Episode 20: The Great Unknown

Major John Wesley Powell with his Paiute friend Tangu. The Paiute gave Powell the name Kapurats (one arm off) in reference to his missing limb, lost at the Battle of Shiloh during the US Civil War in 1862.

After losing his arm at the Battle of Shiloh, and recovering enough to return to work, General Grant sent Powell to Illinois as a recruiter for the Union Army... thought I am not sure how effective it was to have a recruiter who had lost an appendage in battle. Sometime in 1863, before returning to the front, Powell and his wife, Emma Dean Powell, returned to Detroit to visit family and sat for these portraits.

After the Civil War, Powell and Emma traveled to the American west and compiled much scientific and ethnographic data in the region. This is another photo taken of him and Tangu during his time among the St. George band of Paiutes.

In 1869, it was time to explore some of the major rivers of the the west, including the Colorado, flowing through the nearly impassable Grand Canyon. No cameras were brought on that expedition so it wasn't until a government sponsored return trip that the area was photographically documented. Everyone dressed up for the first photo of the trip but changed out of their formal suites before setting off.

Just as he had on his initial expedition in 1869, Powell named on of the 1871 trip's boats the Emma Dean, after his wife.

Green River, about 1/2 mile below the Union Pacific railroad bridge, showing the boats soon after they had been run down from unloading at the bridge (the river runs right to left).

Unlike many expeditions of the day, which featured porters, manservants, and long cargo trains, camp life was anything but luxurious in either the 1869 or 1871-72 trips to the region.

The Grand Canyon, looking down the Colorado River from the Toroweap Overlook area, toward Prospect Canyon and Lava Falls Rapid... during the second expedition, photographers would climb up the canyon walls to get photographs like this.

A shot from the same vantage point, but looking the other direction, toward the Red Slide area.

Flaming Gorge - Head of the Horseshoe Canyon

Deer Creek Falls

Northern Arizona University has a repository of 200 photos from the expedition if you would like to see more. The above are just a few of my favorites. In 1969, the US Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp in honor of the 100th anniversary of Powell's initial Grand Canyon expedition.

After his Grand Canyon expeditions, Powell was a busy man. He lived in Washington, DC but still traveled west whenever possible. He was the first direction of the Smithsonian Institute Bureau of Ethnography, the second director of the US Geological Survey, and a founding member of the National Geographic Society. This is his official portrait in the National Portrait Gallery.

Powell's niece Maude, who gained interion acclaim for her violin skill and virtuosity - the first American violinist to achieve international rank - visited the Grand Canyon and its John Wesley Powell monument in 1918.

Both Powell and Emma are buried at Arlington in the prestigious Section 1, Grave 408. Their marker is a granite obelisk whose the upper portion highly polished, the lower portion left rough and unfinished. Affixed to the marker is a bronze plaque with his portrait. Under that is carved an inscription, reading “Solder. Explorer. Scientist.” The back of the monument gives his dates of rank as a second lieutenant, captain, and major.

Episode 19: The U-2 Incident

The show trail of American pilot Francis Gary Powers

Known as the Dragon Lady - the U-2 was the first aircraft built to fly to the edge of space. With an unclassified maximum ceiling of 70,000 feet, it was though the Soviet built radar would not be able to track it and that Soviet antiaircraft missile would not be able to reach it. Both of those assumptions proved to be wrong.

Still flying more than 65 years after her maiden voyage, today's U-2s, operated by the Air Force and not the CIA, have been updated with state-of-the-art avionics that will keep them airborne for years to come. at 70,000, U2 pilots have to wear pressurized spacesuits in case the cockpit depressurizes.

The U-2 and a lot of other really cool planes were the brainchild of aeronautically engineer Kelly Johnson, seen here with Frank Powers when the two worked together at Lockheed after the U-2 Incident.

Needing a super-secret location to build and test the U-2, Johnson picked the location in the Nevada desert that would become infamous as Area 51.

Francis Gary Powers was recruited into the CIA's U-2 program to keep an eye on Russia after the Korean War. President Eisenhower said it was a vital national security need to prevent another Pearl Harbor.

