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Unique Claims To Fame
USS Lexington Museum
Corpus Christi, Texas By RAY BALOGH | The Municipal
(Photos provided by the USS Lexington Museum)
She was pronounced dead at least four times, but she was a fighter and became a decorated war hero when she was barely a year old.
ABOVE: The USS Lexington Museum’s flight deck is the home of one of the original F-14 Tomcats used to film the movie “Top Gun.” If you look closely, you can see Maverick and Goose painted under the canopy. TOP: The USS Lexington Museum docked in Corpus Christi Bay.
12 THE MUNICIPAL | MAY 2021
Finally retired in 1991, she now rests in well-deserved quiet repose in Corpus Christi, Texas, hosting about 350,000 visitors a year. Welcome to the USS Lexington Museum, which offers a plethora of tours and adventures aboard the world’s oldest and largest Essex Class aircraft carrier in the world. The museum’s website, www.usslexington.com, summarizes the ship’s stellar resume: “Commissioned in 1943, she set more records than any other Essex Class carrier in the history of naval aviation. After training maneuvers and a shakedown cruise, Lexington joined the Fifth Fleet at Pearl Harbor. “During World War II, the carrier participated in nearly every major operation in the Pacific Theater and spent a total of 21 months in combat. Her planes destroyed 372 enemy aircraft in the air and 475 more on the ground. She sank or destroyed 300,000 tons of enemy cargo and damaged an additional 600,000. The ship’s guns shot down 15 planes and assisted in downing five more.” Having endured deadly torpedo and kamikaze strikes, her repeated resurrections from a purported watery grave earned her the appellation, “The Blue Ghost,” bestowed upon her by propagandist Tokyo Rose.