U-2 pilot honored posthumously

WASHINGTON – The Air Force will award a Silver Star posthumously to Francis Gary Powers, the pilot whose spy plane was shot down in 1960 over the Soviet Union in a defining moment of the Cold War.

The Air Force determined that the U-2 pilot showed “steadfast loyalty” while under harsh interrogation in Soviet prisons. In a report obtained by the Associated Press, it cited his “sustained courage” and gallantry despite “cajolery, trickery, insults and threats of death.”

Powers was swapped for a Soviet spy in February 1962 at Berlin’s Glienicke Bridge. He died in the 1977 crash of a traffic helicopter he was flying in Los Angeles.

His son, Francis Gary Powers Jr., of Midlothian, Va., requested that his father be considered for the medal.

In the aftermath of the downing, some people criticized Powers for not committing suicide using a toxin-tipped needle he was given before the flight. His son said the CIA instructed pilots to surrender and to use of the poisoned pin only if they chose to while under torture.

“While he admitted he was spying, he did not reveal any vital information to the enemy,” said Powers Jr., founder of the Cold War Museum in Vint Hill, Va.