Lady Lex Clocks in to Cap TH-57 Career
The Essex-class fleet carrier USS Lexington (CV/CVA/CVS/CVT/AVT 16) had a legendary service career.
The fifth American warship to carry the name, she was commissioned in 1943 and took the name of CV-2, which had been lost just nine months prior– like a phoenix of old. Lexington went on to collect the Presidential Unit Citation and 11 battle stars for her World War II Pacific service.
After receiving her angled deck and new catapults in 1953, she continued to serve with the fleet through the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Then, in January 1962, she transitioned to the Atlantic to relieve her younger sister, USS Antietam (CVS-36), as the dedicated aviation training carrier in the Gulf of Mexico– a mission she held down for almost 30 years.
USS Lexington (CVS-16) underway on 15 July 1963, with twenty-six T-28 training planes parked forward and amidships. At this time, Naval Academy midshipmen were riding the ship to observe carrier qualifications. Official U.S. Navy Photograph. USN 1086588
After steaming some 209,000 nm in her 48-year career and logging 493,248 arrested landings, she retired in 1991 and has since become a floating museum in Corpus Christi.
Aerial starboard bow view of the training aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CVT-16) underway. Although the photo is dated 1985, it must have been taken before 1970, as the ship is still fitted with Mk.24 Mod. 11 5-inch 38-cal open gun mounts. DN-ST-86-02002.
Lex unofficially added to her statistics on 30 July, and came to Flight Quarters when a Navy TH-57C Sea Ranger training helicopter arrived on deck and landed to end the type’s service with a Transfer Ceremony. The TH-57C was then decommissioned and moved into the museum’s collection, and her escort, a TH-73A Thrasher, the next-generation training helicopter poised to advance the future of rotary-wing aviation, lifted off to return to its duties with HT-28.
A TH-57C Sea Ranger and a TH-73A Thrasher attached to Helicopter Training Squadron (HT) 28 land on the flight deck of decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV 16), Museum on the Bay, in Corpus Christi, Texas, July 30, 2025. This landing commemorates the legacy of the TH-57 training helicopter while showcasing the future of naval aviation with the TH-73. (U.S. Navy photo by Morgan Galvin) 250730-N-KC201-1016
The TH-57C, BuNo 162684 (Bell 206 SN 03779), joined the fleet in 1984, served a decade with HT-8 at NAS Whiting Field (while Lex was in Pensacola), was transferred to Customs in 1994 for use as a Blue Lightning asset (N62646), then returned to the Navy in 2007 and has been flown out of Whiting Field ever since.
While in service over the past 52 years, the TH-57 platform has trained more than 30,000 naval aviators.