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

0:00 Hi everyone, I'm Jeff. Last year, on my first I had Gary Powers Junior sit in with me on the show. It was basically award winning show. Yeah, one of my only times. I'm never gonna get that probably, so we're gonna replay it this year. It's all about Last year it was the sixty fifth anniversary of Gary Power's getting shot down over the Soviet Union. It still has all the same old history in fact Toys about the day's stuff, but you get to hear all about the inside scoop on Gary Powers. So enjoy.

0:45 Hi everyone, I am Jeff, and thank you for joining us on history and fact Toy is about today. Today is May the first. Now today is really cool. Back in nineteen sixty it was the beginning of the height of the Cold War. I mean, the Cuban missile crisis hadn't hardy yet, but the United Dates in the Soviet Union. Now it was really tense between the two of them. When an America and Uto spy plane was actually shot down over the Soviet Union, it's pilot Frances Gary Powers. He did survive luckily, but it brought a whole bunch of diplomatic troubles between the two countries. Now today is the sixty fifth anniversary of that event. So to tell us all about it, we've got his son, Gary Powers Junior with us today. Now, Gary is a very successful historian, author, and speaker a whole lot more so we're gonna have fun today finding out about Junior. Today, Gary, why don't you introduce yourself?

1:31 All right, Jeff, Well, thanks for having me on your show. My name is Francis Gary Powers Junior. I go by Gary. I'm an author, a historian, and a public speaker. I lecture internationally on the need to honor Cold War veterans, preserve Cold War history, and educate future generations future students about this time period. I operate out of my home office near Richmond, Virginia, and I've been in the Virginia area now for about thirty thirty two years. Now, with your family being in the crossairs, did you did your dad talk to you a lot about the incident? Well? Yes, growing up, I had a very good relationship with my father. We'd hike and bike and fish, and i'd fly with him because he was a pilot and had a job a flying for radio and television stations.

2:17 So I had a very nice relationship with my dad up until August first of seventy seven he dies in the helicopter crash while working for NBC Television. But prior to that we talked about the U two incident. I was reading his book Operation Overflight. I'd ask some questions, he'd give me some answers. But as a kid, that's nice, Dad, I want to go play. So I wasn't asking the questions I wish I could ask. Now exactly now this kind of a sign. Did I read that you actually got a fly in one of those YouTube spyplanes. That's correct, Jeff back on the fortieth anniversary twenty five years ago, May first, twenty twenty. I'm sorry, May first, two thousand, I did a high flight in a U two out of bel Air Force in Central California.

3:02 I've got to see what your dad was experiencing and everything correct. Very surreal to fly in the backseat of a U two. It was I was able to find out, you know, what my dad did, what it was like to be at seventy thousand plus feet, just the serenity of it, the beautiful views, and just the also being alone. Usually the U two pilots are in there alone, and I had a pilot in the front cockpit versus me in the back cockpit. But it was just a very wonderful flight and brought me very close to my dad and was a wonderful experience to see what he did. I's kind of surprise. I didn't even know he's still used the U two anymore. Oh my gosh. They are still in service. The new ones have been built or were built in late seventies, early eighties. They are still flying today, head quartered out of bl Air Force Base. But I believe that September first is when their budget is terminated, and it might not last another year. It all depends on what Congress wants to do.

3:58 I think there's talk about just going to like high altitude drones or something in there. Well, high altitude drones and low altitude drones and artificial intelligence controlled drones and UAVs, the whole thing. Keep up, pilot's out of harm's way. No, that those satellites are so there's so much. I don't even know if you really need the way they can pinpoint those satellites now. Oh yeah, it's amazing. We have thousands of satellites in orbit now and the majority of them other than telecommunication, would be listening to what we do on the earth. Yeah, well, today is May the first, and now May it's named for Mayus, the Greek god of growth. May it's the only month of the year that the United States President hadn't died in The May birthstone is the emerald and the birth flower is Lili the valleys. So to celebrate May first, why not go tropical?

