Francis Gary Powers

For other people named Francis Powers, see Francis Powers (disambiguation).

Francis Gary Powers
Powers wearing special pressure suit for stratospheric flying, 1960
Born	(1929-08-17)August 17, 1929 Jenkins, Kentucky, U.S.A.
Died	August 1, 1977(1977-08-01) (aged 47) Los Angeles County, California, U.S.A.
Cause of death	Helicopter crash
Resting place	Arlington National Cemetery
Alma mater	Milligan College
Known for	1960 U-2 incident
Relatives	Two children
Awards	Intelligence Star Silver Star Distinguished Flying Cross National Defense Service Medal Prisoner of War Medal
Aviation career
Air force	U.S. Air Force
Rank	Captain

Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929 – August 1, 1977) – often referred to as simply Gary Powers – was an American pilot whose Central Intelligence Agency U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission in Soviet Union airspace, causing the 1960 U-2 incident.

Early life

Powers was born in Jenkins, Kentucky, or Burdine, the son of Oliver Winfield Powers, a coal miner, and his wife Ida Melinda Ford. His family eventually moved to Pound, Virginia, just across the state border. He was the second born and only male of six children. His family lived in a mining town, and because of the hardships associated with the life in such a town, his father wanted Powers to become a doctor. He hoped his son would achieve the higher earnings of such a profession and felt the life of a doctor would involve less hardship than any job in his hometown.

Education

Graduating from Milligan College in Tennessee in June 1950, he enlisted in the Air Force in Oct. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force in Dec. 1952 after completing his advanced training with USAF Pilot Training Class 52-H at Williams AFB, AZ. Powers was then assigned to the 468th Strategic Fighter Squadron at Turner Air Force Base, Georgia, as an F-84 Thunderjet pilot. In Jan. 1956 he was recruited by the CIA. In May 1956 he began U-2 training at Watertown Strip. His training was complete by Aug. 1956 and his unit, the Second Weather Observational Squadron (Provisional) or Detachment 10-10, was deployed to Incirlik Air Base. By 1960, Powers was already a veteran of many covert aerial reconnaissance missions.

A Soviet photograph of Powers while he was in Soviet custody

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

The U-2 incident

Main article: 1960 U-2 incident

Powers was discharged from the Air Force in 1956 with the rank of captain. He then joined the CIA's U-2 program at the civilian grade of GS-12. U-2 pilots flew espionage missions at altitudes above 70,000 feet (21.3 km), above the reach of Soviet air defences. The U-2 was equipped with a state-of-the-art camera designed to take high-resolution photos from the edge of the stratosphere over hostile countries, including the Soviet Union. U-2 missions systematically photographed military installations and other important sites.

"The primary mission of the U-2s was overflying Russia. The border surveillance and atomic sampling, though vital, were secondary." Additionally, the U-2 flew "special missions". "If there was a trouble spot in the Middle East, the U-2s observed it." Beginning on 27 Sept. 1956 and continuing until 1960, "the United States was spying not only on most of the countries in the Middle East but also on her own allies." These included France, Great Britain, and Israel during the Suez Crisis.

Soviet intelligence had been aware of encroaching U-2 flights at least since 1958, if not sooner, after they started in 1956. but lacked effective countermeasures until 1960. On May 1, 1960, Powers' U-2, which departed from a military airbase in Peshawar, Pakistan with support from the US Air Station at Badaber (Peshawar Air Station).

This was to be the first attempt "to fly all the way across the Soviet Union...but it was considered worth the gamble. The planned route would take us deeper into Russia than we had ever gone, while traversing important targets never before photographed." He was shot down by an S-75 Dvina (SA-2 Guideline) surface-to-air missile over Sverdlovsk. "What was left of the plane began spinning, only upside down, the nose pointing upward toward the sky, the tail down toward the ground." Powers was unable to activate the plane's self-destruct mechanism before he was thrown out of the plane after releasing the canopy and his seat belt. While descending under his parachute, Powers had time to scatter his escape map, and rid himself of the US dollar coin, keeping the poison pin. "Yet I was still hopeful of escape." He hit the ground hard, was immediately captured, and taken to Lubyanka Prison in Moscow.

