"Everybody? It Was the Whole Diamond?"-Jim Hannette, Public Affairs Officer
"I sat there with my finger on the telephone switch button, my other hand holding the handset. Bob Fleer's voice now rolled through my mind, bringing with it familiar dread. His voice had been tight and controlled. Always before when he wanted to talk, he'd blow into my office, comfortable I'd never consider him intruding. This time he asked me to come downstairs. I didn't want to move, my finger planted on the button to hold the world away.The know in my chest tightened as I descended the stairs to the maintenance offices. We had lost Nick Hauck and D.L. Smith only months ago, and it's what Bob did not say that told me we had just added another name to the list. The third pilot in five months. Once more knock on a family's door. Another wife crying in my arms. A child looking lost...a smaller one confused. I had become an expert I didn't want to be.Bob sat behind his desk, his face hardened like a thespian's mask, his eyes focused somewhere beyond. The mask said, "Sit down, Jim.""Who was it?"He broke his stare and focused on me. "It was everybody.""Everybody?""It was the whole Diamond."It was overwhelming and incomprehensible. To have lost Nick and D.L. in separate accidents was terrible enough. Now to lose all four of our diamond pilots, wonderful young friends and teammates with so much life ahead of them. I trembled with fear and sorrow. All those dreams and hopes we had shared were now forever shattered. Six pilot deaths in seven months! I remember our flight surgeon, Captain Sue Tilton, and Chaplain Ben Perez immediately coming to the squadron. We made plans to send someone personally to each of the pilots' homes. We made it before the accident made the news.To fully appreciate the gravity of this terrible tragedy, it's important to amplify on what preceded this accident. In May, second solo Nick Hauck died when his T-38 stalled and crashed during the hi-lo maneuver at Hill AFB, Utah, on Mother's Day. Just a brief four months later, Lt. Col. D.L. Smith died in Cleveland, Ohio, as he in #1 and Jim Jiggens in #2 were taking off for Sheppard AFB, Texas, following what some still recall as the team's best ever aerial demonstration over a three-day Labor Day weekend show. D.L.'s aircraft ingested seagulls. The engines stalled. He ejected, but he didn't get a good chute. His backseater and crew chief, Dwight Roberts, ejected safely. The show season ended.We were already well into the process of selecting D.L.'s replacement when he crashed. Following the accident, Major Norm Lowry came onboard immediately as our new Commander/Leader. At Colonel Smith's funeral, Major Lowry stood in the #9 position and wore his blue service uniform rather than the Thunderbirds flight suit, paying tribute to the fallen Commander/Leader, waiting for D.L.'s final good-bye before taking his place as the new lead.Norm sensed the sad, demoralized, but still proud bunch we were. He brought fresh enthusiasm, a warm smile and the brightest blue eyes ever to wear the Thunderbird patch. He had self-confidence without arrogance. he led by example, by enthusiasm and by the ability to make the right decision day in and day out, whether on the ground or in the air. Considering our tragedies and the challenges we faced, Norm Lowry was unmistakably the perfect leader. We saw our new Diamond as the opportunity to put the 1981 tragedies behind us and be the team we knew we could be. Our optimism was sky high.Later, as Norm, Steve Chealander, Pete Peterson and I went to ICAS for the annual gathering of the air show industry, I remember the pure joy Norm brought to that conference. Being a Thunderbird was as natural to him as breathing. At the conclusion of the conference, we stood silent and tired in a long line at the New Orleans airport, thinking of home. Norm saw some young boys about the age of his sons. He took off for them, his three-folds and pen in hand. His spirit infected us, and, in a flash of time, our suitcases scattered the terminal floor as we gave the youngsters a variety of Thunderbirds public relations materials. It didn't matter where Norm stood; he stood as a natural Thunderbird.At one point in the training season, Norm's oldest son Jason said he worried about his dad's safety. Norm brought him to the squadron, had him attend a mission briefing, watch the practice mission, and, finally, sit through the flight's debriefing. Jason's dad gave him the kind of personal tour only a Commander/Leader can give. Two days later, Norm Lowry was gone.""Check-Six.com"The Thunderbirds' "Diamond Crash"At Indian Springs Auxiliary Air Base, Nevada
January 18, 1982
A New Leader...On September 8, 1981, the commander of the Thunderbirds since 1979, Lt. Col. David L. Smith, 40,was taking off in his T-38 Talon when, shortly after departure from Burke Lakefront Airport, it ingested several seagulls, stalling the engines. Hundreds of spectators and countless downtown office workers watched in horror as the jet plunged downwards toward Lake Erie. Luckily, Smith and Staff Sgt Dwight Roberts, 31, the crew chief riding tandem behind him, both ejected from the plane.
But Smith's ejector seat chute did not have time to open, and he impacted on rocks next to the lake and rolled into the water, killing him instantly.
With the loss of their leader, and with the approach of autumn, the 1981 air show ended for the unit. A new leader, Major Norman Lowry, had already been selected by the Air Force to command the team after Smith. With Lowry leading, a fresh start after the loss of Smith and second solo Nick Hauck, who had been killed in another mishap in May of '81, began.
Four months later...The four "Diamond" aircraft, Thunderbirds #1, 2, 3, and 4 (tail numbers 68-8156, 8175, 8176 & 8184), were training for an air show at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona. Climbing side-by-side for several thousand feet in a slow, backward loop, then hurtling down at more than 400 mph, leveling off at about 100 feet, in a maneuver called a "line-abreast loop," a malfunction in the lead plane, Thunderbird #1, occurred.
"At the speed they were going when they came out of the loop, I just thought, "That's the end of that for them fellows,'" said W.G. Wood of Indian Springs, who witnessed the crash as he drove along U.S. 95. "It happened so fast I couldn't tell you if one hit sooner. It looked like all of them hit at the same time."
George LaPointe, a construction worker, watched the jets disappear behind tree tops, "They didn't come back up," he said. "They were going full tilt, really screaming, and at the time I thought they were too low."
A resident across the highway from the auxiliary base where the flight team practiced said he heard the whine of the red, white and blue jets as they climbed to a high arch, then the scream of the engines as they plunged downward to complete the maneuver.
"Then boom-boom-boom, boom-boom-boom as they hit the ground one after another," said Loren Conaway.
Following their leader to the end, all four planes plowed in the ground. All four pilots were killed instantly.
Caught on Tape...Technical Sergeant Al King, was filming on the ground that morning at Indian Springs when the accident occurred. While the sound didn’t work, the video part did, and it would help the accident board determine the cause of the accident. The investigation found that there was insufficient back pressure on the control stick of Thunderbird #1 during the loop.
Major Norm Lowry was buried at Riverside National Cemetery in Section 2, Site 1919, in California. Captain Pete Peterson was buried in Culpepper National Cemetery, VA, in Section G, Site 1114, and Captain Willie Mays was buried in his hometown of Ripley, Tennessee.
Captain Melancon was buried in Dallas along his father, Air Force Major James Melancon, who died Sept. 24, 1957, when the B-26 he was piloting crashed in a residential area fear Dayton, Ohio.
From Left to Right: Major Norm Lowry, 37, of Radford, VA - Commander/LeaderCaptain Willie Mays, 32, of Ripley, TN - Left WingCaptain Joseph Peterson, 32, of Tuskegee, AL - Right WingCaptain Mark E. Melancon, 31, of Dallas, TX - Slot
