Lady Lex: A brief reminder of how great America is

Lady Lex, late 1930s-early 40s

Below: Lex at the Battle of the Coral Sea:

Peter Skurkiss  "Earlier this month, the research vessel (R.V.) Petrel of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen located and filmed the wreckage of the American aircraft carrier USS Lexington, also affectionately known as Lady Lex.

"This is both a historic and a technical event.  Lady Lex was sunk in the Battle of the Coral Sea on May 8, 1942, a dark time in WWII, nearly a month before the tide-turning Battle of Midway.  The Lady went down about 500 miles off the northeastern coast of Australia and took over 200 U.S. sailors with her.  She rests about two miles deep in the ocean.  The tears have long dried for those lost, but this locating of the wreckage gives us the opportunity to again remember the service and sacrifice of those men.   

"There is no need to rehash the Battle of the Coral Sea; there are multiple sources for that.  What should be noted is that this achievement of Paul Allen shows what is possible when the technical prowess of America is coupled with free-market initiative.  Finding Lady Lex is an example of both.  But it pales in significance to things like the fracking oil and gas revolution and the emergence of private space launching companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX, which is planning to send a space vehicle to Mars by 2020." . . .

(The 1944 film, "The Fighting Lady" was filmed aboard Lady Lex's sister ship, the USS Yorktown)