4:47 But take it from a sailor named Dady. Hobby is known for its lace. He got his very first. Lay in fig they made right at home in Hawaikiki. He got his very first lay in. Today is National lay Day. Now la it is a pretty necklace made of flowers. That's right. Now. They're all over the topics, but we're going to celebrate the ones that come out of Hawaiian islands today. Now each island has its own lay. In eighteen sixty six, Mark Twain he actually wrote a whole bunch of stories about going to Hawaii for the Sacramento Union newspaper. Oute his stories got so popular they went to nationwide. Yeah, basically what started the Hawaiian tourist industry. So as tourist started coming over the Hawaiians. They started arriving on the beach and then see the boats up and greeting the tourists with Leay's. Now it sounds like a pretty good exclusive excuse that plan a trip to Hawaii. He's spending time in Hawaii.

5:45 I did a growing up, went a couple times with my parents and then once with a very good fraternity brother who I used to live out there. Well, fine, now you actually established the Cold Warming Museum out there back east, right. Yes, I did. Back in nineteen ninety six. I founded the Cold War Museum to honor veterans, preserve history, educate kids on the time period. It is located at vint Hill, Virginia, which is forty five miles west of Washington, d C. It's on a former Army communication base, a listening post that was active throughout World War II and the Cold War to monitor electronic communications, signals intelligence from around the world, as well as the US the embassies in Washington, D C.

6:32 That's some pretty intense stuff back then, at least now that we're finding out about it now. Oh, yes, a lot of stuff has come to light over the last fifty years. Now, that's definitely so. If you're back east in Virginia heading through that area, make sure you're swinging by the Cold War music. That sounds really cool. Great, Jeff. Yeah. And also for more people or for people to find out more about it, they can visit our website coldwar dot org. So do people donate your what you're showing there or do you have to go hunt them all down? And how do you get all. Your oh my gosh. Over the last twenty five years now or so, we have been collecting artifacts from any way we could, some off eBay, some from retired veterans, from some family members of veterans who have passed. We have gotten items from the USS Liberty, the USS Pueblo, overhead reconnaissance platforms such as the U two, the SR seventy one, KH Corona, Hexagon satellite, Spice satellites. We have items from Civil Defense as well as of vent Hil, authentic items from vent Hil that were used during their heyday when they were listening to the Soviets and the other foreign countries. So we have quite a wonderful collection of flags, banners, regalia, uniforms, items from Potsdam and the military liaison missions, and just a whole slew of items that are now very hard to come by.

7:56 Well, that sounds definitely like a must say, man, that sounds really interesting. All right, let's see what happened in entertainment on me. The first let's back here two thousand and six. Number one album was Me and My Gang by Rascal Flax. Daniel Powder had the numb one song with bad Day because. You had a bad day, Take your mone down, save a sad song, just to turn it down. Save it down though, tell me, don't lie. You fine, you have a bad day, call it, don't call me back down and you. Pay me doll fine you have. The number one country song was from bon Jovi and Jennifer Nettles. He says you can't go home again. He says you.

8:40 Can't go He says. You can't go back all around the world, and that a matter of fact, lay one place, nam. Wanna says you king. To. The number one book was Two Little Girls in Blue by Mary Higgins Clark. The top movie is Mission Impossible three ethan hunt. He gets into with ruth A's drug dealer. Now that drug dealer wants to kill him and his fiance. Stars Tom Kriz, Michelle Monahan, and ving Rhyme's Philip seymour Hausman. Now you've done a lot of education. That's why you're in such a demand as a speaker and a writer and that kind of stuff. He came out here in Colorado and did a little.

9:24 Schooling, that's correct. I got my second master's degree in US History from Adams State University there in Colorado. Did you enjoy your time? Oh? I did. It was a virtual course, so I did all my classes online, but I had to go to Colorado to defend my thesis. And my thesis was basically my second book, Spy Pilot. So I wrote this book. It was published in twenty nineteen, and I got my master's degree in US History in twenty eighteen. So my thesis became my second book. Well that's pretty cool. Not many people's thesis is turned into good books. Well, thank you, all right. You want to see what happened in in history today on May the first.

