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

0:20 Hi everyone, I am Jeff, and thank you for joining us on history and factor he's 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 States and the Soviet Union there it was really tense between the two of them. When an America and UT spy plane was actually shot down over the Soviet Union, It's pilot and frances Gary Powers. He did survive luckily, but it brought a whole bunch of diplomatic troubles between the two countries. Now today it's 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 did you introduce yourself?

1:06 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 of flying for radio and television stations. 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 NBA SEE Television. But prior to that, we talked about the U two incident. I was reading his book Operation Overflight. I'd asked some questions.

2:08 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 side Did I read that you actually got to 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 Base in Central California. I 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. You're you're usually the utube 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.

3:11 I's kind of surprise. I didn't even know he's still used the you too 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. 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. Now that those satellites are so they're so much I don't even know if you really need the way they can pinpoint those satellites now.

3:55 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. Might 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 Lilia of the Valleys. So to celebrate May first, why not go tropical? But take it from a sailor named Dady Hobby is known for its lace. He got his very fresh lay in Halifai. They made him right at home in Waikiki.

4:37 He got his very. Fresh lay in. Today is National lay Day. Now la it is a pretty necklace made of flowersy. That's right. Now. They're all over the topics, but we're gonna 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 historians got so popular they went 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 leis. Now it sounds like a pretty good exclusive. That excuse that plan a trip to Hawaii? You spending time in Hawaii?

5:19 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 War 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 Two and the Cold War to monitor electronic communications, signals intelligence from around the world, as well as the embassies in Washington, D C.

6:06 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 warms and 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 display? 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 k H 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.

7:17 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. Well, that sounds definitely like a must say, man, that sounds really interesting, that's for sure. All right. Let's see what happened in entertainment on May 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 m one song with bad Day because. You had a bad Day down.

8:07 The number one country song was from bon Jovi and Jennifer Nettles. He says, you can't go home again. You can't around the world. Waking. The number one book was Two Little Girls in Blue by Mary Higgins Clark. The top movie was Mission Impossible three ethan hunt. He gets into it with ruthless drug dealer. Now that drug dealer wants to kill him and his fiance stars Tom Chriz, Michelle Monahan, and Ving Ryme'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 of Colorado and did a little schooling.

8:59 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. On that many people's thesis has turned into good books. Well, thank you all right, you want to. See what happened in history today on May the first.

9:39 Sure I know a little bit about the May first history other than the U two incident. Back in seventeen eighteen, the Spanish Catholic missionaries, they established this mission San Antonio de Ballero, which is better known as the Alamo. So that was established in seventeen eighteen on May first. Then back in Great Britain in eighteen 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.

10:24 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. In 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. The US captain in charge, George Dewey, became so famous for the victory the Navy created a new hymn Admiral knew he was the first Navy admiral because of that sea engagement.

11:04 It's more trivia, all right. When Clyde Tombod 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 to study that kind of stuff. But today, in nineteen thirty they all agreed on the name Pluto. Pluto, it's the Roman god of the underworld. Now. Venetia Burning came up with the name of it. She was eleven year old girl over in England her day. 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 undred and fifty feet I it was the world's tallest building. Yeah to stay that way until nineteen seventy when the World Trade Center bested 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?

11:51 Yes, I do like Cheerios. It was nineteen forty one the serial Cheerios went on seal start out calling them cheery oats. That they changed the name of Cheerios. 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 marked as Negroes. All right, it was today in nineteen sixty that our co host knows all about. Well, that's correct. May one, nineteen sixty my father, Francis Gary Powers gets shot down over the Soviet Union hands up, spending two years in a 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 Glenacker 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. 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 truths,

13:25 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 j McNair in Washington, d C. It's declassifying the UTUBE 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 thousand, 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.

14:05 The second major thing to be declassified on that date in ninety eight is that it was a CIA US Air Force program. 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 Metal in May of two thousand and the Silver Star in June of twenty twelve. So, as a family, we're very honored and very humbled to know that Data 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.

14:52 Yeah, that has closed This kind of shows that fake news has always been there, you know, it always sucked. 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 that they hired me on as a consultant. For the film. And that was a wonderful, wonderful experience.

15:32 So as a finished product, how do you think they did for accuracy? Oh? Sure, The Big Picture is very accurate, historically accurate. 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. 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. The misinformation still clouds the internet with the truth or from the truth.

16:38 I should say, right, how 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 as assigned altitude of seventy than five hundred feet. There's the mists 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.

17:47 His parachute opens automatically at fifteen thousand feet and he parachutes down to the ground. Months on the ground, he's captured, a turned over to the authorities, turned over to the KGB, taken to lu Bianca Prison and downtown Moscow, and that's where he spends his first night of captivity on May first of nineteen sixty. And a quite theory deal. Getting out of that plain. It's 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 the Yes government, and that's why they kind of had that bad news about you dad. They didn't realize they could actually hit him that high. 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, they're 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.

19:03 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 spy flight, and Eisenhower got caught line to the American public, the world public.

