Okla-homey
8/19/2008, 06:17 AM
August 19, 1960: Captured U.S. pilot sentenced in Soviet Union
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/1055/u2powersuf3.jpg
Capt Francis Gary Powers, USAF, and a U-2.
48 years ago today, in the USSR (that's Russia for the under 25 crowd), captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for his confessed espionage.
On May 1, 1960, Powers took off from a secret US airbase in Pakistan at the controls of an ultra-sophisticated Lockheed U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft.
Powers, a USAF officer assigned to the CIA, was to fly over some 2,000 miles of Soviet territory to BodØ military airfield in Norway, collecting imagery and intelligence information en route.
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/1039/u2sensordz1.gif
The U-2 was an ingeniously designed system developed by Kelly Johnson's boys over at the Lockheed "Skunk Works." We needed something that would permit us to see what was going on within the super-secretive Soviet Union. The plane, essentially a jet-powered sailplane, could be tailored for particular missions by removal and/or bolt-on of various sensor packages.
One should recall this was the era before the development of recce satellites. Thus, the only way to get photographs of Soviet facilities for intelligence and targeting purposes, was to overfly them at extremely high altitudes thought beyond the range of Soviet surface-to-air defenses. In 1960, it was thought U-2's operating above 100,000' could do so with impunity. We were wrong.
Roughly halfway through the mission, the U-2 flown by Powers was hit by a Soviet surface-to-air missile over Sverdlovsk in the Ural Mountains -- probably an SA-2. Forced to bail out at over 100,000 feet, Powers survived the parachute descent, but was promptly arrested by Soviet authorities.
Americans were shocked because; 1) no one outside the intelligence community knew we did this sort of thing, and; 2) no one knew the Soviets had developed a surface-to-air missile system capable of hitting a high-altitude target operating in the upper stratosphere.
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/6888/800pxsa2guideline11nj0.jpg
Captured Egyptian SA-2 Guideline missile launcher on display at Muzeyon Heyl ha-Avir, Hatzerim airbase, Israel. The SA-2 system was developed by the Soviets specifically to deal with extreme high-altitude threats. The system employs a two-stage missile capable of striking targets up to 26 miles from the launcher at altitudes up to 150K feet. The missile is guided all the way to the target by telemetry broadcasted from the control van linked to the system's acquisition radar system. Subsequent US development of airborne jammers broke that telemetry link and caused the missile to go ballistic, thus enabling survival of US aircraft penetrating airspace defended by SA-2's
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/8735/pow21396462808bcc25a7b3cc4.jpg
U-2 airborne over Lake Tahoe. For years, the U-2 and its faster sister the SR-71 were based at Beale AFB, CA north of Sacramento.
On May 5, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announced that the American spy aircraft had been shot down and two days later revealed that Powers was alive and well and had confessed to being on an intelligence mission for the CIA.
On May 7, the United States acknowledged that the U-2 had probably flown over Soviet territory but denied that it had authorized the mission. On May 16, leaders of the United States, the USSR, Britain, and France met in Paris for a long-awaited summit meeting.
The four powers were to discuss tensions in the two Germanys and negotiate new disarmament treaties. However, at the first session, the summit collapsed after President Dwight D. Eisenhower refused to apologize to Khrushchev for the U-2 incident. Khrushchev also canceled an invitation for Eisenhower to visit the USSR.
In August, Powers pleaded guilty to espionage charges in Moscow and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment--three in prison and seven in a prison colony.
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/7609/powerle284l9qm8.gif
However, only 18 months later, the Soviets agreed to release him in exchange for Rudolf Abel, a senior KGB spy who was caught and convicted in the United States five years earlier.
On February 10, 1962, Powers and Abel were brought to separate sides of the Glienicker Bridge, which connected East and West Berlin across Lake Wannsee. As the spies waited, negotiators talked in the center of the bridge where a white line divided East from West. Finally, Powers and Abel were waved forward and walked past each other to freedom in the "spy-swap."
Upon returning to the United States, Powers was cleared by the CIA and the Senate of any personal blame for the U-2 incident. In 1970, he published a book, Operation Overflight, about the incident.
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/7394/powersheloqm4.jpg
Powers was killed in 1977 in the crash of a helicopter he flew as a reporter for a Los Angeles television station.
