Originally intended to be named Cabot , the new aircraft carrier was renamed while under construction to commemorate the recently-lost USS Lexington CV-2 , becoming the sixth U. Navy ship to bear the name in honor of the Battle of Lexington. Lexington was commissioned in February 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 s, being reclassified as an attack carrier CVA. Later, she was reclassified as an antisubmarine carrier CVS. Lexington was decommissioned in , 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 , Lexington was designated a National Historic Landmark. Though her surviving sister ships Yorktown , Intrepid , and Hornet carry lower hull numbers, Lexington was laid down and commissioned earlier, making Lexington the oldest remaining fleet carrier in the world. 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.
Navy ship to bear the name of the Revolutionary War Battle of Lexington. Theodore Douglas Robinson. Lexington was commissioned on 17 February , with Captain Felix Stump in command. One of the carrier's first casualties was Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick. During the ship's initial voyage to the Caribbean in , 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. Lexington arrived at Pearl Harbor on 9 August , 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.
