The U.S.S. Lexington CV-2 was launched on 3 October 1925 by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Ltd., at the Fore River Plant in Quincy, Massachusetts, and commissioned on 14 December 1927. During the peacetime years, the Lex was a pioneer in developing combat tactics for naval aviation and training personnel in the techniques of launching and landing aircraft while underway. She was the first ship to average more than 30 knots on an ocean voyage from California to Hawaii in June 1928, and she supplied power to the city of Tacoma, Washington, in December 1929 and January 1930. She led the search for Amelia Earhart's downed airplane in the Pacific in July 1937. On 20 February 1942, one of the Lex's fighter pilots, Lt. Edward H. "Butch" O'Hare, shot down five Japanese bombers in aerial combat near Bougainville, Solomon Islands, becoming the first Navy ace of World War II and receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor. In the Battle of the Coral Sea, fought in the South Pacific on 4-8 May 1942, Lexington pilots participated in sinking the first Japanese aircraft carrier on 7 May 1942. The battle is considered a strategic victory for Allied Naval Task Force 17 in thwarting Japanese plans to invade Port Moresby, New Guinea, and preserving the safety of Northern Australia, and it was the first major sea battle in naval history in which the surface ships involved did not exchange a single shot. The Lexington was sunk on 8 May 1942 after suffering two torpedo hits and three bomb hits followed by uncontrollable fires, with 137 men losing their lives.