April 30, 2026

May 1st-Francis Gary Powers, 1st Public flushing toilets, Calamity Jane, Tim McGraw, SpongeBob, Cheerios, Pluto

May 1st-Francis Gary Powers, 1st Public flushing toilets, Calamity Jane, Tim McGraw, SpongeBob, Cheerios, Pluto
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Today is the 65th anniversary of CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers being shot down in his U2 spy plane over the Soviet Union. My co-host today is his son Gary Powers jr. We got the whole story on his dads place in history. Gary jr. is a very successfull author, speaker and authority on the cold war.
https://garypowers.com/ He also founded the Cold War Museum in Virgina, https://www.coldwar.org/ Make sure you check out his website and books.

National Lei day. Entertainment from 2006. Alamo founded, 1st public flushing toilets, Cheerios went on sale, Pluto named. Todays birthdays - Calamity Jane, Kate Smith, Glenn Ford, Sonny James, Rita Coolidge, Ray Parker jr, Tim McGraw. Steve Reeves died.

Intro - God did good - Dianna Corcoran https://www.diannacorcoran.com/
The lei song - Ruth Wallis
Bad day - Daniel Powter
Who says you can't go home again - Bon Jovi Jennifer Nettles
Birthdays - In da club - 50 Cent http://50cent.com/
God bless America - Kate Smith
Young love - Sonny James
Your love keeps lifting me higher - Rita Coolidge
Ghost Busters - Ray Parker Jr.
Welcome to the club - Tim McGraw
Exit - Toddin' & Turnin - Kenyon Lockry https://www.facebook.com/kenyon.lockry/

History & Factoids about today Playlist on Spotify

History & Factoids about today webpage

cooolmedia.com

countryundergroundradio.com

WEBVTT

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Hi everyone, I'm Jeff. Last year, on my first I

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had Gary Powers Junior sit in with me on the show.

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It was basically award winning show. Yeah, one of my

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only times. I'm never gonna get that probably, so we're

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gonna replay it this year. It's all about Last year

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it was the sixty fifth anniversary of Gary Power's getting

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shot down over the Soviet Union. It still has all

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the same old history in fact Toys about the day's stuff,

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but you get to hear all about the inside scoop

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on Gary Powers.

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So enjoy.

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Hi everyone, I am Jeff, and thank you for joining

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us on history and fact Toy is about today. Today

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is May the first. Now today is really cool. Back

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in nineteen sixty it was the beginning of the height

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of the Cold War. I mean, the Cuban missile crisis

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hadn't hardy yet, but the United Dates in the Soviet Union.

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Now it was really tense between the two of them.

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When an America and Uto spy plane was actually shot

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down over the Soviet Union, it's pilot Frances Gary Powers.

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He did survive luckily, but it brought a whole bunch

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of diplomatic troubles between the two countries. Now today is

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the sixty fifth anniversary of that event. So to tell

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us all about it, we've got his son, Gary Powers

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Junior with us today. Now, Gary is a very successful historian, author,

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and speaker a whole lot more so we're gonna have

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fun today finding out about Junior. Today, Gary, why don't

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you introduce yourself?

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All right, Jeff, Well, thanks for having me on your show.

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My name is Francis Gary Powers Junior. I go by Gary.

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I'm an author, a historian, and a public speaker. I

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lecture internationally on the need to honor Cold War veterans,

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preserve Cold War history, and educate future generations future students

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about this time period. I operate out of my home

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office near Richmond, Virginia, and I've been in the Virginia

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area now for about thirty thirty two years.

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Now, with your family being in the crossairs, did you

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did your dad talk to you a lot about the incident?

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Well? Yes, growing up, I had a very good relationship

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with my father. We'd hike and bike and fish, and

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i'd fly with him because he was a pilot and

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had a job a flying for radio and television stations.

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So I had a very nice relationship with my dad

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up until August first of seventy seven he dies in

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the helicopter crash while working for NBC Television. But prior

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to that we talked about the U two incident. I

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was reading his book Operation Overflight. I'd ask some questions,

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he'd give me some answers. But as a kid, that's nice, Dad,

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I want to go play. So I wasn't asking the

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questions I wish I could ask.

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Now exactly now this kind of a sign. Did I

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read that you actually got a fly in one of

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those YouTube spyplanes.

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That's correct, Jeff back on the fortieth anniversary twenty five

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years ago, May first, twenty twenty. I'm sorry, May first,

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two thousand, I did a high flight in a U

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two out of bel Air Force in Central California.

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I've got to see what your dad was experiencing and

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everything correct.

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Very surreal to fly in the backseat of a U two.

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It was I was able to find out, you know,

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what my dad did, what it was like to be

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at seventy thousand plus feet, just the serenity of it,

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the beautiful views, and just the also being alone. Usually

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the U two pilots are in there alone, and I

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had a pilot in the front cockpit versus me in

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the back cockpit. But it was just a very wonderful

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flight and brought me very close to my dad and

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was a wonderful experience to see what he did.

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I's kind of surprise. I didn't even know he's still

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used the U two anymore.

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Oh my gosh. They are still in service. The new

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ones have been built or were built in late seventies,

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early eighties. They are still flying today, head quartered out

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of bl Air Force Base. But I believe that September

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first is when their budget is terminated, and it might

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not last another year. It all depends on what Congress

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wants to do.

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I think there's talk about just going to like high

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altitude drones or something in there.

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Well, high altitude drones and low altitude drones and artificial

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intelligence controlled drones and UAVs, the whole thing. Keep up,

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pilot's out of harm's way.

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No, that those satellites are so there's so much. I

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don't even know if you really need the way they

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can pinpoint those satellites now.

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Oh yeah, it's amazing. We have thousands of satellites in

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orbit now and the majority of them other than telecommunication,

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would be listening to what we do on the earth.

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Yeah, well, today is May the first, and now May

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it's named for Mayus, the Greek god of growth. May

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it's the only month of the year that the United

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States President hadn't died in The May birthstone is the

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emerald and the birth flower is Lili the valleys. So

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to celebrate May first, why not go tropical?

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But take it from a sailor named Dady.

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Hobby is known for its lace. He got his very first.

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Lay in fig they made right at home in Hawaikiki.

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He got his very first lay in.

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Today is National lay Day. Now la it is a

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pretty necklace made of flowers. That's right.

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Now.

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They're all over the topics, but we're going to celebrate

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the ones that come out of Hawaiian islands today. Now

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each island has its own lay. In eighteen sixty six,

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Mark Twain he actually wrote a whole bunch of stories

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about going to Hawaii for the Sacramento Union newspaper. Oute

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his stories got so popular they went to nationwide. Yeah,

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basically what started the Hawaiian tourist industry. So as tourist

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started coming over the Hawaiians. They started arriving on the

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beach and then see the boats up and greeting the

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tourists with Leay's. Now it sounds like a pretty good

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exclusive excuse that plan a trip to Hawaii. He's spending

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time in Hawaii.

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I did a growing up, went a couple times with

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my parents and then once with a very good fraternity

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brother who I used to live out there.

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Well, fine, now you actually established the Cold Warming Museum

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out there back east, right.

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Yes, I did. Back in nineteen ninety six. I founded

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the Cold War Museum to honor veterans, preserve history, educate

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kids on the time period. It is located at vint Hill, Virginia,

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which is forty five miles west of Washington, d C.

