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USS Lexington (CV 2), along with her sister ship, USS Saratoga (CV 3), were America's first real aircraft carriers, and genuine wonders of the world we were commissioned in the late 1920s. Converted from a pair of battlecruiser hulls made surplus by the Washington Naval Treaty, the two ships were the largest, most powerful, and fastest warships in the world. Able to carry and operate up to 90 aircraft, twice as many as any of the contemporary British and Japanese aircraft carriers, Lexington and her sister ship were the platforms where the U.S. Navy learned to take airpower out to sea. But Lexington was more than just a ship, for she also was a home and a schoolhouse for the men who served aboard her. As American's aircraft carrier fleet grew prior to World War II, Lexington and her sister were the ships where the men who would crew those new carriers learned their trades. In addition, some of the U.S. Navy's greatest leaders in World War II were captains aboard the Lexington, including Adm. Ernest J. King an