Our last WWII naval stop; hard to believe. We’ve learned so much about the battles at sea and the men and ships that fought so hard. Today we’re on the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier. These ships are in the center of the task force when it sails, and a large part of the responsibility of the other ships is to protect the aircraft carrier and the planes it carries. Interesting that as we’ve seen ships on this trip that we’re ending up with the most important of these ships.
Today’s USS Lexington is the 5th ship with this name. The 4th Lexington was an aircraft carrier that had been built on top of the hull of a cruiser, launched in 1942, and was sunk in 1943. The 5th Lexington was built as a carrier, and then refurbished in the 1950s to be a training ship. This is where this ship gets personal for us. The USS Lexington was berthed in Pensacola when Barney was in flight training there in the 1970s. If he had trained for fixed-wing, he would have trained on the Lexington, but starting with his class (or the one right before his), helicopter pilots didn’t have to learn how to do aircraft takeoffs and landings. More about that later on.
Interesting info: President Bush 41 recovered onboard the Lexington after he had to bail out when his plane came under attack. The aircraft carrier took him back to his squadron.
Since we’ve already taken you on tours of a number of ships that have similar “innards,” I’m just going to share what struck us as we walked around. We thought we’d only be there for a couple of hours since we had seen so many ships on this trip and had seen the USS Midway in San Diego a few years. Not so; we spent almost 6 hours walking around and almost closed it down for the day. The 3-D movie about these ships and the ships today was wonderful. Ready to explore?
Morse code background
Concise history of the WWII battles and the Lexington
Where the term “brig” came from and what it looked like on the Lexington.
The “colas” during WWII.
1943 
1974
berthing info
3 bunks on top of each other for enlisted men 
example of storage in women’s berthing area
On 18 August 1980, the Lexington became the first aircraft carrier in U.S. naval history to have women stationed aboard as crew members. The number of bathrooms and berthing areas made this possible.
Why was so much dental work needed during WWII?
Interesting to learn about how each piece of mail was read. Wouldn’t have wanted to be this officer. Wonder if everyone knew who it was?
Dinnerware used onboard. Bet they don’t use it now.
all about knots based on knots
The ship had an area highlighting Pearl Harbor and those men who died that day. Interesting that the Japanese had to add a wooden fin onto their torpedoes because the harbor was too shallow for the normal use of torpedoes. The movie Pearl Harbor was highlighted in this area because of all the research that had been done to make the movie. This wooden fin was one that was made for the movie and shown here for us.
The Bridge
Interesting facts. We’re walking down the escalator that was added in the 1950s so pilots could get to their planes faster and easier than having to climb up the steep stairs with all their gear.
In the women’s head, they had all kinds of posters about women in the military. This one I found really interesting.
We’re done with the Lexington and with WWII naval ships and planes. It’s been a grand adventure for us.