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It's on a former Army communication base, a listening post

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that was active throughout World War II and the Cold

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War to monitor electronic communications, signals intelligence from around the world,

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as well as the US the embassies in Washington, D C.

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That's some pretty intense stuff back then, at least now

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that we're finding out about it now.

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Oh, yes, a lot of stuff has come to light

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over the last fifty years.

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Now, that's definitely so. If you're back east in Virginia

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heading through that area, make sure you're swinging by the

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Cold War music. That sounds really cool.

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Great, Jeff. Yeah. And also for more people or for

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people to find out more about it, they can visit

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our website coldwar dot org.

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So do people donate your what you're showing there or

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do you have to go hunt them all down? And

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how do you get all.

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Your oh my gosh. Over the last twenty five years

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now or so, we have been collecting artifacts from any

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way we could, some off eBay, some from retired veterans,

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from some family members of veterans who have passed. We

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have gotten items from the USS Liberty, the USS Pueblo,

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overhead reconnaissance platforms such as the U two, the SR

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seventy one, KH Corona, Hexagon satellite, Spice satellites. We have

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items from Civil Defense as well as of vent Hil,

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authentic items from vent Hil that were used during their

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heyday when they were listening to the Soviets and the

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other foreign countries. So we have quite a wonderful collection

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of flags, banners, regalia, uniforms, items from Potsdam and the

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military liaison missions, and just a whole slew of items

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that are now very hard to come by.

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Well, that sounds definitely like a must say, man, that

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sounds really interesting. All right, let's see what happened in

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entertainment on me. The first let's back here two thousand

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and six. Number one album was Me and My Gang

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by Rascal Flax. Daniel Powder had the numb one song

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with bad Day because.

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You had a bad day, Take your mone down, save

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a sad song, just to turn it down. Save it

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down though, tell me, don't lie. You fine, you have

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a bad day, call it, don't call me back down

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and you.

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Pay me doll fine you have.

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The number one country song was from bon Jovi and

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Jennifer Nettles. He says you can't go home again. He

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says you.

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Can't go He says.

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You can't go back all around the world, and that

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a matter of fact, lay one place, nam.

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Wanna says you king.

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To.

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The number one book was Two Little Girls in Blue

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by Mary Higgins Clark. The top movie is Mission Impossible

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three ethan hunt. He gets into with ruth A's drug dealer.

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Now that drug dealer wants to kill him and his fiance.

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Stars Tom Kriz, Michelle Monahan, and ving Rhyme's Philip seymour Hausman.

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Now you've done a lot of education. That's why you're

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in such a demand as a speaker and a writer

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and that kind of stuff. He came out here in

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Colorado and did a little.

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Schooling, that's correct. I got my second master's degree in

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US History from Adams State University there in Colorado.

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Did you enjoy your time?

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Oh?

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I did. It was a virtual course, so I did

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all my classes online, but I had to go to

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Colorado to defend my thesis. And my thesis was basically

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my second book, Spy Pilot. So I wrote this book.

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It was published in twenty nineteen, and I got my

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master's degree in US History in twenty eighteen. So my

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thesis became my second book.

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Well that's pretty cool. Not many people's thesis is turned

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into good books.

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Well, thank you, all right.

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You want to see what happened in in history today

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on May the first.

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Sure I know a little bit about May first history

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other than the U two incident. Back in seventeen eighteen,

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the Spanish Catholic missionaries, they established this omission San Antonio

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de Valero, which is better known as the Alamo. So

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that was established in seventeen eighteen on May First. Then

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back in Great Britain in eighteen forty the world's first

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postage stamp with an adhesive back went on sale. They

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called it the Penny Back or the Penny Black I

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should say. It cost a penny and had a profile

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of Queen Victoria. Then again in eighteen fifty one, Great

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Britain had the Great Exhibition in London. George Jennings unveiled

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his newest invention. He called them monkey closets. They were

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the world's first public flushing toilets. Monkey closets. That's a

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great pit of trivia right there, and it cost one

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cent if you wanted to use one. And the Spanish

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American War back in eighteen ninety eight off the Philippines,

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the US Navy had one of the biggest naval battles

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in history. They completely destroyed the Spanish fleet off the

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coast of Manila. The United States hardly had anyone get hurt.

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The US captain in charge, George Dewey, became so famous

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for the victory the Navy created a new hymn. Admiral

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Dewey was the first Navy admiral. Because of that Sea engagement.

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It's more trivia, all right. When Clyde Tombodd discovered Pluto

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in February of nineteen thirty, no one could decide what

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to name it. Everybody wanted their own little say and

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all that kind of caused really a lot of infighting

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between all the nerds you study that kind of stuff.

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But today, in nineteen thirty the allgreed on the name Pluto. Bluo.

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It's the Roman god of the underworld.

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Now.

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Venetia Burning came up with the name of it. She's

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a eleven year old girl over in England. Her dad.

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She successed it to her grandfather, who is a really

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big wig in the astronomy community. Nineteen thirty one, the

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Empire State Building opened up at two hundred and fifty

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feet I it was the world's tallest building. Yeah, to

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stay that way until nineteen seventy when the World Trade

237
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Center invested. Today, the Empire State Building, it's the fifty

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fourth largest building in the world. Nineteen thirty nine, Batman,

239
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he made his DC comics debut. Do you like Cheerios?

240
00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:18.440
Yes? I do like Cheerios.

241
00:12:18.679 --> 00:12:21.159
It was nineteen forty one as serial Cheerios went on,

242
00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:24.759
so start out calling the cheery Oates that they changed

243
00:12:24.759 --> 00:12:27.639
the name of Cheerios. In nineteen forty five, nineteen forty

244
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eight in Birmingham, Alabama, white US senator from Idaho, his

245
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name was Glenn Taylor. He got arrested. Yeah, see, he

246
00:12:34.799 --> 00:12:36.759
was entering a meeting there. He went through the wrong door.

247
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He went through the door and marked his negroes. All right,

248
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it was today in nineteen sixty that our co host

249
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knows all about.

250
00:12:42.440 --> 00:12:46.360
Well, that's correct. May first, nineteen sixty my father, Francis

251
00:12:46.440 --> 00:12:50.120
Gary Powers gets shot down over the Soviet Union, hands up,

252
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spending two years in the Soviet prison, then gets exchange

253
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for a Soviet spy in February of nineteen sixty two.

254
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For those of you who are movie buffs, Steven Spielberg

255
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and Tom Hanks do a movie in twenty fifteen called

256
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Bridge of Spies that depicts this historical event of my

257
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father being shot down over the Soviet Union, the capture

258
00:13:10.440 --> 00:13:13.240
of Soviet spy Rudolph Abel in New York City, and

259
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their ultimate exchange at the Glenager Bridge in Potsdam, Germany

260
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on February tenth of nineteen sixty two. Just a quick thing,

261
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I want to mention here about my father and the

262
00:13:22.759 --> 00:13:25.440
U two incident as a result of him being shot down.

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At the time in nineteen sixty there were a lot

264
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of controversies, a lot of conspiracy theories and fake news

265
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of the time. While my father was in prison, editorials

266
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were written in the newspapers saying he defected, he landed

267
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the plane intact, he spilled his guts and told the

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Soviets everything he knew, or that he had not followed

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orders and committed suicide, all of which were part truth,

270
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mistruths in your windows, and some outright lies. In nineteen

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ninety eight, there was a declassification conference hosted by the

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CIA and the US Air Force at Fort Leslie Jnaire

273
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in Washington, d C. It's declassifying the UTWO program. As

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a result of that declassification conference, two very important things

275
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were revealed for the first time. First, the altitude at

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which Dad was shot down seventy five hundred feet. There

277
00:14:15.720 --> 00:14:18.679
were no flame out, there was no sabotage, there was

278
00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:22.600
no pilot air It was an actual SA two missile,

279
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one of eight that were fired at the airplane on

280
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May first, explodes near enough to the tail section caused

281
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structural failure, it brings down the plane. The second major

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thing to be declassified on that date in ninety eight

283
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is that it was a CIA US Air Force program.

