This html article is produced from an uncorrected text file through optical character recognition. Prior to 1940 articles all text has been corrected, but from 1940 to the present most still remain uncorrected. Artifacts of the scans are misspellings, out-of-context footnotes and sidebars, and other inconsistencies. Adjacent to each text file is a PDF of the article, which accurately and fully conveys the content as it appeared in the issue. The uncorrected text files have been included to enhance the searchability of our content, on our site and in search engines, for our membership, the research community and media organizations. We are working now to provide clean text files for the entire collection.
By Captain C. Flack Logan, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Proceedings: Would you say that the time for the retirement of the USS Lexington [AVT-16] has come? Is it just getting to be too much to keep her seaworthy?
Captain Logan: Well, the problems in all ships, as in people, is that they eventually get old. You’ve either got to replace them or you’ve got to retire them. The replacement in the case of a ship, of course, is expensive. And so the Navy’s decision was—during a drawdown—that there was newer, better equipment available at the same cost or only slightly more. So it was an economic decision in the best interest of the Navy to bring the Forrestal [CV-59] down here and retire the Lexington.
Proceedings: What were the biggest problems you had in operating the ship?
Captain Logan: The biggest problems were in maintaining the integrity of the fuel system and the integrity of the water system. The piping throughout the ship was old, and to repair that was both time-consuming and costly. So it took a lot of work to keep the ship from leaking internally. Toward the end, we just couldn’t afford to take the chance. There’s no such thing as a minor fuel leak. You have to be very careful.
Proceedings: Do you know what the disposition of the ship is going to be now?
Captain Logan: Right now, the plan is to decommission her the 8th of November. After that, plans are in works to make her a museum; Quincy, Massachusetts, has made an offer; Corpus Christi, Texas, is looking to make an offer either to keep the ship, or to make her into a museum; Mobile, Alabama, has already written the letters and requested the ship become a museum at their battleship park; the city of Pensacola is considering making an offer to turn the carrier into a museum; and San Diego and Miami have made similar inquiries. So chances are, the ship will become a museum somewhere.
Proceedings: How do you compare the Forrestal to the
Lexington as a training ship?
Captain Logan: Well, the Forrestal brings a great deal more versatility and capability, if the Navy is able to uti-
Pfoceedings / October 1991
lize it. A best utilization of the Forrestal would include a tie to the Naval Reserve air wing so that when she goes to sea to do the training command, she could also bring out some Naval Reserve folks to operate the ship and some Naval Reserve squadrons to operate from the ship. And that type of capability is significant. The Forrestal could become a real training carrier for the entire Navy, instead of just for the Training Command. There are all sorts of exciting possibilities in having the Forrestal for this assignment. She has all the current fleet equipment on her, and she would be capable of operating all the aircraft of the fleet—probably until the year 2015. So her potential is very significant.
Proceedings: As a final tribute, what are your thoughts during the Lexington s last days?
Captain Logan: The history of Lexington has paralleled and reflected the excellence, the commitment, the
A training A-4 lands on the flight deck of the Lexington. Logan prides himself on making the ship's 475,000th landing. “We also logged more than 300 arrested landings in one day,” he says.
dedication, and the fantastic job that naval aviation has done over the years. The Lexington encapsulates that very, very well.
Her accomplishments as the “Blue Ghost” in World War 11 were just incredible. The legend goes back to CV-2, the Lady Lex, the carrier sunk at the Battle of the Coral Sea. And it goes back to when the Continental Congress commissioned the first Lexington. The ships carrying the name have had a fantastic history of excellence in the Navy, and especially, for naval aviation. The ship has done all those things, but most of her work has been right here in Pensacola. The Lexington has meant so much to the thousands of naval aviators who learned how to make carrier landings on her. When they saw how to do it on board the Lexington, they saw how to do it right.
The thousands of crew members who served on the Lexington have also contributed to naval aviation’s future. And the thousands of visitors to the ship—probably hundreds of thousands—have taken away an idea of what naval aviation is all about. They have come away with a very positive view. There have been some very sad occasions. The losses incurred on this ship—from Kamikaze hits during World War 11, to training command accidents— can never be replaced. But the ship has come through all those ordeals with great style.
So 1 think it was one heck of a fine purchase and value for naval aviation and for the citizens of our country. They got their money’s worth out of the USS Lexington.
Proceedings / October 1991