Lexington (CVA 16) - Naval Cruise Book

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NTIIIIII . . ,4 f HISTORY BIOGRAPHIES SAN DIEGO AIR HAWAII OPERATIONS GUAM OKINAWA GUNNERY FLAG YOKOSUKA ENGINEERING KOBE SUPPLY TOKYO MEDICAL DENTAL NAVIGATION IWAKUNI SASEBO EXECUTIVE AIR GROUP HONG KONG DEPARTURE

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'awe ROLOGUE . NH-' 'uf' H ' Jkiik lp! AQ fszffiqsi he defense ofa realm, a home and loved ones dates back to the very genesis of man's existence. There have been armies and navies which, in the course of history, employed millions of men to play the roles of attacker and defender, liberator, conqueror, and adventurer. ften their ghosts weigh heavily upon us. e are in the present what our soldier-sailor predecessors were in the past. Q ,These fighting men were sung in song and extolled in various chronicles. Evenfzsitheqgboy carves his initials on a tree and victorious kings of old built imposing structures to mark their progress, so likewise do we leave this book behindf 5. 1 it ot so that we will not be forgotten, but to make sure that we will not forgeti. g i W hislisfa bookabout men, a ship, and the sea. It is one of the oldest ' . 'sto-ries fin'i'the world 5 however, at the time for many of us it was quite Perhaps what you are about to see is by no means unique. Still it concerns us g indeed, it is about us and our ship, the LEXINGTON.

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THE U ITI-ID TATES SHIP LEXI GTO The name LEXINGTON is as old as the United States Navy itself and is dramatically woven into the annals of American history, having been carried on the nation's Naval Register since the embryonic days of 1775. It was the Baltimore brig, WILD DUCK, purchased by the Marine Committee of the Continental Congress in March of 1776, that became the first ship to bear the name LEXINGTON. She was so re-named in honor of the famous Revolutionary War battle that took place on 19 April of the previous year. The second LEXINGTON, built in 1825, was a 691 ton sloop-of-war fitted with 18 guns. She cruised on special service off Laborador protecting American fishing interests in the area, and during the Mexican War, served as a transport for troops as well as blockading Mexican ships from California ports. After returning to the East Coast in the early 1850's, she participated in Commodore Perry's famous expedition to Japan. Having remained in Far Eastern waters for two years, she set sail for New York City, where she was decommissioned on 26 February, 1855. An ironclad sidewheeler was the third LEXINGTON, built at Pittsburgh in 1860 and displacing 500 tons. She was purchased by the Army and then transferred to the Navy in 1862. A river gunboat, she saw extensive service in the Civil War and particularly in the Mississippi campaign- Working with the TYLER, her sister ship, the third LEXINGTON, owing to her light draft, was ideally suited for harassment duty and also served as a fire-support ship for troops. In this capacity she received a special letter, along with the TYLER, from the then-Secretary of the Navy, the Honorable Gideon Wells, commending the two vessels for their ,courageous performance and prowess in combat. Originally laid down as a battle-cruiser, but converted to an aircraft carrier in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty for limitation and armaments, the fourth LEXINGTON went down the ways on 3 October 1925. The LEXINGTON CCV-25 and her sister ship the USS SARATOGA CCV-30, were the first aircraft carriers built by the United States Navy other than the experimental carrier LANGLEY. One of the giants of the fleet in her time, the LEXINGTON had a flight deck 888 feet long, a beam of 106 feet, and a standard displacement of 33,000 tons. Logging 30.7 knots on a run from San Pedro, Calif. to I-Ionolulu, from 9 June, 1928, the LEXINGTON on three successive days broke the 24 hour steaming record as