It was a strangely similar scene. Déjà vu. I remembered last year as I drove west over the causeway towards Mobile, AL, I could see the USS Alabama from a long distance away. So too now, as I drove down the coast toward Corpus Christi, the outline of the USS Lexington began to reveal itself against the backdrop of Corpus Christi harbor.

The decommissioned carrier now sits as a museum, and I also remembered last year driving north toward San Antonio with regret that I had not visited her. It was another thing that was on my to do list for this year’s trip.

When the Lexington was retired in the 90s, there were a number of cities bidding to take possession of her. Pensacola and Miami in Florida.  Mobile, AL, and Quincy, MA, home of the Bethlehem Shipyards where the hulk of a damaged battleship was converted to CV16, the “new” USS Lexington. In the end, Corpus Christi won the “contest” due in large part to the fact that they had already established a museum to the USS Lexington.

She was named in honor of the USS Lexington CV2, “Lady Lex” as she was known, which was damaged beyond survival and sunk in the battle of the Coral Sea. Legend has it that no less a personality than Tokyo Rose herself dubbed her “The Blue Ghost” when she steamed back into battle in the Pacific, seemingly before the Japanese were done celebrating the demise of Lady Lex. The victory of morale and the performance of “The Blue Ghost” through the end of the war, were critical to the success in the Pacific theatre.

She took a pounding but always gave more than she got. When you study the sequence of movements and engagements, it was like the naval version of Ali/Frasier.

A visit to the Lexington is divided into five self-guided walking tours. I took what seemed like a bazillion pictures, but don’t worry I’m not going to use them all. I’ll probably do this in two or three posts so they don’t take forever to load and it will help me keep track of my own organization. So bear with me.