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Author Topic: Lady Lex is found on the bottom of the Coral Sea  (Read 3179 times)

scottfromgeorgia

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Lady Lex is found on the bottom of the Coral Sea
« on: March 06, 2018, 09:35:15 AM »
 The Lady Lex, the USS Lexington, has been found two miles down at the bottom of the Coral Sea. My great uncle, Oliver Taylor, was on the admiral's staff of the Lexington, and was the last living man on the carrier before it sank.

After the evacuation of almost 3000 sailors (most by jumping into the water), Adm. Aubrey W. Fitch and Captain Frederick Sherman left the burning, sinking carrier on a rope bridge to a destroyer, but the destroyer was crammed with sailors rescued from the sea, and Oliver Taylor was left behind.

A Lexington officer famously said "There she goes. She didn't turn over. She's going down with her head up. Dear old Lex...a lady to the last."

As the Lexington blew up from within (the fires reached the ammo dump), Taylor ran the length of the carrier, dived into water covered with burning oil, and swam a quarter mile through sharks feasting on bodies to an empty lifeboat. When he walked into the Admiral's new office the next day on another ship, Admiral Fitch looked up, said, "Glad you are alive, Taylor. The rest of my staff is dead or wounded, so you are promoted." And he went back to work.

I hope the wreck is left in peace in memory of the 216 sailors still aboard.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/05/politics/uss-lexington-aircraft-carrier-wreckage-found/index.html

emike123

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Re: Lady Lex is found on the bottom of the Coral Sea
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2018, 08:11:11 PM »
Amazing discovery and what a great story, Scott.  Thanks for sharing your personal history of this.  If you go on Paul Allen's website there are a lot of cool pictures of the wreckage, including this plane that obviously had some significant tallies to its record:


Dave the plumber

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Re: Lady Lex is found on the bottom of the Coral Sea
« Reply #2 on: March 11, 2018, 08:02:58 AM »
 wonderful story, Scott !!             Paul Allen is a bizillionaire, and he spends his money entrenched in history. He has one of the greatest flying collections of WW2 airplanes on the planet, and a top notch museum to boot. If only there were more people in his shoes that cared about history.....   maybe he should start collecting artillery !!!

speedenforcer

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Re: Lady Lex is found on the bottom of the Coral Sea
« Reply #3 on: March 11, 2018, 06:54:42 PM »
NOOOO, he would buy it all up and I couldn't afford anymore.
It's not always "Survival of the fitest" sometimes the idiots get through.