Hear from son of famed Cold War spy pilot at April 11 American Legion Post 20 meeting

Francis Gary Powers Jr. will be guest speaker at the National Press Club's American Legion Post 20 at noon Monday, April 11, in the McClendon Room. It will be the post's first in-person meeting since the start of the coronavirus pandemic two years ago.  

Powers is the son of Francis Gary Powers Sr., the CIA pilot whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, setting off a highly publicized international Cold War incident. He is the author of two books, Letters from a Soviet Prison (2017) and Spy Pilot (2019), which aim to dispel misinformation surrounding the U-2 incident. He is founder and chairman emeritus of The Cold War Museum at Vint Hill, Virginia.

His father was captured and imprisoned in the Soviet Union for almost two years. He was freed in an exchange for a Soviet operative imprisoned in the United States. Powers Sr. was killed in a crash while piloting a Los Angeles TV station helicopter in 1977.

All Club members are invited to the meeting, which will be a hybrid one. Those unable to attend in person can RSVP to Post 20 Sergeant-at-Arms Evelyn Moy at [email protected], who will provide a virtual meeting link.  

Post 20 was founded at the Club in 1919 at the suggestion of famed World War I General John "Black Jack" Pershing. At the time, Pershing was serving in Washington and was an associate member of the Club.