10:05 Sure I know a little bit about May first history other than the U two incident. Back in seventeen eighteen, the Spanish Catholic missionaries, they established this omission San Antonio de Valero, which is better known as the Alamo. So that was established in seventeen eighteen on May First. Then back in Great Britain in eighteen forty the world's first postage stamp with an adhesive back went on sale. They called it the Penny Back or the Penny Black I should say. It cost a penny and had a profile of Queen Victoria. Then again in eighteen fifty one, Great Britain had the Great Exhibition in London. George Jennings unveiled his newest invention. He called them monkey closets. They were the world's first public flushing toilets. Monkey closets. That's a great pit of trivia right there, and it cost one cent if you wanted to use one. And the Spanish American War back in eighteen ninety eight off the Philippines, the US Navy had one of the biggest naval battles in history. They completely destroyed the Spanish fleet off the coast of Manila. The United States hardly had anyone get hurt.

11:17 The US captain in charge, George Dewey, became so famous for the victory the Navy created a new hymn. Admiral Dewey was the first Navy admiral. Because of that Sea engagement. It's more trivia, all right. When Clyde Tombodd discovered Pluto in February of nineteen thirty, no one could decide what to name it. Everybody wanted their own little say and all that kind of caused really a lot of infighting between all the nerds you study that kind of stuff. But today, in nineteen thirty the allgreed on the name Pluto. Bluo. It's the Roman god of the underworld. Now. Venetia Burning came up with the name of it. She's a eleven year old girl over in England. Her dad. She successed it to her grandfather, who is a really big wig in the astronomy community. Nineteen thirty one, the Empire State Building opened up at two hundred and fifty feet I it was the world's tallest building. Yeah, to stay that way until nineteen seventy when the World Trade Center invested. Today, the Empire State Building, it's the fifty fourth largest building in the world. Nineteen thirty nine, Batman, he made his DC comics debut. Do you like Cheerios?

12:17 Yes? I do like Cheerios. It was nineteen forty one as serial Cheerios went on, so start out calling the cheery Oates that they changed the name of Cheerios. In nineteen forty five, nineteen forty eight in Birmingham, Alabama, white US senator from Idaho, his name was Glenn Taylor. He got arrested. Yeah, see, he was entering a meeting there. He went through the wrong door. He went through the door and marked his negroes. All right, it was today in nineteen sixty that our co host knows all about. Well, that's correct. May first, nineteen sixty my father, Francis Gary Powers gets shot down over the Soviet Union, hands up, spending two years in the Soviet prison, then gets exchange for a Soviet spy in February of nineteen sixty two. For those of you who are movie buffs, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks do a movie in twenty fifteen called Bridge of Spies that depicts this historical event of my father being shot down over the Soviet Union, the capture of Soviet spy Rudolph Abel in New York City, and their ultimate exchange at the Glenager Bridge in Potsdam, Germany on February tenth of nineteen sixty two. Just a quick thing, I want to mention here about my father and the U two incident as a result of him being shot down.

13:25 At the time in nineteen sixty there were a lot of controversies, a lot of conspiracy theories and fake news of the time. While my father was in prison, editorials were written in the newspapers saying he defected, he landed the plane intact, he spilled his guts and told the Soviets everything he knew, or that he had not followed orders and committed suicide, all of which were part truth, mistruths in your windows, and some outright lies. In nineteen ninety eight, there was a declassification conference hosted by the CIA and the US Air Force at Fort Leslie Jnaire in Washington, d C. It's declassifying the UTWO program. As a result of that declassification conference, two very important things were revealed for the first time. First, the altitude at which Dad was shot down seventy five hundred feet. There were no flame out, there was no sabotage, there was no pilot air It was an actual SA two missile, one of eight that were fired at the airplane on May first, explodes near enough to the tail section caused structural failure, it brings down the plane. The second major thing to be declassified on that date in ninety eight is that it was a CIA US Air Force program.

