USS Lexington (CV-16) — Asbestos Aboard the "Blue Ghost" Essex Carrier

USS Lexington (CV-16) — known throughout the fleet as the “Blue Ghost” after Japanese radio reports of her being sunk multiple times during WWII — was an Essex-class carrier commissioned in February 1943 at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. Lexington served in WWII Pacific combat from the Gilbert Islands campaign through Okinawa, Korean War operations, and served from 1962 to 1991 as the Navy’s primary carrier-based pilot training ship assigned to NAS Pensacola — the longest service of any US carrier. Now permanently berthed as a museum ship at the Texas State Aquarium complex in Corpus Christi, Texas. Lexington’s training ship role concentrated thousands of student naval aviators aboard her asbestos-containing interior spaces annually.

Engineering Plant Asbestos

Lexington’s Essex-class 1943 engineering plant used asbestos throughout:

• Boiler plant — Lexington’s Babcock & Wilcox boilers used asbestos lagging on exterior surfaces, asbestos refractory brick in combustion chambers, and asbestos rope and packing at boiler access points. The boiler plant maintained by BT ratings was the primary asbestos concentration zone aboard ship
• Steam piping — main steam and auxiliary steam piping throughout the engineering spaces used asbestos magnesia pipe covering under canvas jacketing on all hot steam lines. The extended service period of Lexington’s training role meant that successive generations of MM and BT ratings encountered deteriorating pipe covering insulation that had been in place for decades
• Training ship steam plant condition — Lexington’s 48-year active service — the longest of any US carrier — meant that by the 1980s the ship’s asbestos pipe covering and boiler lagging had been in place for decades, with the deterioration of aged asbestos insulation producing greater fiber release than newer insulation

Training Ship Asbestos Exposure

Lexington’s primary mission as a carrier qualification training ship concentrated aviation trainees aboard ship:

• Student naval aviator carrier qualifications — Lexington conducted carrier qualification (carqual) training for student naval aviators from NAS Pensacola, Meridian, and Corpus Christi, with student aviators spending weeks aboard ship completing carrier landing qualifications. Students living in Lexington’s WWII-era berthing spaces accumulated asbestos exposure from the ship’s interior construction throughout the training period
• Aviation cadets and student aviators — the annual throughput of student naval aviators conducting carrier qualifications aboard Lexington across her 29 years of training service (1962-1991) exposed a large cohort of naval aviation personnel to the asbestos-containing interior spaces of this WWII-era ship

VA Claims for USS Lexington Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure aboard Essex-class carriers. Engineering ratings and student naval aviators who served or trained aboard USS Lexington and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits.

Source notes: equipment-manifest entries (where shown) are sourced from public-record BUSHIPS (Bureau of Ships) documentation, NARA archives, and the public asbestos litigation record. Manufacturer attributions link to documented asbestos-product histories on AsbestosIndex.com where available. Nothing on this page constitutes medical or legal advice.