... FROM IMAGINATION TO REALITY
A Story By Roger Williams
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world…
Spirit that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Concord Hymn
July 4, 1837
The “Lady Lex” is no longer in harm’s way exposed to vicious aerial attacks by
Jakes, Judy’s and Zeros or from surprise torpedo attacks from lurking submarines. On June 15, 1992, she retired to her final berth in Corpus Christi, Texas.
The first Lexington was a sixteen-gun brig that was purchased in March 1776 by
the Continental Congress. The USS Lexington, CV-2 & CV-16, was the fourth
and fifth U.S. Naval vessels named in memory of the first battle of the American
Revolution. The CV-2 & CV-16 carriers were built at the Fore River Shipyard
located in Quincy, Mass. Commissioned in 1927 the Lexington CV-2 had been
heavily damaged by Japanese carrier-based aircraft during the Battle of the Coral Sea on May
8, 1942. The Navy’s newest Essex class carrier, initially named the USS Cabot CV-16, was already under construction when the Lexington CV-2 sank. Shipyard workers at the Fore River
works petitioned U.S. Sec. of the Navy Frank Knox to change the name to the Lexington. Knox
agreed with their request and on June 16, 1942, ordered the name of the new carrier to be
changed to the USS Lexington CV-16.
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