ABOUT COLD WAR VIRGINIA

DISCUSSION WITH FRANCIS GARY POWERS, JR.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY:

Francis Gary Powers, Jr. lectures internationally and appears regularly on C-SPAN, as well as the History,  Discovery and A&E channels. He is the son of Francis Gary Powers, Sr., the U-2 pilot whose plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, triggering an international incident during the Cold War.

Gary is the author of Letters from a Soviet Prison (2017), Spy Pilot (2019), Enemy Territory (2022), The Berlin Airlift (2024), Cold War Virginia (2024) and Protecting America: Cold War Defensive Sites (2024). He is Founder and Chairman Emeritus of The Cold War Museum located at Vint Hill, VA and was Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Cold War Theme Study, which helped the National Park Service to identify historic Cold War sites for preservation. In 2015, he consulted for a Steven Spielberg thriller, Bridge of Spies, about the 1962 spy exchange of his father and KGB spy Rudolph Abel. 

He is a past Board Member of the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum and an Honorary Board Member of the International Spy Museum. Because of his efforts to honor Cold War veterans the Junior Chamber of Commerce selected him as one of the “Ten Outstanding Young Americans” for 2002. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Master’s Degrees in Public Administration and U.S. History.