284
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For all intent and purposes, they could not be separated.

285
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As a result, it was a quote unquote military operation.

286
00:14:46.919 --> 00:14:50.759
Once that word military was declassified, it allowed the American

287
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government to posthumously award my father the Pow Medal in

288
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May of two thousand and the Silver Star in June

289
00:14:59.080 --> 00:15:01.639
of two thousand and two twelve. So as a family,

290
00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:05.240
we're very honored and very humbled to know that dad

291
00:15:05.279 --> 00:15:07.360
has been honored by our government as a hero to

292
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our country. It took forty and fifty years, respectively, but

293
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it goes to show it's never too late to set

294
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the record straight, and we're very glad that they were

295
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able to do so back in two thousand and twenty twelve.

296
00:15:18.559 --> 00:15:20.399
Yeah, that is closed. This kind of shows that fake

297
00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:23.120
news has always been there, you know, it always sucked.

298
00:15:23.480 --> 00:15:27.440
Oh yes, fake news, misinformation, disinformation is nothing new.

299
00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:30.720
So you actually consultant in that movie with Steven Spielberg, Right.

300
00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:33.639
That's right. I was a consultant on it. I reached

301
00:15:33.639 --> 00:15:35.799
out to them, they got in touch with me after

302
00:15:35.879 --> 00:15:38.519
I sent an email to a few email addresses that

303
00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:41.919
I found online, I talked to their producer, Mark Platt.

304
00:15:42.440 --> 00:15:45.120
I told him what I'm doing with the Cold War Museum,

305
00:15:45.320 --> 00:15:49.159
cold War history, honoring veterans, preserving it for future generations,

306
00:15:49.720 --> 00:15:52.000
the knowledge base of my father, the research I've done,

307
00:15:52.399 --> 00:15:54.320
And as a result, they hired me on as a

308
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consultant for the film, and that was a wonderful, wonderful experience.

309
00:15:58.639 --> 00:16:00.200
So as a finished product, how do you think they

310
00:16:00.200 --> 00:16:01.039
did for accuracy?

311
00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:05.440
Well, sure, the Big Picture is very accurate, historically accurate.

312
00:16:05.799 --> 00:16:08.679
It actually portrays the time period of the Cold War.

313
00:16:09.080 --> 00:16:13.600
Duck and cover drills, civil defense, the fear and tension

314
00:16:13.679 --> 00:16:16.600
between the Soviets and the Americans, the fear of a

315
00:16:16.679 --> 00:16:21.000
nuclear war between our two countries, all very actly portrayed

316
00:16:21.159 --> 00:16:25.039
the Big Picture. But you have to remember this is Hollywood.

317
00:16:25.559 --> 00:16:29.240
They embellish, they use dramatic effect, they take artistic liberties.

318
00:16:29.480 --> 00:16:32.879
So while the Big Pictures accurate, the details of each

319
00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:35.919
scene are not one hundred percent correct. There is some

320
00:16:36.080 --> 00:16:39.399
misinformation and fake news of the time period that made

321
00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:42.799
it into the movie. Now, back in nineteen sixty that's

322
00:16:42.879 --> 00:16:45.480
what was being said that my father defected land of

323
00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:49.240
the plane, didn't commit suicide, all this stuff. But it

324
00:16:49.399 --> 00:16:52.879
was historically accurate in that regard because that's what was

325
00:16:52.919 --> 00:16:56.240
being said at the time period. It's not historically accurate

326
00:16:56.320 --> 00:16:59.360
in today's standards because not the truth of what took place.

327
00:17:00.039 --> 00:17:03.759
Misinformation still clouds the Internet with the truth or from

328
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the truth.

329
00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:07.880
I should say, right, You ever figured out how your

330
00:17:07.960 --> 00:17:11.799
dad survived actually ejecting at that height, Well, yes, and I.

331
00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:13.519
Talked to my dad about this, so I heard it

332
00:17:13.599 --> 00:17:16.839
firsthand from him, as well as reading other books and

333
00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:20.200
accounts and talking to some of his pilot friends after

334
00:17:20.279 --> 00:17:23.720
his death. He's at his assigned altitude of seventy thousand,

335
00:17:23.799 --> 00:17:26.640
five hundred feet. There's the near miss of an Essay

336
00:17:26.759 --> 00:17:30.359
two missile. It basically blows off the tail section. You

337
00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:34.119
can't fly a plane without the tail section. The nose

338
00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:38.200
pitches forward, the wings break off, the fuselage goes into

339
00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:41.480
an inverted spin. Dad falls in the cockpit or in

340
00:17:41.559 --> 00:17:44.680
the plane from seventy five hundred feet to thirty thousand

341
00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:48.319
feet before bailing out. He does not eject because if

342
00:17:48.359 --> 00:17:50.960
he uses the ejection seat, he will sever his legs

343
00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:54.079
on the way out. He basically ends up crawling out

344
00:17:54.119 --> 00:17:57.319
of the airplane. He's tethered by his air hose still,

345
00:17:57.839 --> 00:17:59.720
so he's got two or three feet of air hose,

346
00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:03.359
half in the cockpit, half out, being banged around, can

347
00:18:03.480 --> 00:18:06.680
no longer reach the destruct button, can no longer see it,

348
00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:10.160
his face plates frosted over. He ends up breaking free

349
00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:13.279
of the air hose, falls free of the airplane. His

350
00:18:13.440 --> 00:18:17.400
parachute opens automatically at fifteen thousand feet and he parachutes

351
00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:20.400
down to the ground. Months on the ground, he's captured,

352
00:18:20.559 --> 00:18:23.519
turned over to the authorities, turned over to the KGB,

353
00:18:24.200 --> 00:18:27.440
taken to lou Bianca Prison in downtown Moscow, and that's

354
00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:29.759
where he spends his first night of captivity on May

355
00:18:29.880 --> 00:18:31.359
first of nineteen sixty.

356
00:18:31.400 --> 00:18:33.240
And that quite theory deal. Getting out of that plan

357
00:18:33.359 --> 00:18:35.359
is amazing. It's still amazing. And he survived that.

358
00:18:35.799 --> 00:18:38.000
Oh yeah, had he not survived, I wouldn't be here.

359
00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:39.400
So I am very glad he did.

360
00:18:39.880 --> 00:18:43.599
And so I'm assuming this is just a little bit

361
00:18:43.640 --> 00:18:45.920
I've read that. In fact, the guy shot down really

362
00:18:45.960 --> 00:18:47.799
shocked Yes government, and that's why they kind of had

363
00:18:47.839 --> 00:18:49.640
that bad news about your dad. They didn't realize they

364
00:18:49.640 --> 00:18:50.400
could actually hit him.

365
00:18:50.440 --> 00:18:53.400
That I right, that's exactly right, Jeff. Back in nineteen

366
00:18:53.559 --> 00:18:57.240
sixty when my father was shot down, the mentality was,

367
00:18:57.400 --> 00:19:00.720
we're better than the Soviets, We're more advanced than so Soviets.

