page_title: USS Lexington (CV-16)
section_title: 1958 Taiwan Strait crisis
hierarchical_section_title: USS Lexington (CV-16) / Service history / 1958 Taiwan Strait crisis
caption_attribution_description: English: The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CVA-16) underway in the Western Pacific, with Carrier Air Group 21 (CVG-21), on 16 August 1958. Just eight days later, on 24 August, Communist Chinese artillery began shelling the Nationalist Chinese islands of Quemoy and Matsu, prompting the Blue Ghost´s (as Lexington was called) deployment to the Taiwan Straits at various times during the next four months, along with other units of the U.S. Seventh Fleet.
context_page_description: USS Lexington, nicknamed "The Blue Ghost", is an Essex-class aircraft carrier built during World War II for the United States Navy. Originally intended to be named Cabot, word arrived during construction that USS Lexington had been lost in the Battle of the Coral Sea. The new aircraft carrier was renamed while under construction to commemorate the earlier ship.
  She was the fifth U.S. Navy ship to bear the name in honor of the Revolutionary War Battle of Lexington.
  Since 1992, the ship has been docked in Corpus Christi, Texas, where she operates as a museum.
context_section_description: Following overhaul at Bremerton, her refresher training was interrupted by the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis; on 14 July 1958, she was ordered to embark Air Group 21 at San Francisco and sail to reinforce the 7th Fleet off Taiwan, arriving on station on 7 August and returning San Diego on 19 December. 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. She was on standby alert during the Laotian crisis of late August and September. Following this, she exercised with British naval forces before returning to San Diego, arriving on 2 December. In early 1960, she underwent an overhaul at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
caption: USS Lexington after her SCB-125 conversion as an attack carrier, 1958
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