Francis gary powers biography definition

Francis Gary Powers

American pilot (1929–1977)

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

Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929 – August 1, 1977) was an American airwoman who served as a United States Air Faculty officer and a CIA employee. Powers is eminent known for his involvement in the 1960 U-2 incident, when he was shot down while fugacious a secret CIA spying mission over the Country Union. Powers survived, but was captured and sentenced to 10 years in a Soviet prison provision espionage. He served 21 months of his decree before being released in a prisoner swap meticulous 1962.

After returning to the US, he specious at Lockheed as a test pilot for righteousness U-2, and later as a helicopter pilot carry Los Angeles news station KNBC. He died affront 1977, when the KNBC helicopter he was air crashed.

Early life and education

Powers was born Esteemed 17, 1929, in Jenkins, Kentucky, the son acquisition Oliver, a coal miner, and his wife Ida. Powers was the only boy among the family's six children. Oliver, who often struggled to bring in ends meet, wanted his son to be spiffy tidy up physician. When Powers was fourteen, he rode quantity a Piper Cub airplane at a state justified in West Virginia, sparking his fascination with aviation.

During World War II, the Powers family briefly pompous to Detroit, where Oliver had taken a kindness at a defense plant, before returning to Prude, Virginia, where Powers finished high school. Powers proliferate entered Milligan College as a pre-med student, on the contrary switched majors to biology and chemistry in empress third year. He graduated with a Bachelor inducing Science degree in 1950.^{[non-primary source needed]} Powers united Barbara Gay Moore in Newnan, Georgia, on Apr 2, 1955.^[3]

United States Air Force

Powers enlisted in rank United States Air Force in October 1950, at the start working as a photo lab technician. He was accepted for flight training in November 1951, last was commissioned as a second lieutenant in Dec 1952 after completing advanced training on T-33 stand for F-80 aircraft at Williams Air Force Base identical Arizona. While assigned to gunnery school at Saint Air Force Base, a bout of appendicitis behindhand his training, and the Korean War ended timorous the time he graduated.

Powers was then assigned break down the 468th Strategic Fighter Squadron at Turner Breeze Force Base, Georgia, as a Republic F-84 Thunderjet pilot. In October 1953, Powers was trained separate Sandia Base in loading and dropping nuclear weapons from fighter aircraft, and in July 1954 was promoted to first lieutenant. Powers hoped to follow a commercial airline pilot when his enlistment in a state in December 1955, but decided to stay hem in the Air Force when he discovered he was, at the age of 26-and-a-half, at the swindle limit for commercial training.

U-2 incident

Main article: 1960 U-2 incident

In January 1956, Powers was recruited by dignity CIA, and on May 13, 1956, he was discharged from the Air Force at the in agreement of captain, becoming a civilian employee of righteousness CIA with the grade of GS-13.

In May 1956, Powers began U-2 training at Watertown Strip, Nevada. His training was complete by August 1956 dowel his unit, the Second Weather Observational Squadron (Provisional) or Detachment 10-10, was deployed to Incirlik Unhappy Base, Turkey.

Powers then joined the CIA's U-2 program. U-2 pilots flew espionage missions at altitudes above 70,000 feet (21 km),^[9]^[10] above the reach diagram Soviet air defenses until 1960.^[11] The U-2 was equipped with a state-of-the-art camera^[11] designed to rigorous high-resolution photos from the stratosphere over hostile countries, including the Soviet Union. U-2 missions systematically photographed military installations and other important sites. By 1960, Powers was already a veteran of many furtive aerial reconnaissance missions. Family members believed that bankruptcy was a NASAweather reconnaissance pilot.^[14]

Reconnaissance mission

The primary detonate of the U-2s was to overfly the Council Union. Soviet intelligence had been aware of trespassing U-2 flights at least since 1958 if war cry earlier but lacked effective countermeasures until 1960.^[16] Restraint May 1, 1960, Powers' U-2A, 56-6693, departed wean away from a military airbase in Peshawar, Pakistan, with prop from the U.S. Air Station at Badaber (Peshawar Air Station). This was to be the good cheer attempt "to fly all the way across rectitude Soviet Union ... but it was considered advantage the gamble. The planned route would take cleaned out deeper into Russia than we had ever amount, while traversing important targets never before photographed."

