[Uncle Hal]

My uncle was on the aircraft carrier, USS Lexington in 1941. It was stationed at Pearl Harbor in December, 1941. All at once they were ordered to leave on Dec. 5 together with 2 other carriers. My uncle was planning on going out to diner when he got word to report back to the ship. This was totally unexpected and considering what happened on Dec. 7 he has always wondered if somebody did know something was up.

[Publius6961]

Edited by historian George Nash...

I know practically nothing about this person, but I have a feeling he's an old time U.S. history revisionist, not of the pro-America crowd.

Can anyone add a bit of history? I avoid the pro-revisionist google sources.

[GreenLanternCorps]

USS Lexington (CV-2) was ordered on December 5th to rush Marine aircraft to Midway because of the deteriorating situation with Japan and the expected attacks on The Dutch East Indies, Malaya, and The Philippines.

[Cheburashka]

Your uncle's memory seems to be slightly flawed. The USS Enterprise left Pearl Harbor 11/28/41 with a load of aircraft for the Wake Island garrison. It was returning to Pearl on 12/7/41. The USS Lexington departed Pearl with a load of aircraft to reinforce the Midway garrison on 12/5/41. The third aircraft carrier in the Pacific was the USS Saratoga, which had just completed maintenance work in Bremerton Washington and was in transit to San Diego, where it picked additional aircraft earmarked for the Wake Island garrison. So there were only two carriers near Pearl Harbor on 12/7/41 and both were being used in aircraft deliveries, not sneaking out of Pearl to keep them safe.

The other four American carriers were in the Atlantic.

USS Lexington was close enough to the Japanese strike force so that it might conceivably on a longshot have spotted or been spotted by the Japanese, but neither force was launching recon patrols. The Lexington's deck was full of Marine aircraft that could fly off, but whose flight crews were not trained to land on carriers. The Japanese weren't flying recon because they were trying to sneak up on Pearl Harbor, and any American warship or merchantmen spotting and reporting a Japanese aircraft in the middle of nowhere would have tipped their hand.

If your uncle is still with us, pass along my thanks for his service to our country.