Aircraft carrier USS Lexington, lost in 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea, is found

[Scumpup]

@DesertDog

You’re right. Let’s plow up Arlington Cemetery and put it to good use as a golf course and condo complex. Look at the location; they’d sell like hotcakes. :rolleyes:

Roll your eyes til they fall out of your head, if makes you feel good about yourself. There is a difference between a graveyard and a multi-million dollar fighting machine built with public funds and you fucking well knew that before you posted. Sunken warships have been salvaged before. Not all of them are treated like the USS Arizona, nor should they be. Do you feel they same way about recycling old tanks and other vehicles that are lost in battle? Do we need to genuflect before everything in which a soldier or sailor died?

[carnivorousplant]

@Scumpup

…Do you feel they same way about recycling old tanks and other vehicles that are lost in battle? …

It depends upon whether on not there are any remains inside.

[Scumpup]

@carnivorousplant

It depends upon whether on not there are any remains inside.

If you believe there are any remains inside the Lexington, you should read more.

[ElvisL1ves]

It’s officially a war grave. Of her crew, 216 were killed that day, mostly by fire, and the remains of some must have gone down with or perhaps aboard her.

[carnivorousplant]

I don’t know if abandoning ship includes removing bodies and body parts or not.

I initially wondered why the aircraft weren’t flown off, but I guess Lexingtoon was in no condition to launch aircraft, and I understand that Yorktown had a hole in her flight deck.

[Scumpup]

@ElvisL1ves

It’s officially a war grave. Of her crew, 216 were killed that day, mostly by fire, and the remains of some must have gone down with or perhaps aboard her.

Ships in shallower water were salvaged during the war. Don’t pretend that there are even bones, let alone bodies, aboard at this point.

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

Dial it back. I have no idea why you’re being snippy in your replies, but this isn’t the forum for it.

@Scumpup

Ships in shallower water were salvaged during the war. Don’t pretend that there are even bones, let alone bodies, aboard at this point.

@Scumpup

Roll your eyes til they fall out of your head, if makes you feel good about yourself. There is a difference between a graveyard and a multi-million dollar fighting machine built with public funds and you fucking well knew that before you posted. Sunken warships have been salvaged before. Not all of them are treated like the USS Arizona, nor should they be. Do you feel they same way about recycling old tanks and other vehicles that are lost in battle? Do we need to genuflect before everything in which a soldier or sailor died?

@Scumpup

If you believe there are any remains inside the Lexington, you should read more.

[Son_of_a_Rich]

@Methyl_Ethyl_Death

That makes sense, thanks for the reply.

I agree with carnivorousplant. I can’t imagine salvagers having the technology to access the wreck two miles deep. IMHO, even if possible, artifacts from Lexington do not have the monetary value of artifacts from the Titanic, also two miles deep.

nm

[Loach]

@Scumpup

Ships in shallower water were salvaged during the war. Don’t pretend that there are even bones, let alone bodies, aboard at this point.

World War II Pilot Remains Found at Bottom of the Ocean

There just so happens to be some recent news that shows you may not be correct.

[carnivorousplant]

@Loach

https://www.google.com/amp/www.newsweek.com/remains-world-war-ii-pilot-found-831639%3Famp=1

There just so happens to be some recent news that shows you may not be correct.

Wow.

[Johnny_L.A]

@Loach

https://www.google.com/amp/www.newsweek.com/remains-world-war-ii-pilot-found-831639%3Famp=1

There just so happens to be some recent news that shows you may not be correct.

I read about that yesterday, but the aircraft were not identified. This link says they found two aircraft, an F6F Hellcat and a TBM (General Motors) Avenger.

But identifying these remains could take months, if not years, to give answers, he said. The agency could not confirm to Newsweek how many people were found at the two sites during the dives, but per historical records, there were four bodies that were not recovered, Romero said.

The Hellcat has a crew of one, and the Avenger has a crew of three. So… ‘four bodies were not recovered’ in 1944? In 2015/2016? Since (apparently) only the remains of one person were discovered, is it probable that they were from the Hellcat?

[Corry_El]

@Johnny_L.A

Or maybe not.

According to the linked tweet:
The aircraft in the photos in most of the article is F5.

The most convincing explanations seem to be that it’s Lt. Noel Gayler’s a/c. Squadron marking of VF-3 (the cat), 4 aerial victory flags* and a bombing mission symbol match and apparently letters in Gayler’s name can be made out on close inspection. It was assigned to VF-2 at Coral Sea, but the squadron had taken on a/c and pilots from VF-3 formerly on Lexington. Gayler was one the pilots who landed on Lexington then abandoned ship later when the a/c could no longer be flown off. Which particular F4F-3 it was in terms of the permanent identity of USN planes, their Bureau Number, doesn’t seem to be known. 3979, 4035, 3978, 4016, 4005, 4003, 3986, 3982, and 3981 were the 9 F4F-3’s which went down with Lexington. The squadron assignment
numbers (F-5) could change.
http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/USN/LLMay42.htm

*Apparently for 1 bomber and ‘assists’ on two others in the Feb 20 1942 action defending Lexington in the abortive raid on Rabaul plus a Type 95 Recon Floatplane during the raid on Lae, New Guinea Mar 10, dropped bombs there too, all with VF-3. The Feb 20 action was where Butch O’Hare was credited with 5 bombers: he was in Washington DC in late April to receive the MOH and not at Coral Sea. VF-3 claimed a total of 15 Japanese bombers in that action and a dive bomber claimed another: unusually accurately for WWII aerial claiming, 15 of 17 Type 1 Land Attack Planes (later codenamed ‘Betty’) of the 4th Air Group either failed to return or ditched.