An Alternate Battle of the Coral Sea

I agree, Lexington will go to the west coast for a full blown refit.
Mind you its still very possible Lexington could appear at the Santa Cruz since she would probably arrive at Pearl Harbor a couple days behind the Yorktown and arrive on the West Coast say 11 days later. This means that she would have 138 days to be repaired/modernized and then reach the conflict zone which should be very achievable.
 
Lt. Cmdr Scott: Cap'n, it'll take at least 72 hours to cobble her together....
Captain Kirk: Scotty, you've got 20 minutes.....


Admiral Nimitz: Patch the holes in the hull to keep the sea out, patch the holes in the flight deck and hanger deck to keep the planes upright, and worry about the rest later..... We have a war to win....

Scotty - I’ll do it in 10
 
My alternative is the Tokyo raid is not executed, so the Enterprise & possibly the Hornet are present at the Coral Sea battle.

My alternative alternative revolves around the Saratoga not taking torpedo damage in January & is available in April-May ...
 
This could have bad butterflies for the USN. IIRC, Lexington was lost because of a faulty damage control procedure. Her loss twigged the USN onto it and the procedure was changed. Without that lesson, the Navy may end up losing more carriers later in the war
The Lexington's Captain smelt the gasoline fumes and realized what was about to happen he ordered the ship vented immediately about two minutes before the explosion. The lesson would have been learned if it was not already known. The Lexington class had an enclosed hanger later American carriers had an open hanger to prevent the buildup Aviation exhaust and gasoline fumes.
 
The Lexington's Captain smelt the gasoline fumes and realized what was about to happen he ordered the ship vented immediately about two minutes before the explosion. The lesson would have been learned if it was not already known. The Lexington class had an enclosed hanger later American carriers had an open hanger to prevent the buildup Aviation exhaust and gasoline fumes.
Enclosed Hangars are often unfairly maligned, afterall the Royal Navy never had an aviation fuel related Hangar Explosion.
More important was Defence Against Gas Attack, which is something an enclosed hangar provided and an open hangar did not. And remember that this was considered a very serious matter at the time, as much as NBC protection is taken today. There was genuine legitimate concern, it wasn't just a holdover from WW1, the Italians had used Gas Warfare in Abyssinia.
 
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