Christian D. D.’s Reviews > Spy Pilot: Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 Incident, and a Controversial Cold War Legacy > Status Update

.22 caliber pistol? Not an M1911A1 .45 ACP autopistol or a snubby .38 revolver?

“The CIA failed its pilots by not preparing them to be captured…If he had been aware of the planned cover story, at least he could have given voice to the same narrative. Nor had he received any instruction about how he was to act during interrogation.
‘I was completely unprepared,’ he recalled.”—p. 72

In other words, the CIA violated the 7 Ps: Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance

“His parachute opened automatically at 15,000 feet and he descended slowly toward the countryside, near a small village.
‘I was immediately struck by the silence,’ he later recalled. ‘Everything was cold, quiet, serene…There was no sensation of falling. It was if I were hanging in the sky.’”

From my own lone parachuting (skydiving in peacetime conditions in my case), I can vouch for the silence and serenity.