Corpus Christi

Texas

March 4th - 10th , 1998

Across the bay from Port Aransas lays Corpus Christi, a fairly large city with many things to offer the tourist. One of these attractions is the USS Lexington CV-16, a vintage aircraft carrier. This was the 5th and final ship to be given this historic name. An Essex-class carrier was originally named USS Cabot. During 1942, word was received that the original carrier Lexington CV-2, had been sunk in the Battle of the Coral Sea. A campaign was launched to change the name of the new carrier to Lexington and the rest is history. The USS Lexington CV-16 was commissioned February 17, 1943. During WWII the Lexington participated in nearly every major operation in the Pacific Theater. She earned her famous nickname “The Blue Ghost”, because of her non-camouflaged blue color scheme and because she was repeatedly and incorrectly, reported sunk by the Japanese propagandist, Tokyo Rose. During World War II, her planes destroyed 372 enemy aircraft in the air and 475 on the ground. After WWII, she was modernized and reactivated in 1955. Operating primarily with the Seventh Fleet out of San Diego, she kept an offshore vigil during tensions in Formosa, Laos, and Cuba. In 1962, the Lexington began her career as a training carrier in Pensacola. She was decommissioned November 26 1991 and became a museum at Corpus Christi a year later. For being as big as she is, 820 feet long, the rooms are small and each doorway which can be sealed by a door, is low enough to bump a short man’s head. In the main hanger below, there is a movie showing the combat footage of the Lexington in action in the Pacific. Through this fast pace action, I could make out the different parts of the ships deck, its guns, runways and aircraft. I sat perched upon the Captain’s chair surveying the forward deck trying to picture aircraft taking off. All in all, it must have been a real life experience to serve aboard the Lexington during the tremulous years of World War II As we left filled with the images of this mighty fighting machine, Laura demonstrated her motherly protective instants in holding back a torpedo.


 If there is any war buff in you, put this ship on your "must see" list, for a truly worthwhile adventure. It takes several hours to see the movie that is running in the main hanger and climb through the many doors leading to the bridge, and review the various airplanes on its deck and in its hanger.