Francis Gary Powers--U2 Pilot

KA-20

Francis Gary Powers (1929–1977) was raised here in Pound and graduated from Grundy High School. Powers enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1950 after graduating from Milligan College in Tennessee. In 1956, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) recruited him to fly espionage missions over the Soviet Union. On 1 May 1960 the Soviets shot down his U-2 spy plane. Parachuting to safety, he was captured, tried, and sentenced to ten years in prison for espionage. Powers was exchanged in 1962 for a Soviet spy. The CIA and the military decorated him for his efforts. He died 1 Aug. 1977 in a helicopter crash and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Department of Historic Resources, 2005

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, American National Biography (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999); Francis Gary Powers with Curt Gentry, Operation Overflight: The U-2 Spy Pilot Tells His Story For the First Time (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1970); United States Congress, Senate Committee on Armed Services, “Francis Gary Powers: Hearing Before the Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate, Eighty-Seventh Congress, Second Session, March 6 ,1962 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962).