14:39 For all intent and purposes, they could not be separated. As a result, it was a quote unquote military operation. Once that word military was declassified, it allowed the American government to posthumously award my father the Pow Medal in May of two thousand and the Silver Star in June of two thousand and two twelve. So as a family, we're very honored and very humbled to know that dad has been honored by our government as a hero to our country. It took forty and fifty years, respectively, but it goes to show it's never too late to set the record straight, and we're very glad that they were able to do so back in two thousand and twenty twelve. Yeah, that is closed. This kind of shows that fake news has always been there, you know, it always sucked.

15:23 Oh yes, fake news, misinformation, disinformation is nothing new. So you actually consultant in that movie with Steven Spielberg, Right. That's right. I was a consultant on it. I reached out to them, they got in touch with me after I sent an email to a few email addresses that I found online, I talked to their producer, Mark Platt. I told him what I'm doing with the Cold War Museum, cold War history, honoring veterans, preserving it for future generations, the knowledge base of my father, the research I've done, And as a result, they hired me on as a consultant for the film, and that was a wonderful, wonderful experience. So as a finished product, how do you think they did for accuracy? Well, sure, the Big Picture is very accurate, historically accurate.

16:05 It actually portrays the time period of the Cold War. Duck and cover drills, civil defense, the fear and tension between the Soviets and the Americans, the fear of a nuclear war between our two countries, all very actly portrayed the Big Picture. But you have to remember this is Hollywood. They embellish, they use dramatic effect, they take artistic liberties. So while the Big Pictures accurate, the details of each scene are not one hundred percent correct. There is some misinformation and fake news of the time period that made it into the movie. Now, back in nineteen sixty that's what was being said that my father defected land of the plane, didn't commit suicide, all this stuff. But it was historically accurate in that regard because that's what was being said at the time period. It's not historically accurate in today's standards because not the truth of what took place.

17:00 Misinformation still clouds the Internet with the truth or from the truth. I should say, right, You ever figured out how your dad survived actually ejecting at that height, Well, yes, and I. Talked to my dad about this, so I heard it firsthand from him, as well as reading other books and accounts and talking to some of his pilot friends after his death. He's at his assigned altitude of seventy thousand, five hundred feet. There's the near miss of an Essay two missile. It basically blows off the tail section. You can't fly a plane without the tail section. The nose pitches forward, the wings break off, the fuselage goes into an inverted spin. Dad falls in the cockpit or in the plane from seventy five hundred feet to thirty thousand feet before bailing out. He does not eject because if he uses the ejection seat, he will sever his legs on the way out. He basically ends up crawling out of the airplane. He's tethered by his air hose still, so he's got two or three feet of air hose, half in the cockpit, half out, being banged around, can no longer reach the destruct button, can no longer see it, his face plates frosted over. He ends up breaking free of the air hose, falls free of the airplane. His parachute opens automatically at fifteen thousand feet and he parachutes down to the ground. Months on the ground, he's captured, turned over to the authorities, turned over to the KGB, taken to lou Bianca Prison in downtown Moscow, and that's where he spends his first night of captivity on May first of nineteen sixty.

18:31 And that quite theory deal. Getting out of that plan is amazing. It's still amazing. And he survived that. Oh yeah, had he not survived, I wouldn't be here. So I am very glad he did. And so I'm assuming this is just a little bit I've read that. In fact, the guy shot down really shocked Yes government, and that's why they kind of had that bad news about your dad. They didn't realize they could actually hit him. That I right, that's exactly right, Jeff. Back in nineteen sixty when my father was shot down, the mentality was, we're better than the Soviets, We're more advanced than so Soviets. If our missiles can't hit our plane, their missiles can't there behind us, it must have been the pilot's fault. He must have done something wrong. Maybe there was a flame out, maybe there was some mechanical malfunction, but something happened because those pesky Russians can't reach that altitude. Well, they could back in the fifties, when the U two program started in fifty six to sixty, the Soviets had the SA one that could only reach sixty thousand feet.

