

She was launched on 23 September 1942, sponsored by Mrs. Navy ship to bear the name of the Revolutionary War Battle of Lexington. Knox agreed to the proposal and Cabot was renamed Lexington on 16 June 1942, the fifth U.S. 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. In May 1942, USS Lexington (CV-2), which had been built in the same shipyard two decades earlier, was sunk at the Battle of the Coral Sea. The ship was laid down as Cabot on 15 July 1941 by Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. Service history World War II Lexington in her original configuration, November 1943 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 2003, Lexington was designated a National Historic Landmark. Following her decommissioning, she was donated for use as a museum ship in Corpus Christi, Texas. Lexington was decommissioned in 1991, with an active service life longer than any other Essex-class ship. In her second career, she operated both in the Atlantic/Mediterranean and the Pacific, but spent most of her time, nearly 30 years, in Pensacola, Florida, as a training carrier (CVT). Later, she was reclassified as an antisubmarine carrier (CVS). Following the war, Lexington was decommissioned, but was modernized and reactivated in the early 1950s, being reclassified as an attack carrier (CVA). She was the recipient of 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation. 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. Lexington was commissioned in February 1943 and saw extensive service through the Pacific War. Navy ship to bear the name in honor of the Battle of Lexington. 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.S. USS Lexington (CV/CVA/CVS/CVT/AVT-16) is an Essex-class aircraft carrier built during World War II for the United States Navy.