368
00:19:01.039 --> 00:19:04.519
If our missiles can't hit our plane, their missiles can't

369
00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:07.720
there behind us, it must have been the pilot's fault.

370
00:19:07.960 --> 00:19:10.480
He must have done something wrong. Maybe there was a

371
00:19:10.559 --> 00:19:14.119
flame out, maybe there was some mechanical malfunction, but something

372
00:19:14.279 --> 00:19:18.680
happened because those pesky Russians can't reach that altitude. Well,

373
00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:21.599
they could back in the fifties, when the U two

374
00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:24.880
program started in fifty six to sixty, the Soviets had

375
00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:28.279
the SA one that could only reach sixty thousand feet.

376
00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:32.200
Over four years of research and development, the Soviets improved

377
00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:35.359
their weapons system. They created the SA two that could

378
00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:38.359
now reach seventy thousand feet and above. But because my

379
00:19:38.519 --> 00:19:40.839
dad was the first U two pilot to be shot

380
00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:44.079
down at seventy thousand feet, oh no, no, no, they

381
00:19:44.160 --> 00:19:46.279
can't reach that altitude. It had to be the pilot's fault.

382
00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:50.480
So it was easier to blame the pilot than to

383
00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:54.359
publicly admit we were behind the Soviets and technology. It

384
00:19:54.480 --> 00:19:57.480
was easier to blame the pilot than to further embarrass

385
00:19:57.599 --> 00:20:01.440
President Eisenhower, who had just been caught line about this event.

386
00:20:01.880 --> 00:20:06.319
Eisenhower publicly states it's a weather research flight. Well, in fact,

387
00:20:06.400 --> 00:20:09.519
it was a CIA fly, a spyflight, and Eisenhower got

388
00:20:09.640 --> 00:20:13.119
caught line to the American public, the world public. The

389
00:20:13.279 --> 00:20:16.119
very first time a US president was caught line was

390
00:20:16.279 --> 00:20:19.599
Eisenhower because of the U two incident. Now, sixty five

391
00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:22.720
years later, we know that presidents can and do lie,

392
00:20:23.240 --> 00:20:25.720
but back in nineteen sixty it was the very first

393
00:20:25.799 --> 00:20:29.119
time one had been caught line. Sensational news stories around

394
00:20:29.119 --> 00:20:29.680
the world.

395
00:20:29.759 --> 00:20:33.400
And now you're kind of surprised if they don't lie exactly.

396
00:20:33.559 --> 00:20:34.640
Oh, you're telling us the truth.

397
00:20:36.480 --> 00:20:36.640
You know.

398
00:20:36.920 --> 00:20:38.880
It kind of sucks that it took him that long

399
00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:41.079
to actually clear your dad's name completely, because I mean,

400
00:20:41.119 --> 00:20:42.599
if he was such a bad pilot, didn't he come

401
00:20:42.599 --> 00:20:44.440
back and winning a test pilot?

402
00:20:44.880 --> 00:20:48.680
That's correct. He gets home in February sixty two, he's

403
00:20:48.759 --> 00:20:52.559
debriefed by the CIA. He's clear they realized he did

404
00:20:52.599 --> 00:20:55.039
everything he was supposed to do. He appears before a

405
00:20:55.119 --> 00:20:58.799
Senate Select committee, hearing the US senators exonerate him of

406
00:20:58.839 --> 00:21:02.039
any wrongdoing. So, you know, the first month back, he's

407
00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:05.359
been cleared by the CIA, he's been cleared exonerated by

408
00:21:05.400 --> 00:21:08.119
the US Senate, but he's not yet been cleared by

409
00:21:08.160 --> 00:21:11.240
the court of public opinion. Because of the fake news

410
00:21:11.319 --> 00:21:15.000
of the time period, it tarnished his reputation. For the

411
00:21:15.079 --> 00:21:17.400
most part, my dad didn't care what other people thought.

412
00:21:17.720 --> 00:21:19.599
He knew that he did the things he was supposed

413
00:21:19.599 --> 00:21:24.400
to do, so he was very comfortable maintaining and getting

414
00:21:24.440 --> 00:21:26.519
on with his life after he came home. He just

415
00:21:26.720 --> 00:21:29.319
ignored everybody else about what they thought he should or

416
00:21:29.319 --> 00:21:31.799
should not have done. I like to call those people

417
00:21:32.200 --> 00:21:35.160
armchair generals. He should have done this, he should have

418
00:21:35.240 --> 00:21:36.880
done that. If I was there, I would have done

419
00:21:36.880 --> 00:21:38.720
it this way. Well they weren't there.

420
00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:42.480
Well, that always catched up because there's no way they

421
00:21:42.519 --> 00:21:43.279
could have been there.

422
00:21:43.240 --> 00:21:46.759
To be exactly. But boy, from the armchair general and

423
00:21:46.799 --> 00:21:48.920
the comfort of their home on their sofa with their

424
00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:51.039
beer in their hand, oh they could have done it better.

425
00:21:51.559 --> 00:21:53.440
Well, we kind of got a little bit of a

426
00:21:53.480 --> 00:21:56.599
cold war going nowadays with over in China and so China.

427
00:21:56.640 --> 00:21:59.319
They were really putting their foot down in twenty eighteen. Yep,

428
00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:02.960
their leaders China, they decided to ban the British cartoon

429
00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:07.119
Pepa Pig if that Pepa Pig was subversive, and so

430
00:22:07.240 --> 00:22:09.160
they had removed from all their Internet sites and they

431
00:22:09.240 --> 00:22:11.519
banned written from planet. Do you know Pepa Pig?

432
00:22:12.039 --> 00:22:14.160
I've heard of Pepper Pig, but I don't know the

433
00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:15.240
full background of it.

434
00:22:15.640 --> 00:22:17.160
I don't know there is. All I know is I

435
00:22:17.279 --> 00:22:18.559
just kind of ready to see what it was.

436
00:22:19.319 --> 00:22:21.920
Oh, very cool. Yeah, those pesky Chinese. That is the

437
00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:24.559
new Cold War I refer to as Cold War two

438
00:22:24.599 --> 00:22:28.359
point zero. Russia is going to be a pain, but

439
00:22:28.759 --> 00:22:33.319
China is long term strategy. They think in terms of centuries.

440
00:22:33.480 --> 00:22:36.200
They don't think in terms of days, years, or decades.

441
00:22:37.480 --> 00:22:40.319
Hong Kong, for example, a ninety nine year lease for them,

442
00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:43.160
that's a drop in the bucket. Now Hong Kong belongs

443
00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:46.480
to them again. They are strategizing how to make sure

444
00:22:46.559 --> 00:22:49.400
they stay in power or become the number one power

445
00:22:49.720 --> 00:22:54.759
in the future. They're from their Moon exploration, from their

446
00:22:54.960 --> 00:23:00.559
South China Sea endeavors, from their economic dealings. They are

447
00:23:00.720 --> 00:23:03.559
really really going to be the next major superpower that

448
00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:06.640
we have to contend with and are contending with right now.

449
00:23:07.039 --> 00:23:09.160
I totally agree with you one hundred percent on that one.

450
00:23:09.599 --> 00:23:11.000
All right, should we do some birthdays?

451
00:23:11.400 --> 00:23:13.480
Birthdays? Who was born on May first?