19:28 Over four years of research and development, the Soviets improved their weapons system. They created the SA two that could now reach seventy thousand feet and above. But because my dad was the first U two pilot to be shot down at seventy thousand feet, oh no, no, no, they can't reach that altitude. It had to be the pilot's fault. So it was easier to blame the pilot than to publicly admit we were behind the Soviets and technology. It was easier to blame the pilot than to further embarrass President Eisenhower, who had just been caught line about this event. Eisenhower publicly states it's a weather research flight. Well, in fact, it was a CIA fly, a spyflight, and Eisenhower got caught line to the American public, the world public. The very first time a US president was caught line was Eisenhower because of the U two incident. Now, sixty five years later, we know that presidents can and do lie, but back in nineteen sixty it was the very first time one had been caught line. Sensational news stories around the world.

20:29 And now you're kind of surprised if they don't lie exactly. Oh, you're telling us the truth. You know. It kind of sucks that it took him that long to actually clear your dad's name completely, because I mean, if he was such a bad pilot, didn't he come back and winning a test pilot? That's correct. He gets home in February sixty two, he's debriefed by the CIA. He's clear they realized he did everything he was supposed to do. He appears before a Senate Select committee, hearing the US senators exonerate him of any wrongdoing. So, you know, the first month back, he's been cleared by the CIA, he's been cleared exonerated by the US Senate, but he's not yet been cleared by the court of public opinion. Because of the fake news of the time period, it tarnished his reputation. For the most part, my dad didn't care what other people thought.

21:17 He knew that he did the things he was supposed to do, so he was very comfortable maintaining and getting on with his life after he came home. He just ignored everybody else about what they thought he should or should not have done. I like to call those people armchair generals. He should have done this, he should have done that. If I was there, I would have done it this way. Well they weren't there. Well, that always catched up because there's no way they could have been there. To be exactly. But boy, from the armchair general and the comfort of their home on their sofa with their beer in their hand, oh they could have done it better. Well, we kind of got a little bit of a cold war going nowadays with over in China and so China. They were really putting their foot down in twenty eighteen. Yep, their leaders China, they decided to ban the British cartoon Pepa Pig if that Pepa Pig was subversive, and so they had removed from all their Internet sites and they banned written from planet. Do you know Pepa Pig?

22:12 I've heard of Pepper Pig, but I don't know the full background of it. I don't know there is. All I know is I just kind of ready to see what it was. Oh, very cool. Yeah, those pesky Chinese. That is the new Cold War I refer to as Cold War two point zero. Russia is going to be a pain, but China is long term strategy. They think in terms of centuries. They don't think in terms of days, years, or decades. Hong Kong, for example, a ninety nine year lease for them, that's a drop in the bucket. Now Hong Kong belongs to them again. They are strategizing how to make sure they stay in power or become the number one power in the future. They're from their Moon exploration, from their South China Sea endeavors, from their economic dealings. They are really really going to be the next major superpower that we have to contend with and are contending with right now.

23:07 I totally agree with you one hundred percent on that one. All right, should we do some birthdays? Birthdays? Who was born on May first? Joke joke joke, shug dish shims Day. We gonna he left this shimof day. We want sit botage let thish Shiburs day. And you you don't do your birthday. They didn't much studying in the wild West in the late eighteen hundreds. Oh say that again. Have you studied the wild West back in the late eighteen hundreds? Very much? Uh? Just a little, not a lot. My focus is on Cold War second half of the twentieth century. But I bet you still don't know this lady. She was a frontierswoman, a sharpshooter, Army scout, Indian fighter, wild West show performer, prostitute. Glameney Jane. She was born in Princeton, Missouri, in eighteen fifty two. Now, both her parents died when she was fourteen years old, so she loaded up her five younger siblings and they moved from Missouri to Wyoming started working as an army scout, but she got a little glow on cash. She did do a little prostitution in the Feeder family. Now She really became wilder and tougher than pretty much any man. And there was no doubt by anybody ever around Glamity Jane that she could out drink any man. Now, she became really famous when she joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. She ended up living up in dead Wood, South Dakota, became best friends with wild Bill Hitcock. Now she was married twice or four times, nobody's quite sure, but she did have two daughters along the way. Now, all that drinking it got calamity in nineteen oh three, at only fifty one years old.