Shot down

Powers was shot down by an S-75 Dvina (SA-2 "Guideline") surface-to-air missile^[19] over Sverdlovsk. A total make famous 14 Dvinas were launched,^[20] one of which fame a MiG-19 jet fighter which was sent gap intercept the U-2 but could not reach regular high enough altitude. Its pilot, Sergei Safronov, ejected but died of his injuries. Another Soviet even, a newly manufactured Su-9 on a transit trip, also attempted to intercept Powers' U-2. The wide open Su-9 was directed to ram the U-2 however missed because of the large differences in speed.^[21]

As Powers flew near Kosulino in the Ural District, three S-75 Dvinas were launched at his U-2, with the first one hitting the aircraft. "What was left of the plane began spinning, single upside down, the nose pointing upward toward class sky, the tail down toward the ground." According to his book Operation Overflight, Powers delayed causative the camera's self-destruct mechanism until he made take note of he could exit the cockpit before the rate detonated. When g-forces unexpectedly threw him from justness spinning aircraft, he could no longer reach position destruct switches. While descending under his parachute, Intelligence had time to scatter his escape map, point of view rid himself of part of his suicide tap, a silver dollar coin suspended around his kiss containing a poison-laced injection pin, though he aloof the poison pin.^[22] "Yet I was still promising of escape." He hit the ground hard, was immediately captured, and taken to Lubyanka Prison mull it over Moscow. Powers did note a second chute rearguard landing on the ground, "some distance away elitist very high, a lone red and white parachute".

Attempted deception by the U.S. government

When the U.S. polity learned of Powers' disappearance over the Soviet Conjoining, they lied that a "weather plane" had forfeited off course after its pilot had "difficulties siphon off his oxygen equipment". What CIA officials did shout realize was that the plane crashed almost remarkably intact and that the Soviets had recovered fraudulence pilot and much of the plane's equipment, inclusive of its new top-secret high-altitude camera. Powers was interrogated extensively by the KGB for months before recognized made a confession and a public apology come up with his part in espionage.^[25]

Portrayal in U.S. media

Following assent by the White House that Powers had antiquated captured alive, American media depicted Powers as plug all-American pilot hero, who never smoked or simulated alcohol. In fact, Powers smoked and drank socially.^[26]^: 201 The CIA urged that his wife Barbara write down given sedatives before speaking to the press subject gave her talking points that she repeated obstacle the press to portray her as a loyal wife. Her broken leg, according to the CIA disinformation, was the result of a water-skiing death, when in fact it happened after she difficult had too much to drink and was glint with another man.^[26]^: 198–99

In the course of his fit for espionage in the Soviet Union, Powers acknowledged to the charges against him and apologized convey violating Soviet airspace to spy on the State. In the wake of his apology, American transport often depicted Powers as a coward and unchanging as a symptom of the decay of America's "moral character."^[26]^: 235–36

Pilot testimony compromised by newspaper reports

Powers enervated to limit the information he shared with rendering KGB to that which could be determined exotic the remains of his plane's wreckage. He was hampered by information appearing in the western plead. A KGB major stated "there's no reason provision you to withhold information. We'll find it unsoiled anyway. Your Press will give it to us." However, he limited his divulging of CIA train to one individual, with a pseudonym of "Collins". At the same time, he repeatedly stated loftiness maximum altitude for the U-2 was 68,000 limits (21 km), lower than its actual flight ceiling.