452
00:23:14.279 --> 00:23:20.440
Joke joke joke, shug dish shims Day.

453
00:23:20.759 --> 00:23:23.640
We gonna he left this shimof day. We want sit

454
00:23:23.799 --> 00:23:26.960
botage let thish Shiburs day. And you you don't do

455
00:23:27.799 --> 00:23:28.400
your birthday.

456
00:23:28.920 --> 00:23:30.880
They didn't much studying in the wild West in the

457
00:23:30.960 --> 00:23:31.799
late eighteen hundreds.

458
00:23:32.119 --> 00:23:33.000
Oh say that again.

459
00:23:33.279 --> 00:23:35.640
Have you studied the wild West back in the late

460
00:23:35.680 --> 00:23:36.720
eighteen hundreds? Very much?

461
00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:37.319
Uh?

462
00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:39.960
Just a little, not a lot. My focus is on

463
00:23:40.079 --> 00:23:42.039
Cold War second half of the twentieth century.

464
00:23:42.359 --> 00:23:44.440
But I bet you still don't know this lady. She

465
00:23:44.599 --> 00:23:48.759
was a frontierswoman, a sharpshooter, Army scout, Indian fighter, wild

466
00:23:48.839 --> 00:23:53.519
West show performer, prostitute. Glameney Jane. She was born in Princeton, Missouri,

467
00:23:53.519 --> 00:23:56.240
in eighteen fifty two. Now, both her parents died when

468
00:23:56.279 --> 00:23:58.599
she was fourteen years old, so she loaded up her

469
00:23:58.680 --> 00:24:01.839
five younger siblings and they moved from Missouri to Wyoming

470
00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:04.119
started working as an army scout, but she got a

471
00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:06.079
little glow on cash. She did do a little prostitution

472
00:24:06.200 --> 00:24:10.119
in the Feeder family. Now She really became wilder and

473
00:24:10.240 --> 00:24:12.279
tougher than pretty much any man. And there was no

474
00:24:12.559 --> 00:24:15.680
doubt by anybody ever around Glamity Jane that she could

475
00:24:15.759 --> 00:24:18.440
out drink any man. Now, she became really famous when

476
00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:21.359
she joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. She ended up

477
00:24:21.359 --> 00:24:23.759
living up in dead Wood, South Dakota, became best friends

478
00:24:23.799 --> 00:24:26.440
with wild Bill Hitcock. Now she was married twice or

479
00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:29.200
four times, nobody's quite sure, but she did have two

480
00:24:29.279 --> 00:24:31.880
daughters along the way. Now, all that drinking it got

481
00:24:31.960 --> 00:24:34.480
calamity in nineteen oh three, at only fifty one years old.

482
00:24:34.759 --> 00:24:36.880
Her only request before she died was that she was

483
00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:39.559
buried buried next to her best friend. Yep, she's still

484
00:24:39.599 --> 00:25:02.759
buried next to wild Bill today. So even with the

485
00:25:02.799 --> 00:25:04.960
bad public opinion your dad got, did he still have

486
00:25:05.079 --> 00:25:07.279
a pretty big devout in love for its country.

487
00:25:07.640 --> 00:25:07.759
Oh?

488
00:25:07.880 --> 00:25:11.319
Yes, most definitely. Even though Dad got a bad rap

489
00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:15.559
at the time, he was very much the patriot believed

490
00:25:15.599 --> 00:25:20.279
in America and the Democracy did not like communism at all,

491
00:25:20.519 --> 00:25:22.200
which is why he was doing what he was doing

492
00:25:22.279 --> 00:25:24.519
to fly over the Soviet Union to find out their

493
00:25:24.519 --> 00:25:27.519
strength and weaknesses to keep Americans safe at home. So yeah,

494
00:25:27.559 --> 00:25:29.799
he was very much loved his country cool.

495
00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:31.960
What we just heard was the first lady of radio.

496
00:25:31.960 --> 00:25:34.680
Her name's Kate Smith. She was born in Greenville, Virginia

497
00:25:34.680 --> 00:25:37.160
in nineteen oh seven. She was the first person seeing

498
00:25:37.200 --> 00:25:39.759
God Bless America on the radio. She made her a

499
00:25:39.799 --> 00:25:42.799
big superstar. From the nineteen thirties through World War Two,

500
00:25:42.920 --> 00:25:45.039
she was the most popular female singer on the radio,

501
00:25:45.480 --> 00:25:48.119
saying with all the top orchestras, and during World War

502
00:25:48.160 --> 00:25:50.880
Two she was able to raise over six hundred million

503
00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:53.759
dollars selling war bonds. That's like a billion dollars today.

504
00:25:54.039 --> 00:25:56.119
That's the most any entertainment during that time was able

505
00:25:56.160 --> 00:25:58.160
to sell her in the war. In the nineteen fifties,

506
00:25:58.240 --> 00:26:00.240
she also had a couple of TV shows. There was

507
00:26:00.279 --> 00:26:03.799
only one clip of Hank Williams the Senior obviously singing

508
00:26:03.920 --> 00:26:05.799
on TV. So if you see that clip of Hank

509
00:26:05.839 --> 00:26:08.319
singing on TV, EPP was on one of her shows, Kates.

510
00:26:08.359 --> 00:26:11.200
He died from respiratorial failure nineteen eighty six at seventy

511
00:26:11.319 --> 00:26:15.240
nine years old. Actor Glynn Flord gwinn Ford. He was

512
00:26:15.319 --> 00:26:18.240
born in Quinnect, Canada in nineteen eighteen. Acted for over

513
00:26:18.359 --> 00:26:20.880
fifty years, made over one hundred and ten movies huge

514
00:26:20.920 --> 00:26:23.759
box office draws in the forties, fifties, and sixties. You

515
00:26:23.880 --> 00:26:26.079
probably know him best for playing Clark Clinton's dad in

516
00:26:26.119 --> 00:26:28.880
the original Superman movie in nineteen seventy eight. For that,

517
00:26:29.039 --> 00:26:33.559
He's starting Gilda, Blackboard, Jungle Free, Tend to Yuma Midway Now.

518
00:26:33.599 --> 00:26:36.000
He had a son from his first wife. They divorced,

519
00:26:36.119 --> 00:26:38.160
and then he had three more divorces after that. They

520
00:26:38.200 --> 00:26:40.519
were really quick Glenn. He died in two thousand and six,

521
00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:41.359
ninety years old.

522
00:26:41.799 --> 00:26:44.960
They saved four from four and Girl Theer Just One

523
00:26:45.079 --> 00:26:58.400
Love and Tessimo World and foun Helping Me tr Emprise

524
00:26:58.480 --> 00:27:00.839
tells me no one can take Please.

525
00:27:01.279 --> 00:27:02.119
Do you know who that is?

526
00:27:02.839 --> 00:27:06.160
I would think that would be country singer Sonny James.

527
00:27:06.400 --> 00:27:06.880
You bet ya?