Powers was shot down on the morning of May 1, 1960, by the near-miss of an SA-2 missile. He was able to bail out but was caught by Russian authorities, taken to Lubyenka prison, the infamous KBG headquarters in Moscow, and questioned for months on end. The U-2 wreckage was put on public display at Gorkey park and the incident ruined any hope of a Cold War thaw at the upcoming Paris summit. Some of the wreckage is still on display at the military museum in Moscow.

When KGB authorities were finished questioning Powers, he was put on a show trial for the world to see. Facing the death penalty, he was convicted and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment - 3 years in prison, followed by 7 years hard labor.

In the 1950s, Soviet Colonel Rudolf Abel (real name William Fisher) was convicted of espionage in New York and sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. He was eventually exchanged for Powers and an American college student being held in East Germany. The Steven Spielberg movie Bridge of Spies starring Tom Hanks tells this part of the story. They were exchanged at the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin in February 1962. Powers was in Soviet custody for nearly two years.

Though officially cleared of any wrongdoing after his return, much doubt about the incident (much of which was kept classified due to its sensitive secret nature), many government officials, politicians, and private citizens continued to criticize Powers for allowing himself to become a pawn for Soviet propaganda and international policy.

He continued to work for the CIA after his release but eventually left and went to work for Lockheed. After that, he worked as a traffic reporter in Los Angeles so he could continue flying. On August 1, 1977, a traffic helicopter he was flying crashed, and Powers was killed. He was 47. Power's second wife, know by all as Sue, fought for her husband, still a pariah to many, to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Her efforts, and those of CIA officers still friendly to Powers, were successful and he was laid to rest in Section 11, Grave 685-2.

Sue joined him there in 2004

Power's son, Francis Gary Powers, Jr. spent more than 30 years digging into the U-2 incident to find out the truth about his father who died when he was 12 years old. After decades of Freedom of Information Act requests, interviews, and document declassifications, it turns out that his dad was, in fact, a hero and conducted himself admirably during an incredibly trying time. After the truth came to light, the US military has about-faced on its ambivalence towards Powers and awarded him several medals posthumously, including the POW Medal and the Silver Star. The CIA has since awarded him the coveted Director's Medal.

Check out Mythbusters!'s Adam Savage taking a flight in a U-2 

Episode 18: Radioactive - Arlington's Nuclear Burial

The Idaho National Laboratory is one of 17 Department of Energy national research laboratories. This 980 square mile site located 200 miles east of Boise and 40 miles west of Idaho Falls, has mainly been used for nuclear research - various organizations have built more than 50 reactors at the lab over the years - and it has been said that the history of nuclear energy for peaceful application has principally been written in Idaho. It first opened in 1949 as the Atomic Energy Commission's Nuclear Reactor Testing Station.

The Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One (SL-1) began operations in 1958 to train soldiers, sailors, and airmen chosen for the Army nuclear program to operate small reactors at several planned radar station inside the arctic circle to act as an early warning in the event of a Russian attack. The large cylindrical building holds the nuclear reactor embedded in gravel at the bottom, with a main operating floor in the middle, and a condenser fan room near the top. Miscellaneous support and administration buildings surround it.

On the night of the accident, January 3, 1961, Navy Construction Electrician First Class Dick Legg was supervising operations to restart the reactor after its annual shut down for the Christmas holiday. Also on shift that evening were Army Specialist 5 Jack Byrnes and Specialist 4 Richard McKinley. 

The accident required extensive clean up, which was undertaken by a contract with General Electric, which, ironically, had just lost the Air Force nuclear plane contract after that project was cancelled. Much of the building was eventually buried as nuclear waste at the testing site, including the core, seen being removed here.

A safety poster showing the melted SL-1 was posted around the testing site to reinforce the importance of vigilance in working with nuclear reactors.

Jack Byrnes was buried in his hometown of Utica, NY 

Dick Legg in his hometown of Kingston, Michigan

Richard McKinley, a Korean War veteran, was buried in a somewhat isolated location at Arlington National Cemetery, in Section 31, Grave 472.