The USS Lexington: The Oldest Working Carrier in the Navy

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See your Hyundai dealer for further details and limitations. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. The USS Lexington was the first aircraft carrier to deploy air to surface missiles and it sailed enough miles to circle the globe eight times. Standing as tall as a 19 story building there's much more to this warship. Here's our regular contributor Anne Claire with a story. I was in elementary school when I saw my first aircraft carrier.

My family and I had gone to visit my aunt and uncle in South Carolina. My uncle had retired from the navy and was working at Patriots Point where there are a number of U.S. naval vessels that are now museums. He took us up onto the flight deck of the USS Yorktown. This would be the Yorktown not that was sunk at Midway but the one that was named after it that served at the end of World War II.

And I just recall standing on that enormous flight deck and just being in awe and kind of fascinated by these huge ships that were just so unique. As an adult moving to the Pacific Northwest I ended up with the opportunity to see a few more aircraft carriers though those ones the ones I've seen out here are not museums they're still sailing which is even more impressive they're just really interesting ships. As I was doing some reading in history recently though about some of the very first aircraft carriers in the United States Navy I was impressed not so much by size or uniqueness but by their versatility especially when I got into the story of the USS Lexington. The USS Lexington was the fourth U.S. ship to bear that name the name of the place where the American Revolution started Lexington. It was also the second aircraft carrier produced by the United States however at first it wasn't supposed to be an aircraft carrier. The Lexington was laid down in 1921 in Quincy, Massachusetts as a battle cruiser. In 1922 they switched gears and converted her into an aircraft carrier the second one as I said following the Langley which was also converted from a different type of ship. The Lady Lex was launched in 25 and commissioned in 27 and along with the Saratoga which was the following aircraft carrier the third one. The Lexington was sent to operate in the Pacific Ocean.

Now while the Lexington was a ship with capabilities for war Lady Lex also served in some unique ways during peacetime. She started out as a battle cruiser changed to an aircraft carrier and then when and then when need arose it became a temporary power plant. In 1929 the U.S. stock market crashed and the Great Depression began and on top of the economic disaster the city of Tacoma, Washington faced a serious power shortage. The city depended on hydroelectric power from Lake Cushman and the Nisqually River but unfortunately on top of all the other troubles in the world unusual cold weather and a drought the previous fall meant that there simply wasn't enough buildup of water behind the dams to power the city. So as they sought for a solution they found it in the Lexington.

They brought in an aircraft carrier of all things. On December 15, 1921 the Lexington was hooked up at Tacoma's Baker Dock to the city's electrical grid and for 12 hours each day the Lexington generated and transmitted about 20,000 kilowatts of power and this went on for quite some time. The calendar page turned and Lexington was still there into January but by January 16 of 1930 enough water had built up behind the dams to serve Tacoma's needs again and the crisis was averted. The Lexington was able to return to her regular duties. Now the following year the Lexington was actually called upon for another mission of mercy transporting disaster relief supplies and personnel to the aftermath of a terrible earthquake and fire in Managua, Nicaragua. Of course peacetime missions weren't the only missions that the Lexington had to be involved in. On December 7, 1941 fortunately the Lexington was not in Pearl Harbor. Along with other aircrafts she was out to sea. At this time the Lexington was busy transporting marine planes to Midway Island but once America entered World War II the Lexington became involved as well.

In 1942 Admiral Nimitz sent the aircraft carriers USS Yorktown and USS Lexington along with several American and Australian cruisers to meet a Japanese fleet including three aircraft carriers in the Coral Sea. Now the Lexington suffered multiple hits in the ensuing battle. The crew worked furiously to repair the Lady Lex and put out the fires burning within her and for a while it appeared they were succeeding but 12 minutes after the ship's log reported that all the fires below decks were put out the following entry was logged and I quote, heavy explosion felt which vented up forward bomb elevator lost communication with central station. More explosions ended up shaking the Lexington and the systems failed new fires blazed in spite of all the crew's efforts in the end the Lexington was abandoned and scuttled there. There she rested undisturbed until remains were rediscovered in 2018 and a beautiful job on the production by Madison Derricotte and a special thanks to Anne Claire for sharing with us the story of the USS Lexington otherwise known as Lady Lex and Lady Lex saw action in the Coral Sea but Lady Lex also helped in other ways becoming a power plant for the city of Tacoma and also providing relief to the people of Nicaragua after a natural disaster. Luckily for Lady Lex she was not in Pearl Harbor in 1941 she was busily transporting planes to Midway Island. The story of Lady Lex here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here the host of Our American Stories every day on this show we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country stories from our big cities and small towns but we truly can't do the show without you our stories are free to listen to but they're not free to make if you love what you hear go to our americanstories.com and click the donate button give a little give a lot go to our americanstories.com and give. Roku has what you need to make your college home away from home feel more like your own make your dorm the place to be with Roku TV or bring a Roku streaming stick to easily access all your favorite free and premium content like iHeartRadio stream your favorite playlist with the Roku vibe setting smart light strips to sync your music to millions of colors and make your dorm feel more like you make your dorm the place to be with Roku TV streaming players and smart lights head to roku.com or your favorite retailer to deck out your dorm there's no distance too far for the perfect trip hi checking in for or the perfect table hey where are you coming and when you get access to resi priority notify with your Amex platinum card hey this looks amazing i'm so glad you made it and travel benefits at fine hotels and resorts booked through Amex travel it's worth the trip that's the powerful backing of American Express terms apply learn more at americanexpress.com slash with Amex hey gorgeous it's Paris Hilton get the party started with my new album infinite icon dropping September 6th and stream the new single bad bitch academy i wanted this album to be an escape to take people to a happy place where they can heal and party in equal measure and most of all be your own unapologetic icon listen on iHeartRadio and visit infinite icon.com to pre-save my album sponsored by 1111 media deciding on what to listen to is hard using Zumo to stream music from iHeart90's radio is easy or play iHeart Country or Hip-Hop Beats your choice all for free stream easy with Zumo play get live and on-demand entertainment with no logins no signups no accounts no hassle this September have movie night with the blockbuster hit Godzilla and Resident Evil starring Mila Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez streaming free on Zumo play go to play.zumo.com now life is hard Zumo is easy ever tried to tackle a home improvement project without making 10 trips to Home Depot what if i told you there's a way to earn cash back while you shop introducing drop the ultimate rewards app with drop you can earn free gift cards by shopping in store or online at Home Depot and tons of other stores download the drop app today and use code drop33 to get an instant five dollars in points that's drop your go-to for shopping rewards.