24:34 Her only request before she died was that she was buried buried next to her best friend. Yep, she's still buried next to wild Bill today. So even with the bad public opinion your dad got, did he still have a pretty big devout in love for its country. Oh? Yes, most definitely. Even though Dad got a bad rap at the time, he was very much the patriot believed in America and the Democracy did not like communism at all, which is why he was doing what he was doing to fly over the Soviet Union to find out their strength and weaknesses to keep Americans safe at home. So yeah, he was very much loved his country cool.

25:30 What we just heard was the first lady of radio. Her name's Kate Smith. She was born in Greenville, Virginia in nineteen oh seven. She was the first person seeing God Bless America on the radio. She made her a big superstar. From the nineteen thirties through World War Two, she was the most popular female singer on the radio, saying with all the top orchestras, and during World War Two she was able to raise over six hundred million dollars selling war bonds. That's like a billion dollars today. That's the most any entertainment during that time was able to sell her in the war. In the nineteen fifties, she also had a couple of TV shows. There was only one clip of Hank Williams the Senior obviously singing on TV. So if you see that clip of Hank singing on TV, EPP was on one of her shows, Kates. He died from respiratorial failure nineteen eighty six at seventy nine years old. Actor Glynn Flord gwinn Ford. He was born in Quinnect, Canada in nineteen eighteen. Acted for over fifty years, made over one hundred and ten movies huge box office draws in the forties, fifties, and sixties. You probably know him best for playing Clark Clinton's dad in the original Superman movie in nineteen seventy eight. For that, He's starting Gilda, Blackboard, Jungle Free, Tend to Yuma Midway Now.

26:33 He had a son from his first wife. They divorced, and then he had three more divorces after that. They were really quick Glenn. He died in two thousand and six, ninety years old. They saved four from four and Girl Theer Just One Love and Tessimo World and foun Helping Me tr Emprise tells me no one can take Please. Do you know who that is? I would think that would be country singer Sonny James. You bet ya? Well, that was a very good guest, since I have a cheat sheet in front of me. Country singer Sonny James was born on the family farm outside of Hackleberg, Alabama, in nineteen twenty eight. Sonny is one of the most successful country singers in history. After fighting in the Korean War, he came home and moved to Nashville. He released thirty seven albums had twenty six number one songs from nineteen sixty seven to seventy two, he had sixteen straight songs go to number one. That record stood until Blake Shelton had seventeen straight in twenty twenty one. Sonny married nineteen fifty seven. In nineteen eighty three, he retired from music after all those years of touring. He just wanted to spend the rest of his life with his wife. He died in twenty sixteen, the age of eighty seven years old, from natural causes. Then we have another clip listing in listing,

28:17 that clip brings back a lot of memories. Rita Coolidge is eighty and born on May first. She was born in Lothayette, Tennessee. She had hit songs on pop, country, jazz, and adult contemporary charts. She started out as a backup singer, sang behind Joe Cocker, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Hendrix, and Eric Clapton, some of the greats. She was able to go solo in seventy one All Time High, I'd rather leave when I'm in love, Your love keeps lifting me higher. The way you do, the things you do are some of her big hits. She married Chris Christofferson for seven years. They had a daughter together, Rita has been married to her third husban since twenty eighteen. So that's a little bit about Rita Coolidge. And now the second or the third clip.

29:09 Change comes. So that clip is by Ray Parker Junior, who was born in Detroit. He's seventy one on May first. He co wrote his first song when he was sixteen years old, and he wrote it with Marvin Gay. Ray has written so many songs for so many big named artists, not even going to start listing them. In nineteen seventy seven, Ray started his own R and B group called Radio r A Ydo. They had the hits Jack and Jill.

29:53 A woman needs love just like you do. You can't change that. In nineteen eighty two he went solo hit had a solo hit The Other Woman. I Still Can't get Over Losing You Ghostbusters. Ray married nineteen ninety four and he has four children. Do you know the song by Huey Lewis and the news I Need I Want a New Drug? Yes? Did you know? Huey sued Ray Parker Junior for that. He said that Ray just used as I Want a New drug song. They went to court building interesting, I did not know that. And actually they found for Hue Ray had to pay Huey Lewis in the news, I think about thirty grand in order for rights for that. Wow, that's what happens when you get lawyers involved you for everything.

