The Thunderbirds “diamond crash” incident also involved the T-38 :(
Just a few months before that crash, I was able to take my, then, five year old son to see the Thunderbirds. They were preparing to perform at Rosecrans Airfield, a small ANG airfield across the river from St. Joseph, MO. They had a small resturant at the old tower building and just on a hunch, I went to the resturant at lunch with my son three hours prior to the show, prior to the gates getting set up.
We ended up meeting and eating lunch with the bulk of the pilots and crew team. They took my son and I out to the flightline and right up to the planes we watched them fly a few hours later. My son was on top of the world to see it all.
A few months later when the crash victims were announced, I was sad to see names that I remembered and glad that my son was young enough to have not heard about and understood the tragic loss.