Another loss for the Aviation Community

[Wilcke]

CARROLL LEFON: Decorated Navy pilot and gifted military wordsmith's voice and stories will last forever as Neptunus Lex

 

He's gone, crashed in a F-21 Kfir at Fallon last week.

 

"By Whisper, on March 13th, 2012

 

Captain Carroll “Lex” Lefon, USN (ret) will be interred at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, CA. The funeral will be at the Fort Rosencrans chapel on March 27th at 1:00pm. The “Mighty Shrikes” of VFA-94, the squadron that Lex commanded, will conduct a fly-over.

 

The family has graciously invited Lex’s many friends and fans here at Neptunus Lex to attend. Their only request is that you consider carpooling due to limited parking at Fort Rosencrans.

 

Lex’s former employer, ATAC, is coordinating a charity that will be accepting donations in lieu of flowers. When details about charities and scholarship funds become available, they will be posted on Neptunus Lex. ATAC’s latest press release can be found here."

 

Condolences can be mailed to:

3525 Del Mar Heights Road #605

San Diego, CA 92130-2122

 

A great aviator, he will be missed.

 

 

 

See the link below.

 

http://www.lahontanvalleynews.com/article/20120315/NEWS/120319964/1055&ParentProfile=1045

 

He wrote a great blog over at the ATAC site. See the link below

[Wilcke]

...and the NTSB prelim report on the incident.

 

http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20120307X13644&key=1

[Klaiber]

That's horrible.

 

My thoughts are with his family.

[Barton]

The ATAC hangar is located next to mine (actually within our complex between our hanagar and the "Line Shack"). They operate 2 of these F-21s on a regular basis and are both usually parked on our line next to our F-18s. They're really cool planes to see.

 

One of my friends and co-workers had talked to this pilot on many occasions. Every time he would ask how Mr. Lefon how he was doing he'd reply, "Oh, you know, just livin the dream!" His loss was a shock to all of us.

 

The day of the incident, the weather was good but it was easy to tell that it wasn't going to be for long. We launched between 4 and 6 F/A-18s and ATAC sent up Capt. Lefon in one of their F-21s (the other was undergoing and engine swap). Shortly after take off weather deteriorated rapidly at the airbase and by the time our F-18s returned we could hardly see them taxiing down the runway merely a couple hundred yards away. It was shortly after we had all of our jets parked and shut down that we heard of what happened to Capt. Lefon.

 

Carroll Lefon will surely be missed by all who had the privilage to have known him. My sympathies go out to the family he has left behind.

 

This incident also happened merely a week after we lost an F/A-18F during our 1 vs 1 dogfight day. These pilots ejected after the F-16 "Viper" they were up against told them their port side was ablaze. The aircraft was a total loss but the aircrew survived.