Francis Gary Powers

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Francis Gary Powers was the U-2 pilot who was shot down while flying over Soviet Union airspace on May 1, 1960, sparking one of the greatest international crises of the Cold War. Since the U-2 was designed for covert surveillance, the Soviet government immediately imprisoned Powers as a spy, holding him for two years. He was eventually released on February 10, 1962, in exchange for Soviet Col. Rudolf Abel, in a dramatic East-West spy swap, which took place on Berlin's Glienicke Bridge spanning the River Havel. Powers stood at the eastern end of the bridge, Abel at the western end, and at the appointed time, the men walked towards each other, crossing with a nod, in the middle of the bridge. This was the first of many such swaps between the two super-powers.

Criticized when he returned to the United States for not ensuring that the revolutionary plane was destroyed, or killing himself with a suicide pin or pill, Powers was cold-shouldered by his former employers at the Central Intelligence Agency. He worked for Lockheed as a test pilot for seven years, and, in 1970, he co-authored a book about his experience called Operation Overflight: A Memoir of the U-2 Incident. Powers died in 1977 at the age of 47 when a television news helicopter he was piloting crashed in Los Angeles. On May 1, 2000, U.S. officials presented Powers' family with his posthumously awarded Prisoner-of-War Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the National Defense Service Medal during a ceremony held at the Beale Air Force Base, north of Sacramento and home to the modern US U-2 force. It marked the 40th anniversary of the incident.

Born August 17, 1929, Powers joined the U.S. Air Force in 1951, becoming a military pilot. He left the Air Force with the rank of Captain in 1956, to join the CIA U-2 program. Powers was married and the father of two children. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Last updated: June 21, 2004.

• Born: 17 August 1929
• Birthplace: Jenkins, Kentucky
• Died: 1 August 1977 (helicopter crash)
• Best Known As: The U-2 pilot shot down by the Soviet Union in 1960

Francis Gary Powers was the pilot of an American spy plane shot down by the Soviet Union during a famous Cold War espionage incident. The event happened on 1 May 1960, while Powers was flying a U-2 high-altitude photographic surveillance plane over Russian airspace. Powers bailed out and was captured alive by the Soviets. At first the U.S. government claimed Powers had been conducting weather research, but later admitted that the U-2 was a spy plane. Powers was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was pardoned by the USSR in February of 1962 and sent back to America in exchange for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. Powers was later a test pilot for Lockheed and then flew a helicopter for television station KNBC in Los Angeles, where he died on the job in a 1977 a helicopter crash. He was awarded the Intelligence Medal in 1963 and a posthumous Distinguished Flying Cross in 2000. He told his own story in his 1970 autobiography Operation Overflight (written with Curt Gentry).

Powers attended Milligan College in Tennessee... He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery... He was married to the former Barbara Moore from 1955 until their divorce in 1963. He married Claudia "Sue" Edwards in 1963 and they remined married until his death in 1977... U2 is also the name of a popular rock band of the late 20th century... Powers was played by Lee Majors (TV's Six Million Dollar Man) in the 1976 TV movie Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident.

Powers, Gary (1922-77) spy and aviator, born Francis Gary Powers in Kentucky. Powers enlisted in the air force after graduating from college. Powers received training in resisting brainwashing, survival techniques, and protocol in the event of capture, and he also was trained in the dropping of atomic bombs. He was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency, which trained him in piloting the U-2, a top-secret high-altitude reconaissance plane used to photograph enemy installations, and he made a number of flights over the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In May 1960, as President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev met in Paris to attempt to defuse Cold War tensions, a U-2 piloted by Powers was shot down by a surface-to-air missile over Soviet territory. The United States initially denied the plane was on a spy mission, but the wreckage was sufficiently intact for the Soviets to discern the plane's function, and Eisenhower was forced to admit the truth. The summit collapsed amid angry charges from Khrushchev; Powers was tried as a spy, convicted, and sentenced to ten years. He was traded for a Soviet spy in 1962 amid criticism of his conduct while he was in the Soviet Union. In 1963 he went to work for the LockheedAircraft Corporation. He was killed in 1977 when the helicopter he was piloting while working as a traffic reporter for a Los Angeles television station crashed.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Francis Gary Powers with a model of the U-2.

