Francis Gary Powers, whose U-2 spy aircraft was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, received the Silver Star medal posthumously during a June 15 Pentagon ceremony. Upon his capture by Soviet forces at the height of the Cold War, Powers was paraded through the streets of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), and spent nearly two years in prison there. Despite frequent interrogations by secret police, Powers never compromised secret information or allowed himself to be exploited by the Soviet propaganda machine. Details of his exploits became clear after the Soviet Union fell, when Russia declassified the official report of the incident in 1998. Pieces of the plane Powers flew are still on display in a military museum in Yekaterinburg.