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/883/fgpowersjf3.jpg
Powers is buried in Arlington National Cemetery
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/1055/u2powersuf3.jpg
Capt Francis Gary Powers, USAF, and a U-2.
48 years ago today, in the USSR (that's Russia for the under 25 crowd), captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for his confessed espionage.
On May 1, 1960, Powers took off from a secret US airbase in Pakistan at the controls of an ultra-sophisticated Lockheed U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft.
Powers, a USAF officer assigned to the CIA, was to fly over some 2,000 miles of Soviet territory to BodØ military airfield in Norway, collecting imagery and intelligence information en route.
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/1039/u2sensordz1.gif
The U-2 was an ingeniously designed system developed by Kelly Johnson's boys over at the Lockheed "Skunk Works." We needed something that would permit us to see what was going on within the super-secretive Soviet Union. The plane, essentially a jet-powered sailplane, could be tailored for particular missions by removal and/or bolt-on of various sensor packages.
One should recall this was the era before the development of recce satellites. Thus, the only way to get photographs of Soviet facilities for intelligence and targeting purposes, was to overfly them at extremely high altitudes thought beyond the range of Soviet surface-to-air defenses. In 1960, it was thought U-2's operating above 100,000' could do so with impunity. We were wrong.
Roughly halfway through the mission, the U-2 flown by Powers was hit by a Soviet surface-to-air missile over Sverdlovsk in the Ural Mountains -- probably an SA-2. Forced to bail out at over 100,000 feet, Powers survived the parachute descent, but was promptly arrested by Soviet authorities.
Americans were shocked because; 1) no one outside the intelligence community knew we did this sort of thing, and; 2) no one knew the Soviets had developed a surface-to-air missile system capable of hitting a high-altitude target operating in the upper stratosphere.
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/6888/800pxsa2guideline11nj0.jpg
Captured Egyptian SA-2 Guideline missile launcher on display at Muzeyon Heyl ha-Avir, Hatzerim airbase, Israel. The SA-2 system was developed by the Soviets specifically to deal with extreme high-altitude threats. The system employs a two-stage missile capable of striking targets up to 26 miles from the launcher at altitudes up to 150K feet. The missile is guided all the way to the target by telemetry broadcasted from the control van linked to the system's acquisition radar system. Subsequent US development of airborne jammers broke that telemetry link and caused the missile to go ballistic, thus enabling survival of US aircraft penetrating airspace defended by SA-2's
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/8735/pow21396462808bcc25a7b3cc4.jpg
U-2 airborne over Lake Tahoe. For years, the U-2 and its faster sister the SR-71 were based at Beale AFB, CA north of Sacramento.
On May 5, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announced that the American spy aircraft had been shot down and two days later revealed that Powers was alive and well and had confessed to being on an intelligence mission for the CIA.
On May 7, the United States acknowledged that the U-2 had probably flown over Soviet territory but denied that it had authorized the mission. On May 16, leaders of the United States, the USSR, Britain, and France met in Paris for a long-awaited summit meeting.
The four powers were to discuss tensions in the two Germanys and negotiate new disarmament treaties. However, at the first session, the summit collapsed after President Dwight D. Eisenhower refused to apologize to Khrushchev for the U-2 incident. Khrushchev also canceled an invitation for Eisenhower to visit the USSR.
In August, Powers pleaded guilty to espionage charges in Moscow and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment--three in prison and seven in a prison colony.
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/7609/powerle284l9qm8.gif
However, only 18 months later, the Soviets agreed to release him in exchange for Rudolf Abel, a senior KGB spy who was caught and convicted in the United States five years earlier.
On February 10, 1962, Powers and Abel were brought to separate sides of the Glienicker Bridge, which connected East and West Berlin across Lake Wannsee. As the spies waited, negotiators talked in the center of the bridge where a white line divided East from West. Finally, Powers and Abel were waved forward and walked past each other to freedom in the "spy-swap."
Upon returning to the United States, Powers was cleared by the CIA and the Senate of any personal blame for the U-2 incident. In 1970, he published a book, Operation Overflight, about the incident.
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/7394/powersheloqm4.jpg
Powers was killed in 1977 in the crash of a helicopter he flew as a reporter for a Los Angeles television station.
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/883/fgpowersjf3.jpg
Powers is buried in Arlington National Cemetery