Lexington (CV 16) - Naval Cruise Book

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cv-2- Th- U.S.S. L to . Q-A-:rm ship in the U. S. Navy of that name, and secon carrier in theexITgS.nFleet. sister ship of the U.S.S. Saratoga. She was Bunk OH May 8. 19412, in the battle of the Coral Sea. The contract for the present U.S.S. Lexington, the fifth ship of the U. S. Navy of that name, was let with the Bethlehem Steel Company on September 9, 1940, and the keel was laid at the Fore River Ship Yard at Quincy, Mass., on luly 15, 1941. She slid down the ways on September 26, 1942, christened by Mrs. T. D. Robinson, who had christened the fourth Lexington. At the launching, Rear Admiral Frederick C. Sher- man, who had commanded the old Lexington, pre- dicted: Today the new Lexington takes up where the old Lexington left off. May her career be full of glorious achievement. She will help carry out our pledge that freedom shall not perish from the earth. Finally, on February 17, 1943, at the South Boston Navy Yard, Rear Admiral R. A. Theobold, Commandant of the First Naval District, accepted her in behalf of the Navy, and Captain Felix B. Stump, in the presence of Governor Saltonstall of Massachusetts, accepted her command. Since her commissioning, the Lexington, fulfilling Admiral Sherman's prophecy, has participated in nearly every major operation of the Pacific war. She has spent an aggregate of 21 months in the combat area, at least 18 of which were west of the 180th meridian. Her planes have struck at Tarawa, Kwajalein, the Marianas, 'Palau, the Philippines, Truk, the Bonins, Formosa, Okinawa, and Iapan itself, and helped destroy the power of the lapanese fleet in the first and second battles of the Philippine Sea. Strong in gunnery as well as in air operations, in all that time, though frequently attacked, she received but two hits. Her record more than avenges the fate of her namesake. The story of the Lexington, like that of all carriers, is the story of her air groups. Her first and perhaps the most famous, Air Group 16, came aboard on April 23 in Chesapeake Bay, where she had pro- ceeded after a fitting-out period in Boston. She engaged in practice maneuvers until May 11, then departed for a shakedown cruise to the Gulf of Paria, Trinidad, British West Indies. After four weeks in this classic training area, she returned to Boston on lune 8th for post-shakedown availability. THE LEX ENTEBS THE WAR Alter this perird she set out for the Pacific. Pass- ing through the Panama Canal on Iuly 26-27, she arrived at Pearl Harbor on August 9 and reported

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THE STORY OF THE U. S. S. LEXINGTON QCV-161

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ku S The U.S.S. Lexington, CV-16, fifth ship in the U. S. Navy of that name, sixteenth heavy carrier in the U. S. Fleet, sister ship ol the U.S.S. Essex and of all other Essex Class Carriers, on de-gaussing trials at the Boston Navy Yard, shortly after her commissioning. The Lexington was built by the Bethlehem Steel Co. at the Fore River Ship Yard, Quincy, Mass., has cz length of 889 feet, a width of 109 feet, and can make over 35 miles per hour. She was commissioned at the South Boston Navy Yard on February 17, 1943.