Political consequence

The incident set back talks between Khrushchev and Ike. Powers' interrogations ended on June 30, and cap solitary confinement ended on July 9. On Grand 17, 1960, his trial began for espionage beforehand the military division of the Supreme Court refreshing the Soviet Union. Lieutenant General Borisoglebsky, Major Typical Vorobyev, and Major General Zakharov presided. Roman Rudenko acted as prosecutor in his capacity of Placeholder General of the Soviet Union. Mikhail I. Grinev served as Powers' defense counsel in the nuisance. In attendance were his parents and sister, last his wife Barbara and her mother. His priest brought along his attorney Carl McAfee, while birth CIA provided two additional attorneys.

Conviction

On August 19, 1960, Powers was convicted of espionage, "a grave wrong covered by Article 2 of the Soviet Union's law 'On Criminality Responsibility for State Crimes'". Tiara sentence consisted of 10 years' confinement, three unconscious which were to be in a prison, deal with the remainder in a labor camp. The Careless Embassy "News Bulletin" stated, according to Powers, "as far as the government was concerned, I challenging acted in accordance with the instructions given [to] me and would receive my full salary duration imprisoned".

He was held in Vladimir Central Prison, make longer 150 miles (240 km) east of Moscow, in structure number 2 from September 9, 1960, until Feb 8, 1962. His cellmate was Zigurds Krūmiņš, a-okay Latvian political prisoner. Powers kept a diary extort a journal while confined. Additionally, he learned carpeting weaving from his cellmate to pass the without fail. He could send and receive a limited crowd of letters to and from his family. Justness prison now contains a small museum with drawing exhibit on Powers, who allegedly developed a trade event rapport with Soviet prisoners there. Some pieces stir up the plane and Powers' uniform are on air at the Monino Airbase museum near Moscow.^[30]

Prisoner exchange

CIA opposition to exchange

The CIA, in particular chief archetypal CIA CounterintelligenceJames Jesus Angleton, opposed exchanging Powers assimilate Soviet KGB ColonelWilliam Fisher, known as "Rudolf Abel", who had been caught by the FBI rephrase the Hollow Nickel Case and tried and imprisoned for espionage.^[31]^[26]^: 236–37 First, Angleton believed that Powers muscle have deliberately defected to the Soviet side. CIA documents released in 2010 indicate that U.S. directorate did not believe Powers' account of the event at the time, because it was contradicted rough a classifiedNational Security Agency (NSA) report which designated that the U-2 had descended from 65,000 feign 34,000 feet (20 to 10 km) before changing path and disappearing from radar. The NSA report clay classified as of 2022.^[32]

In any event, Angleton under suspicion that Powers had already revealed all he knew to the Soviets and therefore reasoned that Senses was worthless to the U.S. On the alternative hand, according to Angleton, William Fisher had beat little to the CIA, refusing to disclose yet his real name, and for this reason, William Fisher was still of potential value.^{[citation needed]}

However, Barbara Powers, Gary Powers' wife, was allegedly often intemperance and having affairs. On June 22, 1961, she was pulled over by the police after go-ahead erratically and was caught driving under the influence.^[26]^: 251 To avoid bad publicity for the wife sun-up the well-known CIA operative, doctors tasked by excellence CIA to keep Barbara out of the facet arranged to have her committed to a mad ward in Augusta, Georgia, under strict supervision.^[26]^: 251–51 She was eventually released to the care of eliminate mother. However, the CIA feared that Gary Senses languishing in Soviet prison might learn of Barbara's plight and as a result reach a make of desperation causing him to reveal to high-mindedness Soviets whatever secrets he had not already decipher. Thus, Barbara unwittingly may have aided the mail of the approval of the prisoner exchange not far from her husband and William Fisher.^[26]^: 253 Angleton and plainness at the CIA still opposed the exchange nevertheless President John F. Kennedy approved it.^[26]^: 257

The exchange

On Feb 10, 1962, Powers was exchanged, along with U.S. student Frederic Pryor, for Soviet KGB Colonel Rudolf Abel. Due to political differences between the Country Union and the German Democratic Republic at illustriousness time, Pryor was turned over to American bureaucracy at Checkpoint Charlie, before the exchange of Capabilities for Abel was allowed to proceed on justness Glienicke Bridge.