528
00:27:07.359 --> 00:27:09.200
Well, that was a very good guest, since I have

529
00:27:09.279 --> 00:27:13.799
a cheat sheet in front of me. Country singer Sonny

530
00:27:13.839 --> 00:27:17.640
James was born on the family farm outside of Hackleberg, Alabama,

531
00:27:17.759 --> 00:27:20.200
in nineteen twenty eight. Sonny is one of the most

532
00:27:20.279 --> 00:27:24.359
successful country singers in history. After fighting in the Korean War,

533
00:27:24.880 --> 00:27:27.960
he came home and moved to Nashville. He released thirty

534
00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:32.839
seven albums had twenty six number one songs from nineteen

535
00:27:32.880 --> 00:27:36.480
sixty seven to seventy two, he had sixteen straight songs

536
00:27:36.559 --> 00:27:40.079
go to number one. That record stood until Blake Shelton

537
00:27:40.160 --> 00:27:44.400
had seventeen straight in twenty twenty one. Sonny married nineteen

538
00:27:44.519 --> 00:27:48.000
fifty seven. In nineteen eighty three, he retired from music

539
00:27:48.359 --> 00:27:50.720
after all those years of touring. He just wanted to

540
00:27:50.720 --> 00:27:52.720
spend the rest of his life with his wife. He

541
00:27:52.839 --> 00:27:56.119
died in twenty sixteen, the age of eighty seven years old,

542
00:27:56.319 --> 00:28:10.839
from natural causes. Then we have another clip listing in listing,

543
00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:21.279
that clip brings back a lot of memories. Rita Coolidge

544
00:28:21.599 --> 00:28:24.960
is eighty and born on May first. She was born

545
00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:29.559
in Lothayette, Tennessee. She had hit songs on pop, country, jazz,

546
00:28:29.759 --> 00:28:33.960
and adult contemporary charts. She started out as a backup singer,

547
00:28:34.359 --> 00:28:39.680
sang behind Joe Cocker, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Hendrix, and Eric Clapton,

548
00:28:39.839 --> 00:28:42.119
some of the greats. She was able to go solo

549
00:28:42.200 --> 00:28:46.319
in seventy one All Time High, I'd rather leave when

550
00:28:46.359 --> 00:28:49.559
I'm in love, Your love keeps lifting me higher. The

551
00:28:49.680 --> 00:28:52.119
way you do, the things you do are some of

552
00:28:52.200 --> 00:28:56.359
her big hits. She married Chris Christofferson for seven years.

553
00:28:56.640 --> 00:28:59.200
They had a daughter together, Rita has been married to

554
00:28:59.319 --> 00:29:02.720
her third husban since twenty eighteen. So that's a little

555
00:29:02.720 --> 00:29:05.200
bit about Rita Coolidge. And now the second or the

556
00:29:05.240 --> 00:29:06.079
third clip.

557
00:29:09.400 --> 00:29:21.599
Change comes.

558
00:29:24.759 --> 00:29:27.960
So that clip is by Ray Parker Junior, who was

559
00:29:28.039 --> 00:29:32.400
born in Detroit. He's seventy one on May first. He

560
00:29:32.519 --> 00:29:35.079
co wrote his first song when he was sixteen years old,

561
00:29:35.519 --> 00:29:38.839
and he wrote it with Marvin Gay. Ray has written

562
00:29:38.920 --> 00:29:41.400
so many songs for so many big named artists, not

563
00:29:41.559 --> 00:29:44.720
even going to start listing them. In nineteen seventy seven,

564
00:29:45.039 --> 00:29:47.960
Ray started his own R and B group called Radio

565
00:29:48.519 --> 00:29:52.759
r A Ydo. They had the hits Jack and Jill.

566
00:29:53.279 --> 00:29:56.279
A woman needs love just like you do. You can't

567
00:29:56.440 --> 00:29:59.559
change that. In nineteen eighty two he went solo hit

568
00:29:59.720 --> 00:30:02.920
had a solo hit The Other Woman. I Still Can't

569
00:30:02.960 --> 00:30:07.400
get Over Losing You Ghostbusters. Ray married nineteen ninety four

570
00:30:07.960 --> 00:30:09.480
and he has four children.

571
00:30:09.759 --> 00:30:11.640
Do you know the song by Huey Lewis and the

572
00:30:11.720 --> 00:30:13.200
news I Need I Want a New Drug?

573
00:30:13.720 --> 00:30:13.920
Yes?

574
00:30:14.319 --> 00:30:14.640
Did you know?

575
00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:17.599
Huey sued Ray Parker Junior for that. He said that

576
00:30:17.960 --> 00:30:19.920
Ray just used as I Want a New drug song.

577
00:30:20.319 --> 00:30:23.200
They went to court building interesting, I did not know that.

578
00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:25.960
And actually they found for Hue Ray had to pay

579
00:30:26.160 --> 00:30:28.240
Huey Lewis in the news, I think about thirty grand

580
00:30:28.519 --> 00:30:29.599
in order for rights for that.

581
00:30:30.200 --> 00:30:34.160
Wow, that's what happens when you get lawyers involved you

582
00:30:34.680 --> 00:30:35.599
for everything.

583
00:30:35.759 --> 00:30:40.160
You tall, She won't now you won't eat all.

584
00:30:42.640 --> 00:30:46.880
You just want a mini brog and hard and wondered

585
00:30:47.160 --> 00:30:49.880
what waw Welcome you.

586
00:30:52.720 --> 00:30:55.319
In nineteen ninety two, Welcome to the Club. That was

587
00:30:55.359 --> 00:30:57.640
the first song that Tim McGraw released. Ate it all

588
00:30:57.640 --> 00:30:59.799
the way up to number forty seven on the country chart.

589
00:31:00.160 --> 00:31:03.039
TAM's fifty eight today. He was born as Start, Louisiana.

590
00:31:03.440 --> 00:31:05.720
Some of his twenty six number one songs are Don't

591
00:31:05.799 --> 00:31:08.359
Take the Girl, Not a Moment Too Soon, My Next

592
00:31:08.440 --> 00:31:12.279
thirty Years, the Cowboy, and Me. Tammy's kicking off a

593
00:31:12.279 --> 00:31:15.720
summer tour only twenty first. It's up here in Fort Collins, Colorado,

594
00:31:15.759 --> 00:31:18.799
at the Colorado State University Stadium. Tammy's done quite a

595
00:31:18.839 --> 00:31:20.799
bit of acting. He was in the movie Friday Night

596
00:31:20.920 --> 00:31:23.640
Lives Flicka The blind Side on TV. He was in

597
00:31:23.720 --> 00:31:27.319
eighteen eighty three Mary Country singer Faith Hill back in

598
00:31:27.400 --> 00:31:30.079
nineteen ninety six, and they have three daughters. Now you

599
00:31:30.200 --> 00:31:32.599
mentioned your books, You've readen three really good. You've written

600
00:31:32.599 --> 00:31:34.640
a lot of articles too, but you've gotten three really

601
00:31:34.680 --> 00:31:35.480
good books out there.

602
00:31:35.920 --> 00:31:39.079
Well, thank you. Yes, I do have several books published now.

603
00:31:39.119 --> 00:31:42.200
I think there's up to seven or eight. My first one,

604
00:31:42.480 --> 00:31:45.559
Letters from a Soviet Prison, came out in twenty seventeen.