Francis "Frank" Gary Powers (August 17, 1929 – August 1, 1977) was an American pilot whose U-2 spy plane was shot down while over the Soviet Union, causing the U-2 Crisis of 1960.

He was born in Jenkins, Kentucky and was raised in Pound, Virginia, on the Virginia-Kentucky border. After graduating from Milligan College in Eastern Tennessee, Gary was commissioned in the United States Air Force in 1950. Upon completing his training (52-H) he was assigned to the 468th Strategic Fighter Squadron at Turner Air Force Base, Georgia as an F-84 Thunderjet pilot. He was assigned to operations in the Korean War, but (according to his son) was recruited by the CIA because of his outstanding record in single engine jet aircraft, soon after recovering from an illness. He left the Air Force with the rank of captain in 1956, to join the CIA U-2 program.

U-2 pilots carried out espionage missions over hostile countries including the Soviet Union, systematically photographing military installations and other important intelligence targets. Powers' U-2, which was stationed at Badaber Air Base, near Peshawar in Pakistan, was shot down by a surface-to-air missile on May 1 1960 over Sverdlovsk; he was convicted of espionage against the Soviet Union and sentenced to three years imprisonment and seven years of hard labor. However, on February 10 1962, twenty-one months after his capture, he was exchanged along with American student Frederic Pryor in a spy swap for Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher (aka Rudolf Abel) at the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin, Germany.

Wooden U-2 model - one of two used by Powers when he testified to the Senate Committee. The wings and tail are detachable to demonstrate the aircraft's breakup upon impact.

On his return to the U.S., Powers was criticized for having failed to activate his aircraft's self-destruct charge to destroy the camera, photographic film, and related classified parts of his aircraft before capture. In addition, others criticized him for deciding not to use an optional CIA-issued suicide pin. This pin, which was concealed in a hollowed out silver dollar, could be used to avoid pain and suffering in case of torture. After being debriefed extensively by the CIA, Lockheed, and the USAF, on March 6 1962 he appeared before a Senate Armed Services Select Committee hearing chaired by Senator Richard Russell and including Senators Prescott Bush and Barry Goldwater, Sr. During the proceeding it was determined that Powers followed orders, did not divulge any critical information to the Soviets, and conducted himself "as a fine young man under dangerous circumstances."

After his return, Powers worked for Lockheed as a test pilot from 1963 to 1970. In 1970, he co-wrote a book about the Incident, called Operation Overflight: A Memoir of the U-2 Incident. He died in a helicopter crash in Los Angeles on August 1, 1977, while working as a helicopter reporter for television station KNBC. Survived by his wife Sue, and two children Dee and Francis Gary Jr., he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

In 1998, information was declassified revealing that Powers' fateful mission had actually been a joint USAF/CIA operation. In 2000, on the 40th anniversary of Powers being shot down, his family was finally presented with his posthumously awarded Prisoner of War Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross and National Defense Service Medal.

When asked how high he was flying on May 1, 1960, he would often reply, "not high enough."

Cultural references

• Francis Gary Powers was mentioned several times in the 1991 film Final Approach starring James Sikking (Hill Street Blues) and Hector Elizondo (Pretty Woman)
• Francis Gary Powers was portrayed by Lee Majors in a 1976 movie, Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident that dramatized the incident of 1960.
• Francis Gary Powers was the subject of the song "Ballad Of Francis Powers (There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere)" recorded by Red River Dave (Dave McEnery) in 1960.
• The nuclear power plant in the 1996 Off-Broadway musical Zombie Prom was named after Francis Gary Powers.

External links

• CIA FOIA documents on Gary Powers
• Check-Six.com - The Crash of Francis Gary Powers' Helo
• Transcripts of the Soviet court trial (in Russian)

Further reading

• Nigel West, Seven Spies Who Changed the World. London: Secker & Warburg, 1991 (hard cover). London: Mandarin, 1992 (paperback).
• Francis Gary Powers, Curt Gentry, Operation Overflight. Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 1971 (hard cover) ISBN 978-0340148235. Potomac Book, 2002 (paperback) ISBN 978-1574884227.

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