Francy Powers Jr. - Spy Pilot - Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 Incident, and a Controversial Cold War Legacy

An official whose name was redacted told the commission: “From the time that the Detachment left [REDACTED] until the time that it arrived back at [REDACTED]… [we] were on guard for any unusual activity or personnel that might be involved. There was a limited number of contacts with base people, and I personally did the majority of these. The other people of my Detachment stayed within the small hangar area. So if there had been any unusual personalities within that general area, then we would have discovered this, I feel sure of this, from a security standpoint….” 8

The agency people also investigated the possibility of mechanical problems.

US Interrogator: I was wondering whether the autopilot had given you any trouble.

Powers: It gave me some trouble for several minutes there and finally I just discarded it altogether. I could have made a decision to turn around and come back, which would have been a very good decision to make I think, but since I was—by looking at the maps—approximately halfway, the weather was bad behind and perfectly clear ahead, and I had some short-cuts I could take ahead—I thought I’d go along…. 9

The controversy caused by Oliver’s apparent confusion on the cause of the crash caused Frank significant distress.

After trying to clear up the matter with his letter to the New York Times —which so served Soviet purposes that they made sure it also ran in Pravda—Frank wrote directly to his parents:

6 September 1960

Dear Mom & Dad,

I guess you will be surprised to get this letter so soon after the other one. I would have waited until I received an answer to my last letter but I have been shown an article in the August 27th issue of the New York Times and I thought I had better clear up an apparent misunderstanding. In that article you stated that I said I didn’t think I was shot down. I do not remember talking about this at all except during the trial.

There I stated that I did not see what it was that hit me. I felt and heard an explosion and saw an orange colored flash. My engine was working good up to this time. My only conclusion is that something exploded near the airplane. What it was I do not know because I did not see it. I did not feel an impact therefore I think it was the shock wave from the explosion that caused failure of my plane. I think the tail came off first because the aircraft nosed down. Then I think the wings came off and I started spinning in an inverted position.

The thing that I want to stress is the fact that I did not say I didn’t think I was shot down. In fact I think it was for the reasons stated above. The flight had been normal up to this time. Everything was working good except the automatic pilot which I had disengaged several minutes before the explosion because the pitch control was not working good. The air was smooth and the plane was flying good and there was no reason for any explosion except an external one not connected with the airplane. I was flying at maximum altitude as I stated during the trial. I asked you when I saw you to be careful what you said. I wanted everything to die down as soon as it could. Maybe you did not say these things and the newspaper misunderstood, or if you did then you misunderstood when I said here.

I have been told that there are people in the States who think I landed the plane here to give it to the Russians. This is not true. My intensions [ sic ] were to carry out my assignment as near as I could and if I had not been shot down I think it would have been successful. Anyone who saw the remains of the plane would know it would not [have] landed normally but in many pieces.

I ask you once again to be careful what you say to reporters. I said nothing to you that could be used as news so I ask you not to quote me. You can say anything you want about your experiences here and what you think. But please don’t say what you think I may be thinking or look for any hidden meaning in what I said to you or what I write to you. I am very sorry to be writing to you like this but that article in the newspaper upset me and I wanted to straighten it out.

I love all of you very much and I know you would not do anything to hurt me in anyway if you can possibly help it. You might think it is worth it to be in prison if my pay continues. It might be to someone else but there is not enough money in the US and USSR put together to make me want to stay in prison. I would gladly give everything I have now and anything I would have in the future to get out today. Since the only way I can get out is to serve my term or be exchanged or pardoned then I will just have to wait and see what happens. It isn’t pleasant but there is no alternative.

Well that is about all for now except that I hope all of you and Barbara are getting along together. Please, for my sake, don’t let the hard feelings continue. My trouble is enough for several families without you people making it worse.

I would appreciate it if you all kept in contact and learned to be closer together. I hoped and prayed that my misfortune would keep you close rather than cause trouble.

Well, bye for now. 10

In a reply from his parents dated September 17, 1960, Ida expressed remorse for the controversy, telling her son: “I was so sorry the newspapers misquoted the news. Daddy only stated what you said at the trial…. I told Daddy not to say anything to the reporters…. I hope nothing has hurt you any.” 11

After he returned home, Francis told the CIA debriefers: “When I read [the New York Times ] article, it made me very angry with my father…. I personally wanted you people to know that I thought I had been shot down.” 12

With all the time in the world to let his mind wander, my father understood that the question of what happened to cause his crash reflected a fundamental issue that cut to the heart of the most closely guarded secrets on both sides.

“I got the impression,” he said in his tapes, “that someone was going out of their way to stress the fact that there was a malfunction in the airplane or something to hush-hush the fact that [the Soviets] did have a defensive weapon that was capable of [shooting the U-2 out of the sky]…. All I could see was a friend of mine coming over and getting shot down himself. I wanted it known that they had this capability. Someone apparently was trying to cover up the fact that they had this capability.” 13

Especially in light of the U-2 that was shot down over Cuba in 1962, I understood my father’s frustration. All of the sudden, Washington officials were faced with the political dilemma of having to admit that the Soviets were more advanced than they realized. Instead of clearing this up, the government allowed the misinformation to continue to circulate.

When I first started to transcribe my father’s journal, while in graduate school at George Mason, I took great care to methodically type the words. It became something I usually did after arriving home at night, hunched over my computer for an hour or two at a time. I always felt like I learned something. It was part of the puzzle slowly being revealed to me, including the early portions when Dad described the moments after he lost control of the plane.

“My first reaction was to reach toward the destruction switches,” he wrote. “I knew that after activating them I would have seventy seconds in which to leave the plane before the explosion. I then thought I had better see if I could get into the position to use the ejection seat before activating the switches. It was a good thing I did this because I spent several minutes I suppose (I don’t know how long I was in the spinning plane), trying to get my feet in the proper place and trying to get far enough back into the seat so that I could eject without tearing my legs off on the canopy rail as I shot out of the cabin. I could not get into the proper position. I was not sitting at all but hanging by the seat belt and it was impossible to shorten the belt with all the forces against it….” 14