I’m not quite sure if anyone still looks at this site, but even so it didn’t feel right to not post a final word. A thank you note, I guess.
I am “Kat,” Lex’s youngest daughter. In the bustle of the last few months my family and I have been neglecting the blog, unsure what the next step for his site would be. At some point, the domain expired; and while my father was many things, organized on the computer he was not. So after a series of jumping through hoops and searching through his computer I finally figured out how to get it back up. My family and I would like to keep it, as so many of you have also requested. On behalf on my whole family, I would like to thank you all for the support, care, and loving words about my father. It is nothing short of breathtaking to read the beautiful things you have all said and it means more than I can possibly express through a blog post.
Thank you all so very much.
Sincerely- Kat
Hey! I may have a post caught in moderation! Just like old times, eh?
Just popped in this morning on a whim…hadn’t been back since the furneral. It has been a hole in my life, not having the reading, or the conversations, even if I only read them.
And, even in this very sad event, lessons: Getting your affairs in order – The Digital Life Version.
Thanks back to you, ma’am, for refloating this wonderful ark your father built.
Like xformed said, there has been a hole without it.
Your dad was a master with words. He changed lives and illuminated Truth with them.
You do us and him a great favor to plow through his mess (all us old men have one and all good kids eventually get to clean one out.
You will do him proud, I’m sure.
Miss Kat, many, many thanks for bringing the site back. I think of your Dad every day, as so many people do. You, and you brother, sister and Mom are also included in those thoughts, as you are so much a part of the Lex that we knew and grew to care so much about. Please do, let us know what is going on in the Life of Kat. I suspect that you are also a person to watch the writing of. Say HI! to Gus from an Old Gray Badger.
Kat, I’m delighted to see the site back up. I have something of an idea what you and yours are having to go through since I went through it with my father 21 years ago. The big difference is we saw it coming with mine, yours went out with his health and faculties as intact as anyone can expect in their early 50s. Shocking is a charitable way of describing what you went through.
The hole never goes away, but the edges get rounded with time. Occasionally I find myself asking what my father would think about what I’m going through, or have accomplished. I have found a living relationship with Christ to be the most effective thing when it comes to overcoming the hurts and disappointments of life. He’s always there, and His ear is always open for those that belong to Him.
When it comes to the funds to keep this place open, all you have to do is ask. This bunch will fall all over themselves helping.
I sent your father a pic to use for fund raisers so he wouldn’t have to keep threatening the dog. If you can’t find it, drop me an email and I’ll be glad to send it again. He thought it was perfect.
Thank you for sharing this blog with all of us again. I am off to re-read all of “Rhythms” now. Thank you, and may He keep you close.
-JTG
Hi Kat – thanks so much for sorting out the issues and bringing the site back up. I spent many a pleasurable hour over the last 7 years reading your father’s wonderful words and I have missed that daily ritual.
I’m sure getting it all sorted out wasn’t easy – on many levels. Thank you for forging ahead anyway.
There are a great many wonderful people who participate here. Should you need anything at all please don’t hesitate to post a request and I’m sure help will be provided.
My best to you and your family.
Brian Whisenant
Wisconsin
Good to see another Badger keeping the faith, Brian.
Hi Kat,
Thanks for putting the site back up. I have missed it – as I miss your father’s writing.
Best wishes to you and your family.
Thank you Kat for bringing the site back.
My vote is to start a movement to draft SNO as a contributor here and also the shopping team. I willing to bet their stories about life, the Universe and everything are just as engaging in their own right(s).
As far as SNO, it wouldn’t be the first time in history the reins were taken up by the son, and his view would then crops a boundary in time and internal perspective of Naval Aviation, as it moves towards an era where reduction and automation become the norm.
Just sayin’….
Respectfully, I like the ideas that xformed and others have put forth about keeping the blog up as a memorial – some thoughts:
I wasn’t as close to Lex as many here were – I was the occasional regular reader yet very loyal fan and admirer who loved to recount his tales and contrast them with my own naval service – my heart ached for your family and still does as I have mourned my own losses in this life – his loss was truly great. I was shocked just how stunned I was – he was truly one of the noble and great ones of heaven here on earth. I have envied and admired your family from afar all this time through him.
Perhaps I’m making up for not having as much to say over the time I read his blog with my third remark here.
1) Lex, as a U.S. Navy Captain and Commanding Officer of Naval Air Force’s, his insights into America’s standing and events in the world are invaluable – no news commentator journalist can even hold a candle let alone light one next to his professional knowledge and experience. He was the man with the real story very often. Security briefings on the state of nations, military intelligence and their politics spanning several decades? What journalist has that? As well as being trained to brief and speak on it in a public forum? There’s a degree of skill and access there that just isn’t had outside of the military let alone in it very often. Lex was truly a warrior who not only was skilled with the sword but the pen as well and defended his country and her values as well as held her light aloft with his blog. This in mind, Lex’s words (and humor) are historic about an era in Naval Aviation that spans several conflicts – in time they will become even more historic and valuable to his country – An anchor of faith of sorts when people might think we as a nation have drifted off course or lost our headings, Lex’s words show many Americans still held fast to that spirit that allowed her to be born as well as continue today, and that spirit was alive in her Commanding Officers and the men who went to the front lines and put their life on the line for her.
