikes were flown against Saipan, Cam Ranh 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 on 12 January. Leaving the China Sea on 20 January, Lexington sailed north to strike Formosa again on 21 January and Okinawa again on 22 January. After replenishing at Ulithi, TG 58.2 sailed on 10 February to hit airfields near Tokyo on 16 February 1945, and on 17 February to minimize opposition to the Iwo Jima landings on 19 February. Lexington flew close support for the assaulting troops from 19 to 22 February, then sailed for further strikes against the Japanese home islands and the Nansei Shoto before heading for overhaul at Puget Sound.