Saratoga was laid down on 25 September 1920 at Camden as a battlecruiser, reclassified CV-3 on 1 July 1922, and launched on 7 April 1925. She was commissioned on 16 November 1927 with Captain Harry Ervin Yarnell in command. The NavSource list, compiled by Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves, starts him on 30 September 1927. The date used here is the commissioning day in the ship's history.
On 11 January 1942 the submarine I-16 torpedoed her and six men were killed. The history prints the boat as 1-16. About 31 August 1942 I-26 torpedoed her, shorted the propulsion, and Minneapolis towed her. On 24 August 1942 aircraft from the American carriers sank Ryujo. Saratoga's planes were in that fight.
She was back at Pearl Harbor on 7 January 1944 and sailed on 19 January with Langley and Princeton. She struck Wotje and Taroa from 29 to 31 January, then Engebi from 3 to 6 February and again from 10 to 12 February. On 16 February her planes hit the defenses, the day before the landings, and she stayed on close support and combat air patrol until 28 February. She left Majuro on 4 March for the British Eastern Fleet. John Howard Cassady had her from 22 August 1943 to 22 June 1944.
She left Pearl Harbor on 29 January 1945 with a night-fighter group, reached Ulithi on 7 February, and sailed on 10 February with Enterprise. Off Iwo Jima on 21 February, about 1700, six Japanese planes scored five hits in three minutes. The flight deck forward was wrecked, the starboard side was holed twice, and the hangar burned. Another attack at 1900 scored one more bomb hit. She lost 123 dead or missing. The fires were under control by 2015. She recovered aircraft that night, was sent on to Eniwetok and then the west coast, and reached Bremerton on 16 March. She did not return to combat. McGowan (DD-678), McNair (DD-679), and Melvin (DD-680) were the destroyers with her that day.
Captain Lucian Ancel Moebus had her from 1 August 1944 to 27 April 1945. Captain Robert Potter Molten, Jr., died aboard on 28 May 1940. The compiled list runs him through 6 June. The day used here is the day he died. Her executive officer had her until Captain Archibald Hugh Douglas took her on 6 June. Douglas had also held a temporary command, as a commander, from 1 June to 11 July 1932. On 29 March 1943 Captain Gerald Francis Bogan was hurt in a fall. The list keeps him until 7 April. After she sank, the list still carries two short paper commands, through 19 August 1946.
She brought home 29,204 men after the war. At Bikini she survived the air burst on 1 July 1946. The underwater burst on 25 July wounded her mortally and she sank about seven and a half hours later. She was struck on 15 August 1946.