This in mind, Lex’s blog may serve as a defense of his nation still even after his passing – I truly believe this.
2) Warriors as many of us veterans are, sooner or later, despite our skill in combat and service – if we survive our service eventually succumb to age and the frailties of this mortal life after our former greatness. Our service ends in this sphere and we are called to serve elsewhere in what awaits after this life. But a bookend to their service – a memorial and a tribute on the world wide web would be wonderful – Lex’s life was a family as well as an American and a Naval life.
Perhaps the time for that isn’t now, in time as things settle and hearts mend, a final tribute for those who didn’t know him explaining what the blog is and inviting them into the realm of Naval Aviation that he so LOVED as well as family and country – would be a blessing to future generations.
He was a hero of mine and it was thrill to receive a couple emails from him though I admit I didn’t know him as many here did nor especially as family, I still admired and was able to recognize his greatness.
Mourning with you, my condolences and respect, God Bless,
Man, never thought the day would come again. Thanks Kat for responding. I’ve been clicking for a while and I truly miss your father’s words. I vote with xformed! Thanks for the site again!!!
To the Lefon family,
I haven’t kept up with Lex’s blog over the last few months like I did before. I was reminded today of one of he sea stories, and wished to share it. I was shocked to learn of his accident and untimely death. This is a tragic loss and I feel a great deal of grief, considering I never had the chance to meet Lex in person. He wrote so well I feel I’ve known him for years. My thoughts and prayers will be with you in the months ahead.
Fair winds and following seas, Captin. Hope I meet you on the other side.
Josh
No Kat, thank you for sharing your father with us mere mortals all these years. It is the loving support of a family that allows a man to be a man such as our Capt Lex.
Chap here. I was glad to have your dad on my side while he was on active duty, and glad that he kept writing afterward. Thanks for navigating through and bringing the site back up, and thanks also for the kind thoughts, from our Navy family to yours.
Fair winds and following seas to your father and his family.
He will be missed greatly by many people he knew and some like me never knew him, but whish I had.
Thanks so much for putting Lex’s site back up it means a lot. Some day it will be recognized on a bigger scale than we comprehend in this time and space. Peace be with your family.
Dear Kat,
You’re positively a doll for putting the plug back into the wall.
Please give our best to your sister, your brother and especially your Mom. All of a sudden it got kinda misty here.
With best wishes-
SJBill and family
My dear Kat and family,
My condolences and sympathies, of course, as insignificant as they may be compared to the terrible loss you face. Having suffered similar at a younger age I can only offer the comfort of my experience that life goes on and does get better, though that hole is never completely filled in again.
From my father I have dusty notebooks, stories from relatives, bits and pieces of his life in pictures. Thanks to technology you, here, have a day-by-day journal of his observations, thoughts, lessons learned and conclusions made. In short, you have a diary he shared with the world of his life, one that can be read for all time. All those things you might later wish you could ask him about, all those “I wonder what he thought” moments you will have, all might have some answers to be found in these pages.
It’s a sobering thought, that throughout history we only know of what has happened by the writings that have survived. The vast majority of people who’ve ever existed are lost in the mists of time, their entire lives and contributions reduced to two dates on a headstone if it exists, their very existence forgotten three generations later.
What you have here, Kat, is history. And immortality. Something you can share with your kids when they ask about their grandfather, and something I can share with my kids when they ask what makes a man. It is a treasure that I urge you to keep.
With kindest regards and fondest prayers,
– Max
Beautiful comment, Max, and so very true!
I concur, absolutely and completely.
That was well said Max.
I had not thought of the downstream opportunity/importance for Kat & other esteemed members of the Lex family. What an incredible legacy for Lex -to his wife, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, …… (and for us acolytes of course).
Max;
You’re so correct, and I’m so blessed that I was able to share in Lex’s wisdom and humor and first person views of life….
Note to Kat and Family: I’ve sent many here, and emailed links to countless stories, and told people in person about specifics and generalities from this site, to include the large collection of voices that gathered to add to/discuss/disagree/enhance and/or fact check. It was the place where many views and voices could meet and share.
Yeah, Kat, yer Dad was always the kind of guy who’d light the ‘burner, hoick the stick over and back, and turn into the fight, whether IRL, or on the ‘net. You’ll probably do OK in life with yer Dad’s Irish fighting genes.
