The charred wreckage of of U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane is on display at the Central Armed Forces Museum in Moscow, April 30, 2010. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)
YEKATERINBURG, Russia — The son of Francis Gary Powers, the American spy pilot whose 1960 shootdown over the Soviet Union sparked tensions between Moscow and Washington, has visited a Russian museum containing artifacts of the incident.
Gary Powers Jr. on Thursday viewed a fragment of his father’s U-2 plane and the mission’s flight plan, on display at a military technological museum near Yekaterinburg.
“It is now history. We can reflect on it and learn from it,” said Powers, who founded the Cold War Museum in Warrenton, Virginia.
The elder Powers parachuted from his plane when it was hit by a Soviet missile about 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) east of Moscow. He was imprisoned and exchanged in 1962 for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
Gary Powers, the American spy pilot shot down over Russia, sits with a model of the U-2 spy plane at a Senate Armed Forces Committee in Washington. (Keystone/Getty Images)
During its last5 deployment, which concluded in Octobe, the Reagan not only operated in U.S. 7th Fleet but also 5th Fleet to support the withdrawal of U.S. and coalition forces from Afghanistan.
The remains of an American airman missing in World War II may be heading home, thanks to a chance discovery of records in flood-threatened archives in Thailand.
The supply of infant formula is running 40 percent to 50 percent below normal in commercial stores, but the most critical, specialized formulas have been even more depleted.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., worried the Air Force could find itself without enough aircraft to conduct battlefield management or rescue downed personnel.
The Pentagon has modeled a new high-level team to rush military aid to Ukraine after the group it used to rush supplies to troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, according to a memo obtained by Defense News and sources familiar with the matter.