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The U.S.S. Lexington and her sister Saratoga began life as battle cruisers, but the United States’ participation in the naval treaties of the 1920s cancelled construction of these ships; both hulls being converted to aircraft carriers instead. Completed in 1927, Lexington had a flight deck 866' long and 106' wide and was capable of 34 knots, vastly superior to the Langley, the navy’s first carrier. These two ships were the first true “fleet” carriers; although a bit cumbersome for the role, they carried a large air group.
Following fitting out and shakedown, Lexington joined the battle fleet at San Pedro, California in April of 1928. Operating with the battle fleet aircraft squadrons, Lexington was immediately engaged in flight training, battle problems and tactical exercises that quickly demonstrated that big, fast carriers with lots of aircraft were the ideal solution to effective carrier attack operations . Speed was critical, and Lexington had that in abundance, being faster than some destroyers and cruisers. The training and battle exercises during the 1930s with Lexington and Saratoga laid the foundations for what would become the devastating fast carrier task forces of World War II.
Lexington was operating in Hawaiian waters by the fall of 1941 and on December 7th, 1941, Lexington was at sea en route to deliver Marine aircraft to Midway Island. Unable to locate the Japanese fleet that had attacked Pearl Harbor, Lexington returned to a devastated Pearl Harbor on December 18, departing immediately in an attempt to cover Wake Island, then under attack by Japanese landing forces. This attempt failed through poor coordination and Wake Island was eventually captured by the Japanese.
Lexington headed a planned attack on Rabaul in February 1942, but the carrier force was detected early and attacked by 18 Japanese aircraft, 17 of which were shot down, at least five by Lexington’s Lt. Butch O’Hare, who won the Medal of Honor for his actions that day. In March of 1942, Lexington joined Task Force 17 along with carrier Yorktown. The task force conducted a successful surprise raid on Japanese landing forces in Lae and Salamaua, New Guinea on the 10th, but this did not deter the landing despite causing considerable damage to the Japanese invasion fleet.
Lexington was back in the Coral Sea area with Yorktown in May for the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first carrier vs. carrier battle in history. Battle opened with Lexington’s aircraft locating and sinking Japanese light carrier Shoho; later both carriers badly damaged Japanese carrier Shokaku, but not before aircraft from Shokaku and Zuikaku badly damaged Yorktown and hit Lexington with two torpedoes and three bombs. At first, Lexington contained the damage, but gasoline vapors ignited, causing her to blow up and Lexington had to be scuttled, losing 216 crewmen. (DBoyer 2007)
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