Thunderbird

by Adrienne Foster Potter

Copyright Dec. 1984 by Adrienne Foster Potter

All rights reserved

Based on the true story of a Air Force Thunderbird Pilot Nick Hauck, who went down with his plane at Hill Air Force Base in Ogden, Utah on May 9, 1981, in order to avoid crashing into 100,000 people. 

That things were going to end that way?--

Deep down inside your soul did you feel the vibes?

But you don't say a single word;  

You simply climb inside your bird

And do your beautiful dances through the sky.

Flying up above the sun so high?

Doing loops and spins and then you dive--

Thunderbird your playground is the sky.

are staring at the sunny skies;

a hundred thousand voices suddenly hush,

As we see your plane disappear

And see a cloud of smoke appear

And sirens blow and the trucks and ambulance rush.

And see  your bird drop from the sky;

And all of them pray that you'll escape the flames.

You have an awful choice to make--

The lives of thousands are at stake

And  you, you choose to go down inside your plane.

Flying up above the sun so high.

Thunderbird it makes me want to cry;

Thunderbird you're way too young to die.

The children, fathers and their wives,

With courage that somehow through the years still thrives.

You could have let your T-Bird fall

Into the crowd and burn us all.

You're gone but Thunderbird what you did survives.

They passed the crash site one by one,

And then we all saw the Thunderbirds regroup.

A wing formation in the air

But where you would have been was bare

As your buddies sadly gave their last salute.

Flying up above the sun so high?

A hundred thousand hearts are asking why

Today we had to watch a hero die.

A hundred thousand hearts are asking why

Beautiful Thunderbird, did you have to die?