Willie Mays
Despite Willie's boyish appearance (most of us were only two or three years removed from adolescence), he was one of 73-06's best pilots. He was also a whiz in academics. In addition to that, he was our class clown, philosopher and dreamer. He loved to talk of building a BD-5 kitplane, like the one in his montage above. In his best moments he was a inspiration to the most despondent of students in the class, and in his more melancholy moods he was a brooder, best left alone. At no surprise to any of us, Willie eventually became a Thunderbird.
Thunderbird Two
Second from left.
In Willie's first season with the Thunderbirds he served as the team narrator. This too was no surprise to us, given his powers of articulation and expression. As narrator he flew Thunderbird 7, the spare jet, to the airshows with the team. After his year as narrator he earned a place as Thunderbird 2, on the Leader's left wing.
Willie never flew in an airshow. During a pre-season practice session, on January 18, 1982 he and the other three pilots of the Thunderbird "diamond" formation crashed in the desert near Indian Springs, Nevada. They were practicing a "line abreast loop." They came out of the bottom of the loop too low. They all hit flat on the desert floor but at a very high speed. It was said they only needed 10 more feet of altitude to survive. The official inquiry named a malfunctioning elevator in the lead aircraft as the probable cause. It said the leader could not get enough back stick to make the loop sufficiently tight to clear the ground. Because the wingmen were looking at the leader over their shoulder they were unable to monitor their altimeter and thus were unable to recover on their own. That's the official explanation.
This is an aerial photo of the scorches on the ground. The nearest one is probably Willie's. Number 4 almost salvaged it.
The accident quickly became known as the "Diamond Crash." Many theories appeared that contradicted the official report and one particular incident shed an additional shadow of doubt. An airman had videoed the practice session for the pilots to review, thus the crash was recorded. After the investigation was complete a general personally erased the only copy of the video in existence. His explanation was that he wanted to spare the families the pain of seeing the video in what might become a sensationalized commercial use of it, as happened to the pilot who died during the famous "Sabre Dance" crash in 1956. That film appeared in several movies.
This newspaper story is typical of the many headliners we were shocked to see the morning following the crash.
"After the Jests Crashed," an essay.
An emotional read.
"Diamond Crash" Links:
Air Force Memorial, Washington DC