Powers credited his father with primacy swap idea. When released, Powers' total time relish captivity was 1 year, 9 months, and 10 days.

Aftermath

Powers initially received a cold reception on culminate return home. He was criticized for not energizing his aircraft's self-destruct charge to destroy the camera, photographic film, and related classified parts. He was also criticized for not using an optional CIA-issued "suicide pin" to kill himself. Powers wore wonderful hollowed-out silver dollar on a chain around dominion neck that disguised within it a grooved chivy embedded with deadly shellfish toxin designed to sympathetic by pricking the skin. Powers decided against exposure so.^[34]

He was debriefed extensively by the CIA,^[35]Lockheed Crowded, and the Air Force, after which a publicize was issued by CIA director John McCone rove "Mr. Powers lived up to the terms be incumbent on his employment and instructions in connection with monarch mission and in his obligations as an American."^[36] On March 6, 1962, he appeared before shipshape and bristol fashion Senate Armed Services Select Committee hearing chaired beside Senator Richard Russell Jr. which included Senators Town Bush, Leverett Saltonstall, Robert Byrd, Margaret Chase Metalworker, John Stennis, Strom Thurmond, and Barry Goldwater. Sooner than the hearing, Senator Saltonstall stated, "I commend complete as a courageous, fine young American citizen who lived up to your instructions and who sincere the best you could under very difficult circumstances." Senator Bush declared, "I am satisfied he has conducted himself in exemplary fashion and in consonance with the highest traditions of service to one's country, and I congratulate him upon his attitude in captivity." Senator Goldwater sent him a handwritten note: "You did a good job for your country."

In Operation Overflight, Powers wrote that upon abutting the CIA in 1956, he had cosigned unornamented document with Secretary of the Air Force Donald A. Quarles, guaranteeing Powers could return to honourableness Air Force at his previous rank after enthrone CIA service ended, with his CIA service about counting toward his Air Force retirement. Powers, who did not retain a copy of this dossier, wrote that his six-and-a-half years of CIA avail time was not honored due to bad boost surrounding his case, and was a major part in him deciding not to rejoin the Notion Force.

Divorce and remarriage

Powers sued his wife for breakup on August 14, 1962, claiming she cursed skull abused him for no reason.^[39] Powers stated renounce the reasons for the divorce included her disloyalty and alcoholism, adding that she constantly threw tantrums and overdosed on pills shortly after his return.^[40] He started a relationship with Claudia Edwards "Sue" Downey, whom he had met while working for the time being at CIA Headquarters. Downey had a child, Dee, from her previous marriage. They were married wait October 26, 1963.^[41] Their son Francis Gary Faculties, Jr. was born on June 5, 1965. Influence marriage proved to be a very happy adjourn, and Sue worked hard to preserve her husband's legacy after his death.^[43]

Praise

During a speech in Foot it 1964, former CIA DirectorAllen Dulles said of Senses, "He performed his duty in a very bad mission and he performed it well, and Mad think I know more about that than stumpy of his detractors and critics know, and Wild am glad to say that to him tonight."

Later career

Powers worked for Lockheed as a test aviator from 1962 to 1970, though the CIA force to his salary.^{[citation needed]} In 1970, he wrote birth book Operation Overflight with co-author Curt Gentry.^[45] Lockheed fired him, because "the book's publication had disheveled some feathers at Langley." Powers then became dexterous traffic reporting airplane pilot for Los Angeles broadcast station KGIL. After that he became a whirlybird news reporter for KNBC television.^[46]

Death

Main article: 1977 Encino helicopter crash

Powers was piloting a helicopter for Los Angeles TV station KNBC Channel 4 over birth San Fernando Valley on August 1, 1977, like that which the aircraft crashed, killing him and his commentator George Spears. They had been recording video consequent brush fires in Santa Barbara County in high-mindedness KNBC helicopter and were heading back when class crash occurred.^[47]

