Captain Carroll “Lex” The founder of Neptunus Lex Blog, Fairfax LeFon, was a naval aviator, a husband, a father, and the patriarch of an online community that is still active today
Flight instructor William Cobb recalled Captain Carrol claiming to have discovered the Neptunus Lex blog while researching the F-22 vs. Super Hornet HUD gun kill footage. He found the picture he was looking for, and as he read his blog, he became engrossed right away. He used to visit his blog in between flights while flying endless laps in the pattern like a Human Yo-Yo to educate Navy IFS trainees on how to fly and properly take off and land. It served as a means of relaxation and appreciation for what he was doing.
When he visited the blog page one flying day ten years ago and saw a missing man formation of Blue Angels, the understanding of what had transpired hit him square in the gut. He had never met the author, but the caliber of his writing encouraged him to try to achieve the same thing in the future.
SECNAV Ray Mabus wrote, “I mourn the passing of a great naval aviator, a professional analyst of all things naval, and a soulful and compelling writer of poetry and prose.”
His unpublished book “Rhythms,” which describes a day in the life of an aircraft carrier crew, is a masterpiece and provides the best depiction of life on a boat of all time. The paragraph below, which was published in The Lexicans, exemplifies Man’s incredible writing abilities;
‘So halfway round the world, he checks outside for traffic once again before bowing his head and beginning to re-read her last letter. Trying to feel her in its tangible presence, imagining her arm across the dining room table, holding down a pad of stationary as she writes him one of her maddeningly enchanting letters. In that exact moment, sixteen time zones and half the world away, she is doing precisely that, with an impish half-smile on her face and feeling an internal glow of warmth from the graphic memory she is relating. Down the hall two children slumber, temporarily fatherless, dreaming children’s dreams.
‘For each interrupted couple on a six-month deployment, there are tens, perhaps hundreds of such moments of unlikely synchronicity, and the true tragedy is that each will pass unnoticed and therefore unlamented into the endlessly unfolding wale of indifferent time.’
An online community that is still active today was founded by Lex, a naval aviator, husband, father, and patriarch. In such a way, only the greatest get honored. Due to a very hilarious incident with The Lexicans, he was given the callsign “Lex”;
‘Being tired, I put my uniform together looking in the mirror, where it looked just right. I headed on down to the squadron-ready room with five minutes to spare (and a smile on my face!) only to be accosted immediately by the squadron commander: “What, are you dyslexic or something?”
‘“Pardon me?”
‘“Your wings are on the wrong side of your uniform!”
‘D’oh!
‘So that got abbreviated to “Lex” ultimately, and thankfully has never changed since. I felt relieved actually, the callsign running second in the competition was “Fifi.”
Cobbs then concludes saying, “So here’s to You Neptunus Lex, Captain Carroll “Lex” Fairfax LeFon, USN. You have inspired an entire community and you are missed by all who remember you. Today I shall hoist a Guinness in your honor “For Strength.” You live on in the hearts of all who know you, and we know you are up there with some of the best Aviators ever to fly. From me personally, a fond Aloha, even though I never knew you any other way than from your writing.”
Photo by: U.S. Navy