605
00:31:46.240 --> 00:31:48.839
During my thirty five plus years of research to find

606
00:31:48.880 --> 00:31:51.839
out about my dad, I uncovered eighty five of his

607
00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:55.279
letters to and from prison to his family, as well

608
00:31:55.319 --> 00:31:58.359
as the journal he kept well incarcerated. So in twenty

609
00:31:58.559 --> 00:32:03.000
seventeen I had that published self published through Lulu. I

610
00:32:03.079 --> 00:32:06.160
wanted to make sure that his written words, his thoughts,

611
00:32:06.240 --> 00:32:09.000
his feelings, his hopes, his despairs, what it's like to

612
00:32:09.079 --> 00:32:10.759
be in a Soviet prison during the middle of the

613
00:32:10.839 --> 00:32:16.279
Cold War was available for students, scholars, researchers so they

614
00:32:16.319 --> 00:32:20.079
could read his written words from the Horse's Mouth. In

615
00:32:20.359 --> 00:32:25.240
twenty nineteen, my second book came out, Spy Pilot Francis

616
00:32:25.319 --> 00:32:28.640
Gary Powers, the U two Incident and a controversial Cold

617
00:32:28.720 --> 00:32:33.160
War legacy. I spent thirty five plus years doing research.

618
00:32:33.599 --> 00:32:38.640
I was interviewing family members, dad's contemporaries, pilots with the

619
00:32:38.720 --> 00:32:41.200
U two program or the US Air Force, people He

620
00:32:41.359 --> 00:32:48.799
worked with historians, air Force officials, retired CIA, FBIKGB, Soviet

621
00:32:49.160 --> 00:32:51.839
rocket scientists, whoever I could get a hold of to

622
00:32:51.920 --> 00:32:53.720
talk about the U two incident and find out the

623
00:32:53.759 --> 00:32:56.720
truth of what took place. So after thirty five years

624
00:32:56.759 --> 00:32:59.759
of research, I had my second book published. It is

625
00:32:59.880 --> 00:33:03.079
the Truth of what took place. It takes Dad's reputation

626
00:33:03.279 --> 00:33:07.319
from infamy and controversy in the sixties to that of

627
00:33:07.319 --> 00:33:10.359
an American hero today. It goes through the behind the

628
00:33:10.400 --> 00:33:14.920
scenes process as to how he was ultimately posthumously awarded

629
00:33:15.200 --> 00:33:18.079
the Pow Metal in two thousand and the Silver Star

630
00:33:18.160 --> 00:33:21.240
in twenty twelve. My third book came out in twenty

631
00:33:21.359 --> 00:33:25.079
twenty two. It is a graphic novel, a glorified comic

632
00:33:25.160 --> 00:33:27.960
book for a younger audience. It's about the U two

633
00:33:28.039 --> 00:33:31.519
incident and it's called Enemy Territory. So this is a

634
00:33:31.599 --> 00:33:35.680
way for kids in school, middle schoolers, high schoolers to

635
00:33:35.960 --> 00:33:38.720
learn about the U two incident through a medium that

636
00:33:38.880 --> 00:33:41.960
many kids enjoy, which are comic books. My fourth book

637
00:33:42.079 --> 00:33:44.599
came out last year. My fourth, fifth, and six books

638
00:33:44.640 --> 00:33:47.960
came out last year twenty twenty four. Another graphic novel

639
00:33:48.039 --> 00:33:51.039
on the Berlin Airlift I've written three books about Dad.

640
00:33:51.480 --> 00:33:54.200
Now I'm starting to write books about Cold War history

641
00:33:54.240 --> 00:33:57.799
in general or specific events. So in the twenty twenty

642
00:33:57.839 --> 00:34:01.920
four the Berlin Airlift, Remembering the Humanity, a graphic novel

643
00:34:02.039 --> 00:34:04.359
came out and it talks all about the Berlin Crisis,

644
00:34:04.440 --> 00:34:08.119
the Berlin Airlift, Gale Halverson, the Candy Bomber, and that

645
00:34:08.280 --> 00:34:11.079
part of Cold War history. Another book that came out

646
00:34:11.199 --> 00:34:15.719
last year was Cold War Virginia. I partnered with a

647
00:34:15.880 --> 00:34:19.119
really good friend of mine, Chris Sturdivan. He already wrote

648
00:34:19.199 --> 00:34:22.639
Cold War Illinois and Cold War Wisconsin, and now we've

649
00:34:22.719 --> 00:34:26.360
partnered together to write Cold War Virginia, Cold War California,

650
00:34:26.599 --> 00:34:30.440
Cold War Florida, and other states as we go forward

651
00:34:30.760 --> 00:34:33.679
over the next few years. Cold War Virginia deals with

652
00:34:34.199 --> 00:34:38.159
sites in the Commonwealth that are Cold War related, the Pentagon,

653
00:34:38.639 --> 00:34:42.639
the CIA headquarters, Nike missile bases. They also deal with

654
00:34:42.800 --> 00:34:47.559
personalities George Marshall, General Marshall, the Marshall Plan. He lived

655
00:34:47.559 --> 00:34:52.280
in Leesburg, Virginia. My dad, Gary Powers, Native Virginia, born

656
00:34:52.400 --> 00:34:55.920
in Pound, Virginia in southwest Virginia near Kentucky. So those

657
00:34:55.920 --> 00:34:58.920
are the type of articles and short stories you'll read

658
00:34:58.960 --> 00:35:01.960
in Cold War Virginia all about the Commonwealth of Virginia's

659
00:35:02.079 --> 00:35:05.239
Cold War history. Then my last book came out last year,

660
00:35:05.800 --> 00:35:11.599
Defending America Defensive Sites. And this was actually a study,

661
00:35:12.119 --> 00:35:16.039
a report that I participated in through the National Park Service.

662
00:35:16.519 --> 00:35:19.800
I was the chairman for the Presidential Advisory Committee on

663
00:35:19.880 --> 00:35:23.320
the Cold War Themed Study, and I worked with National

664
00:35:23.360 --> 00:35:27.519
Park Service reps leading Cold War historians for about ten years.

665
00:35:27.519 --> 00:35:32.119
As the chairman, we produced this report that identified Cold

666
00:35:32.320 --> 00:35:36.239
War historic sites around the country for preservation. It is

667
00:35:36.320 --> 00:35:40.679
available online for free. You can look up National Park

668
00:35:40.760 --> 00:35:45.360
Service Cold War Theme Study, Gary Powers and that'll pop

669
00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:47.920
it up. If you'd like a soft copy, a soft

670
00:35:48.079 --> 00:35:51.400
back copy of this report. I had it published. I

671
00:35:51.519 --> 00:35:53.920
threw my name on the cover. I gave the National

672
00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:56.639
Park Service full credit. But because I was the chairman

673
00:35:56.719 --> 00:35:58.960
of this committee, I published the book so that we

674
00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:00.920
could get it out for public distribution.

675
00:36:01.400 --> 00:36:03.760
I think it's the part that the younger generations who

676
00:36:03.800 --> 00:36:05.639
didn't go through the Cold War at all or anything,

677
00:36:05.679 --> 00:36:08.360
they actually learn about it, because, like you said, it

678
00:36:08.360 --> 00:36:10.320
looks like we're heading that way again with China. So

679
00:36:10.960 --> 00:36:13.039
give them, you know, let them know what's on the

680
00:36:13.159 --> 00:36:15.119
horizon at least, I guess you would say.

681
00:36:15.320 --> 00:36:17.960
That's correct. Hopefully we won't repeat the same mistakes we

682
00:36:18.039 --> 00:36:20.840
did the first Cold War, but you never know. Sometimes

683
00:36:20.880 --> 00:36:22.280
you just don't learn from history.

684
00:36:22.519 --> 00:36:25.000
That's true, and you actually do tours stuff to help

685
00:36:25.159 --> 00:36:28.360
people actually really see what's going on in the Cold War.