Powers' U-2 plane was hit by the first missile fired. A total of eight were launched; one of which hit a MiG-19 jet fighter which was sent to intercept the U-2 but could not reach a high enough altitude. Its pilot, Sergei Safronov, ejected but died of his injuries. Another Soviet aircraft, a newly manufactured Su-9 in transit flight, also attempted to intercept Powers' U-2. The unarmed Su-9 was directed to ram the U-2 but missed because of the large differences in speed (the SU-9 flew above Mach 1.1, while the U-2 flew at approximately Mach 0.6).

Powers did note a second chute after landing on the ground, "some distance away and very high, a lone red and white parachute."

When the U.S. government learned of Powers' disappearance over the Soviet Union, they issued a cover statement claiming a "weather plane" had strayed off course after its pilot had "difficulties with his oxygen equipment". What CIA officials did not realize was that the plane crashed almost fully intact, and the Soviets recovered its equipment. Powers was interrogated extensively by the KGB for months before he made a confession and a public apology for his part in espionage.

The incident set back talks between Khrushchev and Eisenhower. Powers' interrogations ended on 30 June, and his solitary confinement on 9 July. On August 17, 1960, his trial for espionage began before the military division of the Supreme Court of the USSR. Three generals, Lt. Gen. Borisoglebsky, Maj. Gen. Vorobyev, and Maj. Gen. Zakharov presided. Roman Rudenko acted as prosecutor in his capacity of Procurator General of the Soviet Union. Mikhail I. Grinev served as Powers' defense counsel.

Powers was convicted of espionage against the Soviet Union and was sentenced to a total of ten years, three years in imprisonment followed by seven years of hard labor. He was held in Vladimir Central Prison, 100 miles east of Moscow. The prison now contains a small museum with an exhibit on Powers, who allegedly developed a good rapport with Russian prisoners there. Some pieces of the plane and Powers' uniform are on display at the Monino Airbase museum near Moscow.

On February 10, 1962, Powers was exchanged, along with American student Frederic Pryor, in a well-publicized spy swap at the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin. The exchange was for Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher, known as "Rudolf Abel", who had been caught by the FBI and tried and jailed for espionage.

In 2010, CIA documents were released indicating that American officials did not believe Powers' account of the incident at the time, because it was contradicted by a classified National Security Agency report which alleged that the U-2 had descended from 65,000 to 34,000 feet (19,812 to 10,363 m) before changing course and disappearing from radar. However, newly released declassified CIA documents confirm the accuracy of Powers' report . The NSA report remains classified.

Aftermath

Powers initially received a cold reception on his return home. He 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 his capture. He was also criticized for not using an optional CIA-issued "suicide pill" (later revealed, during CIA testimony to the Church Committee in 1975 to be a coin with shellfish toxin embedded in its grooves) to kill himself.

After being debriefed extensively by the CIA, Lockheed, and the Air Force, a statement was issued stating, "Mr. Powers lived up to the terms of his employment and instructions in connection with his mission and in his obligations as an American." On March 6, 1962, Powers appeared before a Senate Armed Services Select Committee hearing chaired by Senator Richard Russell and including Senators Prescott Bush, Leverett Saltonstall, Robert Byrd, Margaret Chase Smith, John Stennis, Strom Thurmond, and Barry Goldwater Sr. During the hearing, Senator Saltonstall stated, "I commend you as a courageous, fine young American citizen who lived up to your instructions and who did the best you could under very difficult circumstances." While Senator Bush declared, "I am satisfied he has conducted himself in exemplary fashion and in accordance with the highest traditions of service to one's country, and I congratulate him upon his conduct in captivity..." Finally, Senator Goldwater sent Powers a handwritten note stating, "You did a good job for your country."

Kelly Johnson and Francis Gary Powers in front of a U-2

In Jan. 1963, he divorced his wife Barbara. He started a relationship with Claudia Edwards "Sue" Downey, whom he had met while working briefly at CIA Headquarters. They were married on 21 Oct. 1963. Their son Francis Gary Powers, II, was born on 5 June 1965.

During a speech in March 1964, CIA Director Allen Dulles said of Powers, "He performed his duty in a very dangerous mission and he performed it well, and I think I know more about that then some of his detractors and critics know, and I am glad to say that to him tonight."

Powers worked for Lockheed as a test pilot from 1962 to 1970, though the CIA paid his salary. In 1970, he published Operation Overflight. Lockheed fired him, because "the book's publication had ruffled some feathers at Langley." Powers became a helicopter traffic pilot reporter for KNBS News Channel 4. "On August 1, 1977, while conducting a traffic report over Los Angeles, his helicopter crashed, killing him and George Spears, his cameraman."