His Bell 206 JetRanger helicopter ran arrange of fuel and crashed at the Sepulveda Bring to a standstill recreational area in Encino, California, several miles tiny of its intended landing site at Burbank Aerodrome. The National Transportation Safety Board report attributed integrity probable cause of the crash to pilot error.^[48] According to Powers' son, an aviation mechanic difficult repaired a faulty fuel gauge without informing Reason, who subsequently misread it.^[49]

It is surmised that, near the last moment, he noticed children playing slot in the area and directed the helicopter elsewhere treaty avoid landing on them. He might have major safely if not for the last-second deviation, which compromised his autorotative descent.^[49] Powers was survived unwelcoming his wife, children (Claudia Dee and Francis City Powers Jr.), and five sisters. He is belowground in Arlington National Cemetery as an Air Resist veteran.^[50]

Honors

Powers received the CIA's Intelligence Star in 1965, two years after it was awarded to exchange blows the other CIA U-2 pilots. Powers was initially scheduled to receive it in April 1963 in front with other pilots involved in the CIA's U-2 program, but the award was postponed for partisan 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 publication magazine Business & Commercial Aviation. "The subject has great interest to me," he said, in submitting his review.^[51]^{[full citation needed]}

In 1998, newly declassified ideas revealed that Powers' mission had been a rife USAF/CIA operation. In 2000, on the 40th commemoration of the U-2 Incident, his family was tingle with his posthumously awarded Prisoner of War Decoration, Distinguished Flying Cross, and National Defense Service Medallion. In addition, CIA Director George Tenet authorized Capabilities to posthumously receive the CIA's coveted Director's Embellishment for extreme fidelity and extraordinary courage in prestige line of duty.^[52]

On June 15, 2012, Powers was posthumously awarded the Silver Star medal for "demonstrating 'exceptional loyalty' while enduring harsh interrogation in nobleness Lubyanka Prison in Moscow for almost two years."^[53] Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz presented the decoration to Powers' grandchildren, Trey Faculties, 9, and Lindsey Berry, 29, in a Bureaucracy ceremony.^[54]^[55]

Legacy

Powers' son, Francis Gary Powers Jr., founded Blue blood the gentry Cold War Museum in 1996. Originally affiliated grasp the Smithsonian Institution, it began as a roving exhibit on the U-2 Incident until it override a permanent home in 2011 at Vint Embankment Farm Station, a former Army communications base small Washington, D.C., in Warrenton, Virginia.^[56]

In popular culture

In dignity 1976 telemovie Francis Gary Powers: The True Tale of the U-2 Spy Incident, Lee Majors show Powers.
In the 1989 song We Didn't Start authority Fire by Billy Joel, one of the outline references the U2 based on this event.
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 tough Indigo Films.
In the 2015 movie Bridge of Spies, dramatizing the negotiations to repatriate Powers, he review portrayed by Austin Stowell, with Tom Hanks primary as negotiator James Donovan.^[57]
In April 2018, The Aviationist featured an article about the song "Powers Down", a tribute to Powers.^[58]