P.s. I remember the time I wrestled with a gal of Irish extraction. She won. Both of us had a good time.
Kat,
Thank you. We are in your debt.
I had wanted to start the blog from the start, and to share with others the magic of Lex. We understand family comes first. THat being said, it’s like returning to a reunion of a close set of friends after a long deployment. Ahhh.
Kat-
Thank you so much for getting the site back under sail; I have missed it. I know I speak for many others when I say you and your family have only to say the word should you ever need anything…we will help in any way we can. Your father is on my mind most every day.
As for the rest of you sorry lot, I sure have missed “hearing” your voices. It is damn good see all of your names again and listen to the chatter.
Best,
Tod
Kat,
Thank you very much for bringing the Unbearable Lightness of Lex back to us, your extended family! I hope the days are getting brighter for you and yours as we approach the summer.
Yak
Thanks “Kat” – I admired your father because he got to live the life I wanted to live, and he embodied the values I try to live up to and my heart went out to your family and I even frequently have been looking to see if the NTSB report has been finished on my hero. In many ways, I lived vicariously through him and his blog. I kept it linked to mine simply because I couldn’t let it go away and I know he has some amazing writing, and look at it with a bit of longing for his insights. With his passing, I felt like a small part of my life was gone as well, though him and I had only exchanged a couple emails, as he was a hero of mine that I was proud to know / know of. I was envious of your family for his achievements and how blessed you were to have him. May God bless you and your family. You’ve been in our prayers and thoughts.
P.S. I still keep hoping against hope that it was a dream, read the reports and in my mind wish he could do it over again and try a different approach. I know my loss doesn’t compare to yours – having not met you all and only read of you and others’ accounts of you, I know you are a fine family and were blessed to have him. Thanks for putting this back up. As Max Damage said, his legacy in words is a relatively new thing and history rarely affords us such a glimpse of an individual that remains when they are called to depart, let alone one so eloquent, insightful and wise as your father.
Though it has been some time, I still find I mourn the passing of a great man who was such a benefit to his country even now with his blog – obviously not as you all do and have and I don’t wish to diminish that in any way.
I remember writing to him sometime last year right after he got his new job with ATAC asking him why he didn’t become a News Commentator, his insight and experience would have been a great boost to our nation which I know he loved and loves, but it was remarked that he wouldn’t get to spend time turning and lighting his afterburners in the sky anymore.
At any rate, I suppose my musings here if not stopped will only become self-serving sentimentality and I don’t wish to detract from a place that I consider sacred and that you’ve graciously resurrected.
God Bless
Mahalo for bringing her back up and online.
Do let us know if you need us to chip in to pay the ‘lectric bills and so forth, for these humble digs.
Thank you Katy,
It was exceedingly kind of you to put back together the splinters.
If you haven’t yet, ask your mom about the honeymoon. Get her to laugh. I know she will. The pair of them were so funny as we swapped stories of France.
Again, my best wishes. I thought/think that your parents are the best people that you will ever meet in life. Good people.
Thank you.
As usual, I’m the last one to get the word. Having read many of these comments, I don’t think I can add anything but I want to add my voice to the chorus. I miss him, this was always my first stop on the blogs. Rhythms deserved to expanded into a book. It’s as good as Clancy’s best.
Don’t just keep his writings on-line. Make a backup of the whole thing and save it for yourself in more than one place.
This was posted on another forum that I haunt. I thought it might be a nice little tribute to Lex. Especially on this 70th anniversary of the Battle of Midway:
http://www.youtube.com/v/RU1oB8sGyYM
And a bit of mighty fine flying:
http://video.foxnews.com/v/1672640150001/
this page has stayed right where it’s always been in my main line blogging window, and i checked every day to see if it had come back up.
seeing it today made my day and i wish to thank you, your siblings and your mother for sharing Lex with us all these years as well as for you going the extra length to bring this page back to life.
your father would undoubtedly be proud of your hard w*rk and determination that made this revival possible.
Thank you, Kat, and your mom, and the whole family! Your dad is already greatly missed by all of us. At least now we can go back and read the many beautiful posts he made, and which we may have missed by coming to the blog one, two or several years after he started it. (About 2008, for me.)
Requem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requescat in pace. Amen.
God bless.
Kat and the LeFon Family
I echo the many condolences and THANKS for bringing Neptunus Lex back. Like many here, I will always regret not shaking your Dad’s hand–yet appreciate his public thoughts and words, as well as a very few private e-mail exchanges. I let time (and Lex) slip away without a personal meeting…and will always regret it. My profound loss.
Unless my flight schedule changes, I will arrive in San Diego early in the am Monday June 18th…rent a car…pay my respects (finally!!) at your father’s place of rest…then buy a round in his memory at Shakespeare’s around lunch time. I am so sorry I can’t buy Lex a Guinness.
God Bless You and Your Family.