30:35 You tall, She won't now you won't eat all. You just want a mini brog and hard and wondered what waw Welcome you. In nineteen ninety two, Welcome to the Club. That was the first song that Tim McGraw released. Ate it all the way up to number forty seven on the country chart. TAM's fifty eight today. He was born as Start, Louisiana. Some of his twenty six number one songs are Don't Take the Girl, Not a Moment Too Soon, My Next thirty Years, the Cowboy, and Me. Tammy's kicking off a summer tour only twenty first. It's up here in Fort Collins, Colorado, at the Colorado State University Stadium. Tammy's done quite a bit of acting. He was in the movie Friday Night Lives Flicka The blind Side on TV. He was in eighteen eighty three Mary Country singer Faith Hill back in nineteen ninety six, and they have three daughters. Now you mentioned your books, You've readen three really good. You've written a lot of articles too, but you've gotten three really good books out there.

31:35 Well, thank you. Yes, I do have several books published now. I think there's up to seven or eight. My first one, Letters from a Soviet Prison, came out in twenty seventeen. During my thirty five plus years of research to find out about my dad, I uncovered eighty five of his letters to and from prison to his family, as well as the journal he kept well incarcerated. So in twenty seventeen I had that published self published through Lulu. I wanted to make sure that his written words, his thoughts, his feelings, his hopes, his despairs, what it's like to be in a Soviet prison during the middle of the Cold War was available for students, scholars, researchers so they could read his written words from the Horse's Mouth. In twenty nineteen, my second book came out, Spy Pilot Francis Gary Powers, the U two Incident and a controversial Cold War legacy. I spent thirty five plus years doing research.

32:33 I was interviewing family members, dad's contemporaries, pilots with the U two program or the US Air Force, people He worked with historians, air Force officials, retired CIA, FBIKGB, Soviet rocket scientists, whoever I could get a hold of to talk about the U two incident and find out the truth of what took place. So after thirty five years of research, I had my second book published. It is the Truth of what took place. It takes Dad's reputation from infamy and controversy in the sixties to that of an American hero today. It goes through the behind the scenes process as to how he was ultimately posthumously awarded the Pow Metal in two thousand and the Silver Star in twenty twelve. My third book came out in twenty twenty two. It is a graphic novel, a glorified comic book for a younger audience. It's about the U two incident and it's called Enemy Territory. So this is a way for kids in school, middle schoolers, high schoolers to learn about the U two incident through a medium that many kids enjoy, which are comic books. My fourth book came out last year. My fourth, fifth, and six books came out last year twenty twenty four. Another graphic novel on the Berlin Airlift I've written three books about Dad.

33:51 Now I'm starting to write books about Cold War history in general or specific events. So in the twenty twenty four the Berlin Airlift, Remembering the Humanity, a graphic novel came out and it talks all about the Berlin Crisis, the Berlin Airlift, Gale Halverson, the Candy Bomber, and that part of Cold War history. Another book that came out last year was Cold War Virginia. I partnered with a really good friend of mine, Chris Sturdivan. He already wrote Cold War Illinois and Cold War Wisconsin, and now we've partnered together to write Cold War Virginia, Cold War California, Cold War Florida, and other states as we go forward over the next few years. Cold War Virginia deals with sites in the Commonwealth that are Cold War related, the Pentagon, the CIA headquarters, Nike missile bases. They also deal with personalities George Marshall, General Marshall, the Marshall Plan. He lived in Leesburg, Virginia. My dad, Gary Powers, Native Virginia, born in Pound, Virginia in southwest Virginia near Kentucky. So those are the type of articles and short stories you'll read in Cold War Virginia all about the Commonwealth of Virginia's Cold War history. Then my last book came out last year, Defending America Defensive Sites. And this was actually a study, a report that I participated in through the National Park Service.