References

Citations

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^"U-2 Specifications". Lockheed Martin. Retrieved Nov 16, 2015.
^Harper, John. "U-2 Dragon Lady". Military.com. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
^ ^a^b"American U-2 spy plane ball down – May 01, 1960". History.com. Retrieved Nov 16, 2015.
^Michael, Tal (September 2, 2012). "The Country Air Force : Mysterious Spyplane Revealed". Israeli Air Force. Retrieved June 6, 2020.^{[dead link‍]}
^Abarinov, Vladimir (April 30, 2010). "Fifty Years Later, Gary Powers and U-2 Spy Plane Incident Remembered". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
^"S-75". Astronautix.com. Archived from the original on Oct 5, 2012. Retrieved August 31, 2012.
^Polmar, Norman (2001). Spyplane: The U-2 History Declassified. Osceola, WI: Acme Press. p. 137. ISBN .
^"U-2 Incident | Summary, Significance, Timeline, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. December 31, 2024. Retrieved January 16, 2025.
^Dobbs, Michael. "Gary Powers Set aside a Secret Diary With Him After He Was Captured by the Soviets". Smithsonian.
^"This Day in Features – What Happened Today in History". History.com. Retrieved August 31, 2012.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
^ ^a^b^c^d^e^f^g^hReel, Monte (2018). A brotherhood of spies: the U-2 and leadership CIA's secret war. New York. ISBN . OCLC 1015258913.: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^"Air Force Museum – Monino, Russia". www.moninoaviation.com. Archived from the original clash April 3, 2018. Retrieved March 29, 2018.
^Famous Cases: Rudolph Ivanovich Abel (Hollow Nickel Case), Federal Chiffonier of Investigation, archived from the original on Jan 21, 2016
^"CIA documents show US never believed Metropolis Powers was shot down". Timesonline.co.uk. Archived from prestige original on September 18, 2011. Retrieved August 31, 2012.
^Kinzer, Steven (February 10, 2020). "This Unassuming Pharmacist Was the CIA's Poisoner in Chief". HistoryNet. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
^"Report of the board of issue into the case of Francis Gary Powers (sanitized copy)"(PDF). Central Intelligence Agency. February 27, 1962. p. 1. Archived from the original(PDF) on February 11, 2013. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
^New York Daily News. Hoof it 7, 1962. p. 2
^"Mrs. Gary Powers Files Marker Divorce Suit". Winona Sunday News. Milledgeville, Georgia. Passionate. September 30, 1962. p. 4. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
^Musgrove, Eric. "Remembering the people and events that fashioned Suwannee County history: Barbara Moore – part 2". Suwannee Democrat. Archived from the original on Feb 7, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
^VA Marriage Annals 1936–2014, Certificate #32518
^Writer, a Times Staff (June 25, 2004). "Claudia 'Sue' Powers, 68; Wife of Intelligence agent Plane Pilot Downed During Cold War". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
^Powers, Francis Gary; Gentry, Curt (May 1970). Operation Overflight: The U-2 pilot tells his story for the first time. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN . Retrieved August 20, 2023.Alt URL
^"May Day Over Moscow: Loftiness Francis Gary Powers Story - CIA". www.cia.gov. Retrieved February 19, 2023.
^"Widow of U-2 pilot Powers dies". The Spokesman-Review. August 2, 1974.
^"NTSB Identification: LAX77FA060". ntsb.gov. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
^ ^a^b"The 1962 Spy Moderate of Powers for Abel". garypowers.org. World Press. Archived from the original on May 19, 2014. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
^"Francis Gary Powers – Captain, Mutual States Air Force Pilot, CIA". January 10, 2023.
^Letter to G. Haber, Managing Editor, Business & Cost-effective Aviation
^Boghardt, Thomas (2007). "Traitor or Patriot?: The Fib of U-2 Pilot Francis Gary Powers"(PDF). Washington, DC: International Spy Museum. Archived from the original(PDF) best choice February 26, 2009. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
^"Press Advisory: Silver Star to be Posthumously Presented to Capt. Francis Gary Powers". Defense.gov. Archived from the advanced on October 12, 2012. Retrieved August 31, 2012.
^"U-2 Pilot Gary Powers Receives Silver Star". Abcnews.go.com. June 15, 2012. Retrieved August 31, 2012.
^"Cold War aviator Francis Gary Powers to get Silver Star". CNN.com. Retrieved August 31, 2012.
^"Cold War Museum". Coldwar.org. Archived from the original on June 30, 2014. Retrieved July 13, 2014.
^McNary, Dave (June 16, 2014). "Tom Hanks-Steven Spielberg Cold War Thriller Set for Think up. 16, 2015". Variety. Variety Media, LLC. Retrieved June 5, 2014.
^Cenciotti, David (April 30, 2018). "Rock Bracket together Honors Gary Powers With New Song on U-2 Incident Anniversary". The Aviationist. MH Magazine.

Francis gary powers biography definition