Mark
Thanks for sharing this blog once again w/us. I feel the sadness again, but also the joy of this new post, just for a little while.
Kat,
Thank you. I could not bring myself to delete the link, and I am glad you made the effort to bring the site back up.
I periodically check to see if there is one more post, describing the party on the other side of the clearing.
God bless you and your family.
Thank you Kat.
Kat, thank you for getting the site back up and for sharing your father with us. I had the pleasure of meeting your father at a milblog conference a few years ago, and he was kind enough to autograph a plaque that was given out to a number of the attendees. You father was a truly impressive man. I still think about our brief meeting, and consider myself priveleged to have known him.
He was taken from us too soon, and he will be missed.
So glad you put it back up. It is a treasure now, think of what a history it will be in 50 years, for your family and for all us us.
Kat, have you considered taking all of Lex’s posts from here and publishing them in a book? Obviously, that would be a decision for the family to make, but I think it would be a wonderful tribute to him as well as at a moderately important historic document. He chronicled not only current events, but commented on events of the past and their importance today.
That said, how are you and your family doing? Not a pro forma question, I think many of us do feel as if you are part of our families (those cousins we only see every decade or so, but still part of the family).
Hi Joe:
Having Lex’s writings published is in the works. More later.
Paul
Dear Kat (please pardon any presumption),
As one of the many who admired your father and his work, thank you for going to the trouble it took to get this site back up. I still say a prayer for him (and you all) now and again, and am grateful to be able to see his stories and words again. I and so many of us are grateful to the time and trouble you’ve taken, will understand if it ever becomes too much of a burden to maintain this site, and look forward to returning here as we may.
Take care dear lady and God keep you, your mother and siblings.
Sincerely,
David Curp
Thank you Kat for putting the site up. I checked the link out of habit today and was pleasantly surprised to see it back up.
Your father had a gift for words that few have.
Sean
Hello Kat!
Thanks for putting this lovely site back up. It was one of the first sites I would go to, every day, to read the latest from your dad. Reading blogs has not been the same since.
Please pass along my sincerest best wishes to your family.
Thanks for putting the site up Kat. I was heartbroken the first time I clicked and it was gone. I want to read thru Rhythms, and I sincerely hope you work out a deal with the Naval Institute to publish them. I’ll be first in line to buy a copy.
Thanks Kat. I just heard that NL was back up. Putting it back up was a noble thing to do.
Thank you so much for getting his writing back up. I’m so sorry for your loss, but his words live on, and in them so does he.
I am sorry for your loss, and grateful for the immense pride you must feel for your dad. God’s providence for your family in this season.
Thank you Kat.
What a joy to see the site again. What a privilege to read his posts on here once more.
As stated in previous responses to this post, I would assist to keep the site running if needed. Please let us know how we may help; I would count it an honor.
Kat – Thank you for bringing the whole blog back. I had it in my regular lists to click on on a regular basis and even when it was off line, I clicked on it. Just this last weekend I was in San Diego for a High School Reunion and thought of your family and of course your father. Please let all of us be there for you and your family.
Jeff
Thanks for restarting the website. I was so sad to read of your Dad’s passing as I often came here to read his comments and appreciated his service. One of my son’s is a SEAL and another friend’s son is a Top Gun pilot, so this site gave us a healthy perspective so missing from other sites. God bless you and the family. He will be missed.
Thank you Kat for restarting the website. I was so sad to read of your Dad’s passing as I often came here to read his comments and appreciated his service. One of my sons is a SEAL and another friend’s son is a Top Gun pilot, so this site gave us a healthy perspective so missing from other sites. God bless you and the family. He will be missed.
My all time favorite piece by Lex is titled “The last little bit.” It is such a powerful testament to life and so well written! Would that be you, Kat, on the horse? I am so sorry for your loss. I came to Lex’s blog fairly recently but became a regular reader of it. Will surely miss it. 1 Th 4:16-18.
I had wondered why the website had been down for a while. I’m just a dumb doctor, but have read and reread this site with avid interest for a long time. I was not aware of the passing of Lex(Capt Lefon)and was shocked to hear of it. Reading the stories of this site made me identify with him and I am saddened by his passing. Though death and dying is an integral part of my life, I never take it lightly, particularly regarding someone who so obviously was full of life and greatly enjoyed his life. I had written him before, suggesting he write a book about his exploits. I just hope someone takes up where he left off and writes a book about him and his life. I would buy it sight unseen. I don’t know whether anyone will actually read this, but know that even a non-naval, non-aviator(Air Force Reserve)appreciates the life and adventures of Neptunus Lex and will miss him, even having never met him. My prayers and condolences go out to his family.
Thank you Kat. Words escape me how to thank you.
Dear Kat:
Thank you for giving all of us back the “unbearable lightness of Lex.” Best wishes to you and your family.
Paul