This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people.

The USS Lexington was the first aircraft carrier to deploy air-to-surface missiles,

and it sailed enough miles to circle the globe eight times.

Standing as tall as a 19-story building, there's much more to this warship.

Here's our regular contributor, Anne Claire, with the story.

I was in elementary school when I saw my first aircraft carrier.

My family and I had gone to visit my aunt and uncle in

South Carolina. My uncle had retired from the Navy and was working at Patriots Point, where there

are a number of U.S. naval vessels that are now museums. He took us up onto the flight deck

of the USS Yorktown.

This would be the Yorktown, not that was sunk at Midway, but the one that was named after it, that served at the end of World War II.

And I just recall standing on that enormous flight deck and just being in awe and kind of fascinated by these huge ships that were just so unique.

As an adult, moving to the Pacific Northwest, I ended up with the opportunity to see a few more aircraft carriers,

though those ones, the ones I've seen out here are not museums, they're

still sailing, which is even more impressive. They're just really interesting ships.

As I was doing some reading in history recently, though, about some of the very first aircraft

carriers in the United States Navy, I was impressed not so much by size or uniqueness, but by their versatility,

especially when I got into the story of the USS Lexington.

The USS Lexington was the fourth U.S. ship to bear that name, the name of the place where the American Revolution started, Lexington.

It was also the second aircraft carrier produced by the United States.

However, at first it wasn't supposed to be an aircraft carrier.

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