b'U . S .M i l i t a r ythe American fighting spirit to avenge its loss. Workers at the Fore River Ship-yard in Quincy, Massachusetts, were building CV-16, an Essex-class aircraft carrier, designated the Cabot, when news of the sinking of the Lexington hit the country.In a movement led by the tireless workers at the shipyard, the Cabot was re-named the USS Lexington (CV-16) in honor of the lost ship, and on February 17, 1943, was commissioned and headed for sea trials through the icy waters of Boston Harbor. The new Lexington made news on June 2, 1943, before entering the war, when Nile Kinnick, the University of Iowa football star who won the 1939 Heisman Trophy, was killed on a training flight off the coast of Venezue-la. After passing through the Panama Canal, the Lex joined the Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on August 9, 1943.Making the Legend of the Blue GhostThe connection between both USS Lexington carriers and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi was established before the war began. The NAS was com-missioned in March 1941 to fill a shortage of Naval aviators, as Axis threats spread across the globeHitler was on the move in Europe, and the Japanese had been on a two-year-long, carrier-based bombing campaign in China.Pilot training at NAS Corpus Christi commenced in May 1941 at a pace of aboutabove :F6F Hellcat fighters on the deck of the USS Lexington (CV-16), preparing for 300 students per month. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, that rate rampedbattle.middle :The greatest day in the history of the LexJune 19, 1944, known as up exponentially, as graduates were deployed to serve on aircraft carriers likethe Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.below :The Lex in high-speed sea trials following the USS Yorktown and the first USS Lexington, in the early months of the war. its Essex-class conversion to operate with jet aircraft, 1955.By 1944, NAS Corpus Christi was the largest naval aviation training base in the world, graduating more than 35,000 pilots by the end of World War II. Among them was future President George H.W. Bush, who was the youngest commissioned pilot in the U.S. Navy. The Coastal Bend community embraced the thousands of student pilots, inviting them into their homes and churches.The new USS Lexingtons first action in the war was the raid on Japanese naval forces at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, in which forces sank a cargo ship, damaged two cruisers, and destroyed 32 aircraft. Despite its success, the ships captain gave a near-fatal order to hold anti-aircraft fire at night, for fear of giving away the ships position. The Lex was struck by a Japanese torpedo that caused major damage and cost the lives of nine sailors.The crew saved the Lex by welding shut the damaged starboard (right side of the ship, facing forward) compartments that were taking on water, even as the ship began circling to port (left), while billowing smoke from tanks at the stern (rear). A makeshift, hand-operated steering system was assembled and installed, allowing the Lex to return to port at Pearl Harborand live to fight another day. Just two-and-a-half months later, the USS Lexington departed the shipyard at Bremerton, Washington, fully repaired and headed back to battle in the South Pacific.Japans English-speaking, female radio war broadcasters, collectively dubbed Tokyo Rose, reported that the Lexington had been sunk in Kwajaleinthe first of four occasions on which the carrier would be incorrectly reported sunk by the famed Japanese propagandists.When the Lex returned to battle, it was assigned to the newly-formed Fast Carrier Task Force, led by legendary Admiral Marc Mitscher who designated it his flagship. Over the months of March and April 1944, the USS Lexington and its battle group conducted raids on Japanese forces in the Marshall Islands, supported the Army landing on Hollandia, Indonesia, and led the raid on Im-perial Japans main naval base in the South Pacific, Truk Lagoon in the Chuuk Islands. Even though the Lexingtons pilots downed 17 enemy aircraft, and suffered no damage over the course of the campaign, Tokyo Rose once again reported the ship sunk by the Japanese Navy.116THE COASTAL BEND GUIDE TheCoastalBend.com'