19:47 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 life, but back in nineteen sixty it was the very first time one had been caught line. Sensational news stories around the world. 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 cleared. They realized he did everything he was supposed to do.

20:28 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. 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.

21:14 Well that always catched yep, 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, they're leaders of China's They decided to ban the British cartoon Pepa Pig if that Peppa Pig was subversive, and so they had removed from all their Internet sites and they banned written from planning. Do you know Pepa Pig. I've heard of Peppa Pig, but I don't know the full background of it. I don't know. All I know is I just kind of ready to see what it was. Oh, very cool, those pesky Chinese. That is the new Cold War I refer to as Cold War two point zero.

22:00 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.

22:41 I totally agree with you one percent on that one. All right, should we do some birthdays? Birthdays? Who was born on May first? Shot? Dish shiverday? We go party this shiver? Were simplatage this shiver? You don't 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? 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 Calamity 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 o to Wyoming.

23:36 Started working as an army scout, but she got a little glow on cash. She did 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 Calamity 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 with 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 had got Calamity in nineteen oh three, at only fifty one years old. Her only request before she died is that she was buried, be buried next to her best friend. Yep, she's still buried next to wild Bill to day.

24:33 Line. So even with the bad public opinion your dad got, did he still have a pretty big devout in love for his 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. 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.

25:28 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. Now, there is only one clip of Hank Williams the Senior obviously singing on TV. So if you see that clip of Hank singing on TV, yep was on one of her shows. Kate She died from respiratorial failure nineteen eighty six at seventy nine years old. Actor Glynn Flord Glynn Ford. He was born in Quinnet, 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 Cleanton Dad in the original Superman movie in nineteen seventy eight. For that, He's starting Gilda, Blackboard, Jungle Free, Tende Yuma, Midway Now. He had a son from his first wife. They divorced and then he had three more divorces after that. They were really quick. Then he died in two thousand and six, ninety years old.

26:16 They saved boy, every boy and girl. They're just one love in this world. And ah. The helping me to your embrace tells me no one can take kim place. Do you know who that is? I would think that would be country singer Sonny James. You bet you 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. So he 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.

27:27 He died in twenty sixteen the age of eighty seven years old, from natural causes. Then we have another clip. Is listing, then. The releasting. That clip brings back a lot of memories. Rita Coolidge is eighty and born on May first. She was born in Lothia, 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.

28:14 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 husband since twenty eighteen. So that's a little bit about Rita Coolidge. And now the second or the third. Clip Stange came.

28:59 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 Aydo. They had the hits Jack and Jill. 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.

29:44 Do you know the song by Huey Lewis in 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 and they went to court building. Interesting, I did not know that. And actually they found for you. 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 you call she won't now, you won't eat. You just want a mini bro in hard and wonder what wa Welcome you Just.

30:27 In nineteen ninety two, Welcome to the Club. That was the first song that Tim McGraw released, made it all the way up to number forty seven on the Country chart. Tim's fifty eight today is 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. Timmy's kicking off a summer tour on July twenty first. It's up here in Fort Collins, Colorado, at the Colorado State University Stadium. Timm He's done quite a bit of acting. He was in the movie Friday Night Lights, Flicka the blind Side on TV. He was in eighteen eighty three Mary Singer, Faith Hill back in nineteen ninety six, and they have three daughters. Now you mentioned your books, You've reatten, three really good. You've written a lot of articles too, but you've gotten three really good books out there.

31:10 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 Pass, the U two incident and a controversial Cold War legacy. I spent thirty five plus years doing research. I was interviewing family members, Dad's contemporaries, pilots with the U two program of the US Air Force.

32:15 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 have 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 Medal 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 sixth books came out last year twenty twenty four, another graphic novel on the Berlin Airlift. I've written three books about Dad.

33:25 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, Gayale 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.

34:50 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 to a 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.

35:35 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, and so give them, you know, let them know what's on the horizon 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. I need thirty people minimum, fifty people maximum, one bus.

36:22 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 headquarters, 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 Vinhil, Virginia. All depends on what their budget and their time constraints are. In addition to in the DC's tours, for the last three years, I've been running Cold War espionage tours of Europe.

37:07 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 my one for twenty twenty five. We depart tomorrow April. In April through May third we will be going to sites in UK, Netherlands as well as Germany. So if you're interested in these type 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.

37:48 That is really cool, and you're actually having a fundraiser for the Cold War Museum coming up. 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 coldwar 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 campaign 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 dot org.

38:52 Then 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, a pretty pretty impressive thing that you got going on there. Thank you. And we are a five oh 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 gonna 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 we have a country radio station. It's called Country and Ground Radio plays the best up and coming and independent country artist out there.

39:33 We're gonna end with Kenny Kenyon Lockray and his son Thowson and turning. You guys have an awesome day and we'll talk tomorrow. Play in here with my hand on my hand all alone. King, you're naughty speaking my phone. Oh you got my sholo tossing and turning for you. You got me Tausa, you got me turning, He held in the middle of the nine. I'm here, But even if you were here, I wouldn't loved you. And the eye