For much of her service, she acted as the flagship for Admiral Marc Mitscher, and led the Fast Carrier Task Force through their battles across the Pacific.

In June, workers at the shipyard submitted a request to Navy Secretary Frank Knox to change the name of a carrier currently under construction there to Lexington.

The Grumman F4F Wildcat flown by Kinnick developed a serious oil leak while airborne and was unable to return to Lexington, crashing into the sea four miles from the ship.

At 23:22, parachute flares from Japanese planes silhouetted the carrier, and 10 minutes later, she was hit by a torpedo on the starboard side, knocking out her steering gear.

Nine people were killed, two on the fantail and seven in the chief petty officers' mess room, which was a repair party station during general quarters.

Settling 5 feet (2 m) by the stern, the carrier began circling to port amidst dense clouds of smoke pouring from ruptured tanks aft.

Lexington returned to Majuro in time to be present when Rear Admiral Mitscher took command of the newly formed Task Force 58 (TF 58) on 8 March.

Mitscher took Lexington as his flagship, and after a warm-up strike against Mille, the Fast Carrier Task Force began a series of operations against the Japanese positions in the central Pacific.

Heavy counterattacks left Lexington untouched, her planes splashing 17 enemy fighters, but for the second time, Japanese propaganda announced her sunk.

On 16 June, Lexington fought off a fierce attack by Japanese torpedo bombers based on Guam, once again emerging unhurt, but 'sunk' a third time by propaganda pronouncements.

She arrived in the Carolinas on 7 September for three days of strikes against Yap and Ulithi, then began attacks on Mindanao, the Visayas, the Manila area, and shipping along the west coast of Luzon, preparing for the coming assault on Leyte.

In exchange her aircraft served in the battle of the Sibuyan Sea, where they assisted in sinking the Japanese "super battleship" Musashi , one of the two largest and most powerful battleships in the world (alongside her sistership Yamato) and scored hits on three cruisers on 24 October, including a torpedo hit that crippled the heavy cruiser Myōkō, forcing her out of the battle alongside two destroyers to escort her.

[12] Chosen as the flagship for Task Group 58.2 (TG 58.2) on 11 December, she struck at the airfields of Luzon and Formosa during the first nine days of January 1945, encountering little enemy opposition.

Lexington flew close support for the assaulting troops from 19 to 22 February, then sailed for further strikes against the Japanese home islands and the Nansei Shoto before heading for overhaul at Puget Sound.

Lexington was combat-bound again on 22 May, sailing via Alameda and Pearl Harbor for San Pedro Bay, Leyte, where she joined Rear Admiral Thomas L. Sprague's task force for the final round of air strikes which battered the Japanese home islands from July-15 August, when the last strike was ordered to jettison its bombs and return to Lexington on receiving word of the Japanese surrender.

During this period, she had launched attacks on Honshū and Hokkaidō airfields, and Yokosuka and Kure naval bases to destroy the remnants of the Japanese fleet.

Flying against heavy enemy fire, squadron commander Lester Wall Jr. dropped a 1000lb bomb down her stack, exploding her boilers and breaking her keel in a conflagration matching that of the destruction of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor four years earlier.

She based on Yokosuka for exercises, maneuvers, and search and rescue missions off the coast of China, and called at major Far Eastern ports until returning to San Diego on 20 December.

Arriving at Yokosuka on 1 June 1957, Lexington embarked Rear Admiral H. D. Riley, Commander Carrier Division 1, and sailed as his flagship until returning to San Diego on 17 October.

Now the first carrier whose planes were armed with AGM-12 Bullpup guided missiles, Lexington left San Francisco on 26 April 1959 for another tour of duty with the 7th Fleet.

Returning to west coast operations, she was ordered in January 1962 to prepare to relieve Antietam as aviation training carrier in the Gulf of Mexico, and she was redesignated CVS-16 on 1 October 1962.

Her work became of increasing significance as she prepared the men vital to the Navy and Marine Corps operations over Vietnam, where naval aviation played a major role.

[15][16] On 18 August 1980, Lexington became the first aircraft carrier in United States naval history to have women stationed aboard as crew members.

[17] On 29 October 1989, a student naval aviator lost control of his T-2 training aircraft after an aborted attempt to land on Lexington's flight deck.

The aircraft inverted and hit the island with its left wing, killing four crew members (including the pilot of the plane who had begun an ejection sequence) and one civilian maintenance worker[18] and injuring seventeen.

[26] The crew of Lexington received the Presidential Unit Citation for heroism in action against enemy Japanese forces, 11 battle stars for major engagements during World War II service, and other awards.