Pilot of downed U-2 to get posthumous Silver Star
Jun 7, 2012, 8:39 PM
BRISTOL, Va. (AP) – The American pilot whose spy plane was shot down in 1960 over the Soviet Union is set to receive a Silver Star posthumously.
A ceremony to award the third-highest combat military decoration for valor to Francis Gary Powers is scheduled June 15 at the Pentagon.
An Air Force report last year said that the U-2 pilot distinguished himself with his gallantry during harsh interrogation in Soviet prisons.
Powers was swapped for a Soviet spy in February 1962 in Berlin. He died in a 1977 helicopter crash.
Powers posthumously was awarded a military POW medal and a CIA medal in 2000, after incident records were unsealed.
His son, Francis Gary Powers Jr., told the Bristol Herald Courier (
http://bit.ly/KRPrsw) that the award is a wonderful honor and that the family is humbled.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)