Death

Main article: 1977 Gary Powers helicopter crash

On August 1, 1977, Powers had been covering bush fires in Santa Barbara County in the KNBC helicopter and was heading back from flying over them. As he returned, his Bell 206 Jet Ranger helicopter, registered N4TV, ran out of fuel and crashed at the Sepulveda Dam recreational area in nearby Encino, several miles short of its intended landing site at Burbank Airport, killing Powers instantly. The National Transportation Safety Board report attributed the probable cause of the crash to pilot error (poor fuel management). According to Powers' son, an aviation mechanic had repaired a faulty fuel gauge without telling Powers, who misread it. At the last moment he noticed children playing in the area, and directed the helicopter elsewhere to avoid landing on them. If not for the last-second deviation, which compromised his autorotative descent, he might have landed safely.

Powers was survived by his wife, two children, Dee and Francis Gary Powers Jr., and five sisters. Powers is buried in Arlington National Cemetery as an Air Force veteran.

Honors

Powers received the CIA's Intelligence Star in 1965 after his return from the Soviet Union. Powers was originally scheduled to receive it in 1963 along with other pilots involved in the CIA's U-2 program, but the award was postponed for political reasons. In 1970, Powers published his first – and only – book review, on a work about aerial reconnaissance, Unarmed and Unafraid by Glenn Infield, in the monthly magazine Business & Commercial Aviation. "The subject has great interest to me," he said, in submitting his review.

In 1998, newly declassified information revealed that Powers's mission had been a joint USAF/CIA operation. In 2000, on the 40th anniversary of the U-2 Incident, his family was presented with his posthumously awarded Prisoner of War Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross, and National Defense Service Medal. In addition, CIA Director George Tenet authorized Powers to posthumously receive the CIA's coveted Director's Medal for extreme fidelity and extraordinary courage in the line of duty.

On June 15, 2012, Powers was posthumously awarded the Silver Star medal for "demonstrating 'exceptional loyalty' while enduring harsh interrogation in the Lubyanka Prison in Moscow for almost two years." Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz presented the decoration to Powers's grandchildren, Trey Powers, 9, and Lindsey Berry, 29, in a Pentagon ceremony.

Legacy

Powers' son, Francis Gary Powers Jr., founded the Cold War Museum in 1996. Affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution, it was essentially a traveling exhibit until it found a permanent home in 2011 on a former Army communications base outside Washington.

In popular culture

• In the 1976 telemovie Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident, Powers was played by Lee Majors.
• In 1999, the History Channel aired Mystery of the U2, hosted by Arthur Kent as part of their History Undercover series. The program was produced by Indigo Films.
• In the 2015 movie Bridge of Spies, dramatizing the negotiations to repatriate Powers, he is portrayed by Austin Stowell, with Tom Hanks starring as negotiator James Donovan.

Notes

• Khrushchev, Sergei N. Nikita Khrushchev and the Creation of a Superpower. State College, PA: Penn State Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-271-01927-7.
• Powers, Francis Gary with Gentry, Curt. Operation Overflight. Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 1971 (hard cover) ISBN 978-0-340-14823-5. Potomac Book, 2002 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-57488-422-7.
• West, Nigel. Seven Spies Who Changed the World. London: Secker & Warburg, 1991 (hard cover). London: Mandarin, 1992 (paperback).
• The Trial of the U2: Exclusive Authorized Account of the Court Proceedings of the Case of Francis Gary Powers, Heard before the Military Division of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R., Moscow, August 17, 18, 19, 1960. Translation World Publishers, Chicago: 1960.
• Powers, F.G., Gentry, C. (1970) "Operation Overflight – A Memoir of the U-2 Incident"

External links

• CIA FOIA documents on Gary Powers
• Documents and Photographs regarding the U-2 Spy Plane Incident of 1960, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
• Check-Six.com The Francis Gary Powers Helo Crash
• Transcripts of the Soviet court trial Template:Ru icon (dead link—saved at the Internet Archive)
• 1962 Russia frees US spy plane pilot
• View images of the Francis Gary Powers U-2 Pilot Cinderella stamps on the artist's webSite.
• IMDB page for the 1976 TV movie.