"Lady Lex": The Aircraft Carrier That Survived Pearl Harbor
Rather than scrapping the vessels a quarter of the way into their construction, the Navy decided to reconfigure the two ships into aircraft carriers, at a total project cost of $28 million per ship.
Come May, the Lexington would finally engage Japanese carriers in a first-of-its kind conflict it had spent more than a decade preparing for—the pivotal Battle of the Coral Sea.
Sébastien Roblin holds a Master’s Degree in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring. This article first appeared in March 2020.
Image: Wikimedia Commons