{"id":30396,"date":"2012-06-14T19:17:56","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T23:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=30396"},"modified":"2012-06-14T19:20:06","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T23:20:06","slug":"francis-gary-powers-to-be-awarded-silver-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=30396","title":{"rendered":"Francis Gary Powers to be awarded Silver Star"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Francis Gary Powers was shot down in his U2 spy plane over the Soviet Union in 1960 &#8211; considered impossible until it happened. The Eisenhower Administration denied that it even happened in the early days until the Soviets broadcast video of their prisoner. Powers was held by the Soviets for two years as a propaganda tool, an uncooperative propaganda tool. After he died in 1977, he was awarded a POW Medal, and now his family will receive his Silver Star Medal. According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stripes.com\/blogs\/stripes-central\/stripes-central-1.8040\/silver-star-sets-the-record-straight-say-children-of-francis-gary-powers-1.180361\">Stars &#038; Stripes<\/a>;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Though pressured with threats of death, as well as sleep and food deprivation, \u201cCaptain Powers steadfastly refused all attempts to give sensitive defense information or be exploited for propaganda purposes,\u201d the medal citation reads.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI believe the Silver Star is an appropriate award for my father for what he endured from \u201960 to \u201962, and it helps to set the record straight after 50 years,\u201d said Gary Powers Jr, 47.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>His was a name that I grew up with and it&#8217;s outstanding that he&#8217;s finally getting the recognition his deserves. According to his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.arlingtoncemetery.net\/francisg.htm\">memorial page at Arlington<\/a>, he died in a helicopter crash while flying a local TV station&#8217;s helicopter. Captain Powers is buried at Arlington where he belongs with the rest of America&#8217;s heroes and pioneers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Francis Gary Powers was shot down in his U2 spy plane over the Soviet Union in &hellip; <a title=\"Francis Gary Powers to be awarded Silver Star\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=30396\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Francis Gary Powers to be awarded Silver Star<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-real-soldiers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}