Spy Pilot by Francy Gary Powers Jr

Author:Francy Gary Powers Jr.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781633884694
Publisher: Prometheus Books

In the summer of 1983, while approaching my freshman year at California State University at Northridge, I showed up for a rush party at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house. It immediately reminded me of one of my favorite movies, Animal House. After making my way across the overgrown lawn, past two stone lions draped with flowered leis, I walked through the front door amid the sound of blaring rock music.

The place was packed, and I was only a few feet past the door when somebody pointed me to the nearest beer keg. The mastermind of the great final exam heist at Montclair was no stranger to alcohol and loud music, but my introverted nature still made it hard for me to meet new people—I was more comfortable reading science fiction books in my room and solving logic problems than chatting up pretty girls. Nevertheless, I started walking around the house, introducing myself and striking up conversations with perfect strangers.

Moving into one room, I walked up to a member of the fraternity and extended my hand. “Hi! Gary Powers. Nice to meet you!”

His name was Jay Rose. Immediately, a bell rang. “Any relation to the U-2 pilot?”

I felt a wave of anxiety.

“Well, yeah,” I said reluctantly. “That's my dad.”

As we started talking, I was overwhelmed with a rather ominous feeling: I can't go anywhere without someone knowing who my dad was.

Jay Rose knew all about my father. In fact, he appeared to know more about all that history than I did, which left me with an uneasy feeling.

I was very guarded, didn't trust people easily, and was very uncomfortable with people who knew about my dad when I didn't know anything about them.

Growing up, my mother made me a little paranoid about people I didn't know or what would happen if I was caught during a youthful indiscretion. After all, what if the son of Francis Gary Powers was arrested? It would be on the front page. While mom's warnings did not stop me from living on the edge in high school, I was much more discreet in college. Mom taught me to be very careful with girls, pounding into my brain that some only want to trap a guy by getting pregnant—especially if he happens to be the son of a legendary spy. She taught me to be skeptical of whatever someone told me—especially the government—and to read between the lines of what was written in the press.

I didn't really understand it at the time, but even though my father was dead, he was exerting a certain amount of control over my life.

When Jay made the connection between me and my world-famous father, my trained inclination was to politely retreat and find another fraternity. For various reasons, I didn't want to be defined as “the son of…”—including the simplest of all: I didn't know the whole truth about what had happened all those years before. No one did.

Of course, I was aware of the U-2 from an early age. The memory of walking on the plane's wings was deeply embedded in my psyche.

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