35:16 I was the chairman for the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Cold War Themed Study, and I worked with National Park Service reps leading Cold War historians for about ten years. As the chairman, we produced this report that identified Cold War historic sites around the country for preservation. It is available online for free. You can look up National Park Service Cold War Theme Study, Gary Powers and that'll pop it up. If you'd like a soft copy, a soft back copy of this report. I had it published. I threw my name on the cover. I gave the National Park Service full credit. But because I was the chairman of this committee, I published the book so that we could get it out for public distribution.

36:01 I think it's the part that the younger generations who didn't go through the Cold War at all or anything, they actually learn about it, because, like you said, it looks like we're heading that way again with China. So give them, you know, let them know what's on the horizon at least, I guess you would say. That's correct. Hopefully we won't repeat the same mistakes we did the first Cold War, but you never know. Sometimes you just don't learn from history. That's true, and you actually do tours stuff to help people actually really see what's going on in the Cold War. That's right, Jeff. I have been operating d C Cold War Spy Tours, or I should say spy tours of Washington, d C for over twenty years, and what it entails is a group of people. A tour group will contact me any thirty people minimum, fifty people maximum one bus.

36:48 I'll take them by drop points, safe houses, and other clandestine locations where spies were captured or killed in the Washington DC area. We go by such places as the CIA head coore, FBI headquarters, National Reconnaissance Office in Chantilly, possibly even the NSA building up in Fort Meade, Maryland. They have a great museum there called the National Cryptologic Museum that we can visit. Sometimes will take groups to the Spy Museum in downtown d C. Or to the Cold War Museum at Vintil, Virginia. All depends on what their budget and their time constraints are. In addition to doing the d c's tours, for the last three years, I've been running Cold War espionage tours of Europe. My first one in twenty twenty three went to sites in Germany and the Czech Republic. My second one in twenty twenty four went to sites in Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. And this one one for twenty twenty five.

37:47 We depart tomorrow April. In April through May third we will be going to sites in UK, Netherlands as well as Germany. If you're interested in these types of tours, you can find out more about them online at Garypowers dot com or you can also go to my other website, spytour dot com and you can find out all about the tours I'm doing and you can contact me through those web pages. Well, that is really cool, and you're actually having a fundraiser for the Cold War Museum coming app correct. Yeah, thanks for reminding me of that. That's most important. May thirteenth is give local Piedmont and we live in the Piedmont region of Virginia at vent Hill, so it's a local area. A nonprofit that helps other nonprofits to raise funds on May thirteenth. If you go to our website and you click under donate, you should get to one of the links. You can also sign up for our newsletter and we can distribute out information to you that way online at cold war dot org. If you'd like to donate and make a contribution to the Colder Museum to help our efforts to honor veterans, preserve history, and educate kids, you can do so anytime, but the cam Pain Early Giving starts on April twenty ninth and then goes through May thirteenth. On May thirteenth, that's the really big fundraising day where we're encouraging everybody to give on that day. But if you can't, you can do it at least a week week and a half before starting April twenty ninth. So more information online at coldwar

39:17 dot org. And we'll put that on the show notes too so you can in case you didn't get all that. But yeah, that's definitely something you want to put some money into. Man, that's a pretty pretty impressive thing that you got going on there. Thank you. And we are a five h one C three charity, so any donation is tax deductible as permitted by law. Awesome, Well, thank you Gary Man. It's been a great show. I'm really glad you came on. Well, thank you Jeff for the invitation. And anytime you want to do a follow up, please let me know. Okay, I'm going to hold you to it. Uh oh, put my foot in my mouth there and. Thank all of you. I hope you had a good time today too. Now we have a country radio station. It's called Country Interground Radio plays the best up and coming and independent country hours out there. We're gonna end with him is like Kenyan Lockery and it's son tossing and turning. You guys have an awesome day and we'll talk tomorrow.

40:05 Laying here with my hand on my hands, all alone and or King's size, bitch, I guess that you're naught even sneaking and. All my phone it's not wanting just call. So I threw it up against fo waf. You got me shooloom tossing and turning. For you, you got me tossing, You got. Me turning and the middle of the nine. I'm here, but even if you were here, I'm doot love you and the ey