Son of Cold War spy pilot plans to speak at American Legion Post 20 meeting on Monday, April 11, at Noon

Francis Gary Powers Jr. is expected to be the guest speaker at the National Press Club's American Legion Post 20 in-person meeting on Monday, April 11, at noon in the Club's McClendon Room.

The meeting will be the Post's first in-person meeting at the Club since the start of the pandemic two years ago. 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], to receive a virtual meeting link.

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 an highly publicized international Cold War incident. He is the author of two books, Letters from a Soviet Prison, published in 2017, and Spy Pilot, published in 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. Powers lectures nationally and appears regularly on C-SPAN and other television channels. 

Francis Gary Powers Sr. 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.

Historic 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.