686
00:36:28.719 --> 00:36:33.159
That's right, Jeff. I have been operating d C Cold

687
00:36:33.239 --> 00:36:37.159
War Spy Tours, or I should say spy tours of Washington,

688
00:36:37.280 --> 00:36:40.920
d C for over twenty years, and what it entails

689
00:36:41.079 --> 00:36:44.239
is a group of people. A tour group will contact

690
00:36:44.320 --> 00:36:47.880
me any thirty people minimum, fifty people maximum one bus.

691
00:36:48.440 --> 00:36:51.679
I'll take them by drop points, safe houses, and other

692
00:36:51.800 --> 00:36:55.280
clandestine locations where spies were captured or killed in the

693
00:36:55.440 --> 00:36:59.000
Washington DC area. We go by such places as the

694
00:36:59.079 --> 00:37:04.719
CIA head coore, FBI headquarters, National Reconnaissance Office in Chantilly,

695
00:37:05.440 --> 00:37:09.519
possibly even the NSA building up in Fort Meade, Maryland.

696
00:37:09.880 --> 00:37:13.079
They have a great museum there called the National Cryptologic

697
00:37:13.199 --> 00:37:16.000
Museum that we can visit. Sometimes will take groups to

698
00:37:16.039 --> 00:37:18.760
the Spy Museum in downtown d C. Or to the

699
00:37:18.880 --> 00:37:22.480
Cold War Museum at Vintil, Virginia. All depends on what

700
00:37:22.559 --> 00:37:25.599
their budget and their time constraints are. In addition to

701
00:37:25.719 --> 00:37:28.400
doing the d c's tours, for the last three years,

702
00:37:28.559 --> 00:37:32.760
I've been running Cold War espionage tours of Europe. My

703
00:37:32.920 --> 00:37:35.880
first one in twenty twenty three went to sites in

704
00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:39.119
Germany and the Czech Republic. My second one in twenty

705
00:37:39.280 --> 00:37:43.679
twenty four went to sites in Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia

706
00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:47.119
and Hungary. And this one one for twenty twenty five.

707
00:37:47.159 --> 00:37:52.480
We depart tomorrow April. In April through May third we

708
00:37:52.599 --> 00:37:58.519
will be going to sites in UK, Netherlands as well

709
00:37:58.679 --> 00:38:01.480
as Germany. If you're interested in these types of tours,

710
00:38:01.519 --> 00:38:04.199
you can find out more about them online at Garypowers

711
00:38:04.239 --> 00:38:07.119
dot com or you can also go to my other website,

712
00:38:07.360 --> 00:38:10.519
spytour dot com and you can find out all about

713
00:38:10.519 --> 00:38:12.719
the tours I'm doing and you can contact me through

714
00:38:12.760 --> 00:38:13.519
those web pages.

715
00:38:13.719 --> 00:38:15.679
Well, that is really cool, and you're actually having a

716
00:38:15.719 --> 00:38:18.599
fundraiser for the Cold War Museum coming app correct.

717
00:38:19.039 --> 00:38:21.280
Yeah, thanks for reminding me of that. That's most important.

718
00:38:21.920 --> 00:38:26.039
May thirteenth is give local Piedmont and we live in

719
00:38:26.079 --> 00:38:29.440
the Piedmont region of Virginia at vent Hill, so it's

720
00:38:29.480 --> 00:38:33.960
a local area. A nonprofit that helps other nonprofits to

721
00:38:34.079 --> 00:38:37.719
raise funds on May thirteenth. If you go to our

722
00:38:37.800 --> 00:38:40.880
website and you click under donate, you should get to

723
00:38:41.039 --> 00:38:44.360
one of the links. You can also sign up for

724
00:38:44.440 --> 00:38:47.440
our newsletter and we can distribute out information to you

725
00:38:47.599 --> 00:38:50.480
that way online at cold war dot org. If you'd

726
00:38:50.559 --> 00:38:52.920
like to donate and make a contribution to the Colder

727
00:38:53.000 --> 00:38:56.119
Museum to help our efforts to honor veterans, preserve history,

728
00:38:56.159 --> 00:38:59.599
and educate kids, you can do so anytime, but the

729
00:38:59.679 --> 00:39:03.039
cam Pain Early Giving starts on April twenty ninth and

730
00:39:03.239 --> 00:39:07.480
then goes through May thirteenth. On May thirteenth, that's the

731
00:39:07.599 --> 00:39:10.280
really big fundraising day where we're encouraging everybody to give

732
00:39:10.320 --> 00:39:12.480
on that day. But if you can't, you can do

733
00:39:12.559 --> 00:39:14.079
it at least a week week and a half before

734
00:39:14.159 --> 00:39:17.519
starting April twenty ninth. So more information online at coldwar

735
00:39:17.639 --> 00:39:18.159
dot org.

736
00:39:18.599 --> 00:39:20.400
And we'll put that on the show notes too so

737
00:39:20.480 --> 00:39:22.679
you can in case you didn't get all that. But yeah,

738
00:39:22.800 --> 00:39:25.440
that's definitely something you want to put some money into. Man,

739
00:39:25.519 --> 00:39:27.760
that's a pretty pretty impressive thing that you got going

740
00:39:27.800 --> 00:39:28.119
on there.

741
00:39:28.639 --> 00:39:30.199
Thank you. And we are a five h one C

742
00:39:30.400 --> 00:39:34.119
three charity, so any donation is tax deductible as permitted

743
00:39:34.159 --> 00:39:34.519
by law.

744
00:39:34.840 --> 00:39:37.639
Awesome, Well, thank you Gary Man. It's been a great show.

745
00:39:37.639 --> 00:39:38.599
I'm really glad you came on.

746
00:39:39.079 --> 00:39:41.760
Well, thank you Jeff for the invitation. And anytime you

747
00:39:41.840 --> 00:39:43.719
want to do a follow up, please let me know.

748
00:39:44.599 --> 00:39:46.079
Okay, I'm going to hold you to it.

749
00:39:46.559 --> 00:39:49.760
Uh oh, put my foot in my mouth there and.

750
00:39:50.239 --> 00:39:51.719
Thank all of you. I hope you had a good

751
00:39:51.760 --> 00:39:55.199
time today too. Now we have a country radio station.

752
00:39:55.239 --> 00:39:57.519
It's called Country Interground Radio plays the best up and

753
00:39:57.599 --> 00:39:59.920
coming and independent country hours out there. We're gonna end

754
00:39:59.920 --> 00:40:02.559
with him is like Kenyan Lockery and it's son tossing

755
00:40:02.599 --> 00:40:04.760
and turning. You guys have an awesome day and we'll

756
00:40:04.760 --> 00:40:05.320
talk tomorrow.

757
00:40:05.920 --> 00:40:10.159
Laying here with my hand on my hands, all alone

758
00:40:10.440 --> 00:40:14.119
and or King's size, bitch, I guess that you're naught

759
00:40:14.239 --> 00:40:16.280
even sneaking and.

760
00:40:19.880 --> 00:40:22.440
All my phone it's not wanting just call.

761
00:40:23.280 --> 00:40:27.159
So I threw it up against fo waf. You got

762
00:40:27.239 --> 00:40:34.800
me shooloom tossing and turning. For you, you got me tossing,

763
00:40:35.480 --> 00:40:36.000
You got.

764
00:40:36.000 --> 00:40:39.119
Me turning and the middle of the nine.

765
00:40:39.239 --> 00:40:42.880
I'm here, but even if you were here, I'm doot

766
00:40:43.159 --> 00:40:45.000
love you and the ey