USS Lexington (CV-16/AVT-16) — Asbestos Aboard the Blue Ghost

USS Lexington (CV-16) — the Blue Ghost — was laid down at Bethlehem Steel in Quincy, Massachusetts in July 1941, launched in September 1942, and commissioned in February 1943. The ship was powered by eight Babcock & Wilcox high-pressure boilers driving four sets of Westinghouse geared turbines producing 150,000 shaft horsepower — the standard Essex class propulsion plant. After WWII Pacific combat service including operations at Leyte Gulf, Luzon, and Okinawa, Lexington was modernized under the SCB-27C and SCB-125 programs in the early 1950s. In 1962, Lexington was redesignated AVT-16 and began service as the Navy’s dedicated fixed-wing training carrier homeported at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida — a role it would fill for the next 30 years, training generations of naval aviators in carrier qualification landings. USS Lexington was decommissioned in 1991 after 48 years of commissioned service — the longest of any US aircraft carrier — and is now preserved as a museum ship in Corpus Christi, Texas. The eight-boiler Essex class steam plant throughout the ship was insulated with asbestos-containing materials consistent with WWII-era naval construction, and the hundreds of thousands of naval aviation students who conducted carrier qualification landings aboard the Blue Ghost, along with the ship’s engineering crew, accumulated asbestos exposure from the asbestos-insulated construction of the training carrier’s engineering spaces and interior.

Essex Class Eight-Boiler Plant Asbestos

Lexington’s eight-boiler plant incorporated extensive asbestos insulation:

• Babcock & Wilcox boiler casing insulation — the eight Babcock & Wilcox boilers in Lexington’s boiler rooms were insulated with asbestos block insulation on boiler casing exterior surfaces and asbestos pipe covering on boiler steam connections. Boiler Tenders maintaining the boilers during WWII Pacific combat operations and throughout the 30-year training carrier service worked in continuous proximity to the asbestos boiler casing insulation throughout each engineering watch rotation
• Westinghouse main turbine insulation — Lexington’s Westinghouse turbines and associated high-pressure steam piping were insulated with asbestos block on turbine casings and asbestos lagging on steam admission piping. Machinist’s Mates tending the turbines in Lexington’s engine rooms worked in the asbestos-insulated turbine spaces throughout their propulsion plant watch standing
• SCB modernization construction — Lexington’s early 1950s SCB-27C and SCB-125 modernizations at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard involved substantial reconstruction of the flight deck and aviation systems, with shipyard workers installing asbestos-containing materials in rebuilt and new construction areas consistent with early 1950s shipyard construction practice

Training Carrier Service and Extended Asbestos Exposure

Lexington’s 30-year training carrier role created unique exposure patterns:

• Naval aviator carrier qualification training — USS Lexington conducted carrier qualification landings for approximately 500,000 naval aviators over its 30-year training carrier service from 1962 to 1991. Student aviators conducting carrier qualification cycles lived aboard the training carrier for the duration of their qualification periods, accumulating background asbestos exposure from the asbestos-insulated interior construction of the WWII-era training carrier during their aboard period
• Permanent crew sustained service — the engineering crew aboard USS Lexington during its training carrier service maintained continuous shipboard assignment aboard the asbestos-insulated carrier, accumulating sustained asbestos exposure from the eight-boiler steam plant insulation and the carrier’s asbestos-insulated interior construction throughout extended training carrier assignments
• NAS Pensacola homeport proximity — USS Lexington’s homeport at Naval Air Station Pensacola during its training carrier service placed the ship at a naval air station constructed during the WWII and Cold War era with asbestos-containing facility construction, combining shipboard asbestos exposure with shore-side facility background asbestos exposure for personnel assigned to the Pensacola training carrier community

VA Claims for USS Lexington Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure aboard Navy aircraft carriers. Boiler Tenders, Machinist’s Mates, naval aviation students, and crew members who served aboard USS Lexington (CV-16/AVT-16) 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.