CV-2 USS Lexington

"Lady Lex"

Highlights of Ship's Service History

Keel laid as battlecruiser CC-1, Fore River Shipbuilding (a.k.a. Bethlehem-Quincy Shipyard), Quincy, Massachusetts

Reordered as aircraft carrier

Launched; sponsored by the wife of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Mrs. Theodore Douglas Robinson

Commissioned; Captain Albert W. Marshall, commanding

Joined Pacific Fleet at San Pedro, California

Sailed with Pacific Fleet to Hawaii for tactical exercises
With Task Force 12, en route to Midway Island to deliver Marine aircraft. Diverted south to search for Japanese task force.
Returned to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Departed to attack Jaluit.

Jaluit orders cancelled; Lexington directed to cover CV-3 USS Saratoga while the latter reinforced Wake Island.
Wake Island falls to the Japanese, Lexington and Saratoga abort to Pearl Harbor, arriving on the 27th.

Lexington sails as flagship of Task Force 11, to attack Japanese bases in the southwest Pacific.
Lexington is attacked by Japanese aircraft near Rabaul, New Britain. Lt. E. H. "Butch" O'Hare shoots down five enemy aircraft, becoming an instant ace and earning a Congressional Medal of Honor.
Task Force 11 joins with Task Force 17 (CV-8 USS Yorktown) for a surprise attack (10 March) on Japanese installations at Salamaua and Lae on New Guinea.
Lexington returns to Pearl Harbor.
TF 11 sails from Pearl en route to the Coral Sea. TF 11 rendezvous with TF 17 on 1 May.
Lexington search planes locate part of the Japanese force in the Coral Sea. An attack mission sinks the light carrier HIJMS Shoho. Shoho is the first Japanese carrier sunk in the Pacific in WWII.
Japanese planes locate and attack Lexington late in the morning. She is hit by two torpedoes and three bombs. Damage control parties bring the fires under control and Lexington is able to make 25 knots. At about 1300, Lexington is shaken by a massive explosion belowdecks, caused by the detonation of accumulated gasoline fumes. Fires again rage out of control and, at 1707, Captain Frederick C. Sherman issues the abandon ship order. After the crew has left the ship, destroyer DD-360 USS Phelps fires two torpedoes which sink the Lexington at 1956 hours. Lexington becomes the first U.S. fleet carrier sunk in World War II.

Notes

World War II citations: 2 Battle Stars
Name continued by Essex-class fleet carrier CV-16 USS Lexington

Sources
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships - U. S. Naval Historical Center Wikipedia Online Library of Selected Images - U. S. Naval Historical Center NavSource: Photographic History of the U.S. Navy Haze Gray & Underway	The Lexington Goes Down by A. A. Hoeling Nihon Kaigun - HIJMS Shoho

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