A Carroll “Lex” LeFon Primer

Who was Carroll LeFon?

The best description of Lex that I’ve heard is “Imagine Hemingway flew fighters…and liked people.”

Index – The Best of Neptunus Lex

In Memory of CAPT Carroll “Lex” LeFon, and the Wonderful Community He Fostered

Welcome. The idea was floated that a ‘talk amongst yourselves’ blog would be a good addition to for the Non-Facebook Crowd. Here it is.

Not Buying It

Posted by lex, on October 30, 2008

A couple of occasional readers have sent along this clip:

And one has even provided an interview * with the “pilot.”

Friday Musings 11/07/08

Posted by lex, on November 7, 2008

Premium gas is back below $3.00 per gallon in San Diego, and I filled the tank up on the GS for $12 and a bit. That’ll last me through the next work week.

There’s change you can believe in.

So, yah, I’m back to commuting via moto, these days. Perforce, actually. On account of the fender benders and such. Not me, mind, but my sainted wife.

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It was a mutual back-up scenario in one of those parking lots so common here in Southern California: Painted as though the whole world drove Mini Coopers, when in fact – as everyone knows perfectly well – they all drive SUVs and steroidal minivans, and that. The great, rough beasts. Whilst talking on their cell phones, and gesticulating with their mitts. The horror.

T.I.A.D. – repost

Posted by lex, on July 15, 2006

 

A couple of years ago, I had the idea that I’d post stories from “times I almost died.” T.I.A.D., in short.

I didn’t have that many, as it turns out – you don’t get that many chances to “almost die” before completing the act, and then someone else gets to tell stories about you. So the thread didn’t last very long. But it wasn’t an entire waste of time. And it is the weekend, and the world’s on fire and I’m not up to getting my noggin wrapped around it right now.

So. A repost.

California Dreaming

Posted by lex, on October 28, 2008

You can’t make this stuff up:

(On) concerns that Democrats might control both the White House and Congress she said the following:

“Elect us, hold us accountable, and make a judgment and then go from there. But I do tell you that if the Democrats win, and have substantial majorities, Congress of the United States will be more bipartisan,” said Pelosi.

That word, “bipartisan”. You keep using it.

I do not think it means what you think it means.

Back To The Index 

Lex Gets Mail

Posted by lex, on October 28, 2008

Sadly, it is not universally approbatory:

i take issue for your biased reporting and statements favoring mccain and trashing obama.  i am a retired usn pilot, two deployments to nam, and know what mccain’s squadron mates say about him…  they dispise him for his PI and nasty temperture.  obama is the clear choice for me.  how come the nam pow are not taking his side???  in closing, since when did nfo’s start taking credit for traps while riding in the aircraft… 

I am dashed. Utterly.

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An Act of Chivalry and Nobility Amid the Carnage

A painting by John Hall commemorating that event.

For those you who have used the Internet awhile, you probably heard the story decades ago. Probably in the early 90s. The interesting thing about this is that when it was revealed it was a mystery solved after 47 years.

In the darkness of a December 20, 1943 morning in an English side Quonset hut, an orderly shined a light into the face of Lt Charles “Charlie” Brown to tell him that it was time to get up and attend the briefing.

Members of the 379^th Bomb Group of the mighty 8^th Army Air Force were to receive their briefing for that day’s bombing raid.

They were to bomb the Focke-wulf aircraft factory on the Northern German coast at Bremen.

They were told to expect heavy flak and hundreds of fighters in opposition. The CO giving the briefing, Col “Mo” Preston, would be leading the massive formation. He was no commander who led from the desk.

Although LT Brown and his crew had trained together and had 100s of hours stateside in the Flying Fortress, this would be his first bombing mission with that crew. After 100s of hours, the crew became as a family.

At Bremen during that same hour, a German Luftwaffe Leutnant, Franz Stigler, was most likely sleeping. They wouldn’t know about the raid until hours later. The B-17 crews deliberately had no radio communication once they started up on the tarmac.

Because the enemy was listening.

Happy New Year, All!

 

By lex, on December 31st, 2011

Which the missus and I are celebrating ours at home, the chillens being growed up or nearly so. For those of you such as are going out, watch out for them English, for they’re a hazard on the roads when they’ve a drop taken.

Here at Chez Lex, the year 2011 has had its up and downs, and taken as a whole we will not miss it much, malgre the fact that it has ended on a happier note than it began.

Hopefully that trend will continue, for us and for you.

See you next year.

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At Death’s Door?

         

We tend to believe ourselves to be physical beings with a spiritual core.

But what we really are is spiritual beings with a physical shell.

—Author Unknown

As I have gotten older I have realized that there is no guarantee that we will all grow old. And along the way, starting in high school, I realized that this is but an illusion. That we will all grow old. Although we all expect to grow old.

Holiday update

Posted by December 26, 2006

We are well, and everything is well and all manner of things are well. It may or may not be obvious to either of my readers, but the posts of the last two days were written before we ever left the Left Coast, which probably explains the strange absence of any comment on the untimely death of Mr. James Brown.

Rehabilitation

Posted by lex, on October 15, 2008

Unrepentant former domestic terrorist and current UIC professor Bill Ayres is apparently too proud to ask for forgiveness. Proud like a peacock of course, but also literally proud of what he’d done as a domestic terrorist.  He has, in fact, admitted that the Weathermen “didn’t do enough.” Probably because trying to “do more” resulted three Weathermen blowing themselves up with a nail bomb they’d planned to set at an non-commissioned officer’s club dance in Fort Dix, NJ. Because, you know, that domestic terrorism gig is really trippy until someone gets hurt the wrong people get hurt. And then suddenly it’s not so much fun anymore.