Saratoga and her sister ship, Lexington, were used to develop and refine carrier tactics in a series of annual exercises before World War II.

After lengthy repairs, the ship supported forces participating in the Guadalcanal Campaign and her aircraft sank the light carrier Ryūjō during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons in August 1942.

In 1943, Saratoga supported Allied forces involved in the New Georgia Campaign and invasion of Bougainville in the northern Solomon Islands and her aircraft twice attacked the Japanese base at Rabaul in November.

Saratoga remained in this role for the rest of the war and was then used to ferry troops back to the United States after the Japanese surrender in August, as a part of Operation Magic Carpet.

[1] She was originally authorized in 1916 as a Lexington-class battlecruiser, but before she was laid down construction was placed on hold so that higher-priority anti-submarine vessels and merchant ships, needed to ensure the safe passage of men and materiel to Europe during Germany's U-boat campaign, could be built.

After the war the design was extensively altered to incorporate improved boiler technology, anti-torpedo bulges, and a general increase in armor protection based on British wartime experiences.

[5] Christened by Olive Doolittle, wife of Curtis D. Wilbur, Secretary of the Navy, Saratoga was launched on 7 April 1925 and commissioned on 16 November 1927, under the command of Captain Harry E.

[22] The Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair was not convinced when the class was being designed that aircraft could effectively substitute as armament for a warship, especially at night or in bad weather that would prevent air operations.

That same day, the ship sailed for the Pacific via the Panama Canal, although she was diverted briefly en route to carry Marines to Corinto, Nicaragua, before joining the Battle Fleet at San Pedro, California, on 21 February.

[46] The 1932 movie Hell Divers was filmed aboard the ship and starred Wallace Beery and a young Clark Gable as a pair of competing aircraft gunners assigned to VF-1B.

[53] From 27 April to 6 June 1936, she participated in a Fleet Problem in the Panama Canal Zone where she was "sunk" by opposing battlecruisers and later ruled to have been severely damaged by aircraft from Ranger.

[54] During Fleet Problem XVIII in 1937, Saratoga, now under the command of naval aviation pioneer John H. Towers, covered an amphibious assault on Midway Atoll and was badly "damaged" by Ranger's aircraft.

During Fleet Problem XX in 1939, the carrier remained off the West Coast as part of Task Force (TF) 7 with the battleship Arizona and escorts under the command of Rear Admiral Chester Nimitz to maintain a presence in the Pacific.

[57] From 6 January to 15 August 1941, Saratoga underwent a long-deferred modernization at the Bremerton Navy Yard that included the widening of her flight deck at her bow and the installation of additional antiaircraft guns and a CXAM-1 radar.

[60] Saratoga, about 420 nautical miles (780 km; 480 mi) southwest of Pearl Harbor on 11 January 1942, was heading towards a rendezvous with USS Enterprise when she was hit by a torpedo fired by the I-6.

On 30 May Admiral Nimitz, now commander-in-chief of the United States Pacific Fleet, ordered Captain Ramsey to expedite his departure for Pearl Harbor, even if Fitch had not yet arrived.

From 22 through 29 June, Saratoga ferried 18 Marine Dauntlesses of VMSB-231 and 25 Army Air Corps Curtiss P-40 Warhawks to Midway Island to replace the aircraft lost during the battle.

[68] In late June 1942, the Allies decided to seize bases in the southern Solomon Islands with the objective of denying their use by the Japanese to threaten the supply and communication routes between the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand.

[69] On 7 July, Task Force 11 departed Pearl for the Southwest Pacific; it consisted of Saratoga, four heavy cruisers, Astoria, New Orleans, Minneapolis and Vincennes, and an escort of seven destroyers.

Also based in Rabaul, they were on a one-way mission with a minimal payload of two small 60-kilogram (132 lb) bombs each because the distance to Guadalcanal exceeded their combat range; the pilots were expected to ditch at Shortland Island on the return leg where a Japanese seaplane tender could pick them up.

Concerned about his declining fuel reserves and worried about air and submarine attacks after losing 20% of his fighters, Fletcher requested permission from Ghormley to withdraw one day early to refuel.

Fletcher returned to the Solomons on 21 August after escorting Long Island to safety and remained in the vicinity for the next several days to provide cover for two transports resupplying the Marines.

[75] Saratoga launched an airstrike against Ryūjō's task force in the early afternoon that consisted of 31 Dauntlesses and eight Avengers; the long range precluded fighter escort.

[79] Right before the Japanese attack, Saratoga launched a small airstrike of two Dauntlesses and five Avengers to clear her flight deck and these planes found and damaged the seaplane tender Chitose with near misses that also destroyed three Mitsubishi F1M reconnaissance floatplanes.

[80] Fletcher rendezvoused with TF 18 east of San Cristobal on the evening of 26 August and transferred four Wildcats to Wasp the next day to bring the latter's fighters up to strength.

The torpedo wounded a dozen of her sailors, including Fletcher, it flooded one fire room, giving the ship a 4° list, and it caused multiple electrical short circuits.

[83] Task Force 11, now commanded by Rear Admiral Ramsey, sailed from Pearl Harbor, bound for Nouméa, New Caledonia, via Viti Levu, Fiji, on 12 November 1942 with Saratoga as his flagship.

[87] At this time Saratoga embarked 34 Wildcats of VF-5, 37 Dauntlesses of VB-3 and VS-3 and 16 Avengers of VT-3[88][89] Ramsey's force was intended to provide distant cover for the impending landings on New Georgia and to prevent intervention by any Japanese carriers.

TF 50.2 was not attacked during the battle and Saratoga transferred a number of her aircraft to replace losses aboard the other carriers before departing for Pearl Harbor on 30 November.

The ship, now the flagship of Rear Admiral Samuel Ginder, commander of Task Group 58.4, sailed from Pearl Harbor on 19 January with Langley and Princeton, to support the invasion of the Marshall Islands scheduled to begin on 1 February.