David Doyle Books Review - USS Lexington CV-16

Legends of Warfare
USS Lexington (CV/CVA-16)
by David Doyle

Reviewed by Martin J Quinn
February 2021

David Doyle Books has released a new title. This one covers the USS Lexington, CV/CVA-16), an Essex-class carrier, which was built during World War II and served until 1991. This book is 128 pages long, and includes a history of the Lexington, from keel laying - when she was originally named Cabot - through her current service as a museum ship, and has around 200 photos.

This book is laid out with an introduction and four subsequent chapters.

- Chapter 1 - Construction and Commissioning
- Chapter 2 - Into Battle
- Chapter 3 - Modernization
- Chapter 4 - Museum

Not surprisingly, the bulk of the book (the first two chapters, almost 90 pages) deal with her construction and World War II service in the Pacific, where she became known as "The Blue Ghost", due to her overall Navy Blue camouflage and repeated Japanese claims that she had been sunk.

The subsequent chapters deal with the rest of Lexington's career - modernization, service in the Pacific and her transition to a training carrier in late 1962. She continued in this role until November 1991. Less than a year later, Lexington was permanently moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, where she remains today, in her role as a museum ship.

The book is full of great archival photographs - including some in color - from her entire career, many of them showing interesting details. The dockyard photos of her being modernized are especially interesting. For modelers, there are lots and lots of detail shots for those building The Blue Ghost in her World War II configuration.

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Conclusions:

This is another really nice, high quality, hardcover book from David Doyle. It has great info and tons of terrific pictures, including some original World War II color photos. I think both naval history buffs and modelers will really like this book. Highly recommended.

This is USS Lexington CV-16 - Legends of Warfare, by David Doyle. Published by Schiffer Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7643-5925-5. The book retails for $19.99, and is available to order directly from David's website. Thanks to David Doyle Books for the review sample.