For 25 years, Francis Gary Powers Jr. has lectured on, taught, and researched the Cold War; in particular the U-2 incident in 1960 in which his father was shot down while flying a CIA U-2 spy plane over the former Soviet Union. Gary started data entering his father’s journal in 1996. Over the next 20 years he found his dad’s letters to and from family while incarcerated, family photos sent to him in prison, and other correspondence that provides the reader with a unique firsthand account of the U-2 Incident, shoot-down, imprisonment and events that led up to his father’s exchange for Soviet Spy Rudolph Abel in 1962. In 2017, the younger Powers published his first book, "Letters from a Soviet Prison: the Personal Journal and Correspondence of CIA U-2 Pilot Francis Gary Powers." The son ectures internationally and appears regularly on the History, Discovery and A&E channels. In 1996, he founded the Cold War Museum to honor Cold War veterans, preserve Cold War history, and educate future generations about this time. Because of his efforts to establish the museum, the Junior Chamber of Commerce selected him as one of its 10 Outstanding Young Americans for 2002. In addition to founding the museum, he created a mobile exhibit on the U-2 incident, provided briefings to the intelligence agency and in 2015 consulted on the Steven Spielberg movie "Bridge of Spies." You watch the lecture on the Virginia Museum of History and Culture Facebook page at 5:30 p.m.

Price: $10.