I recently visited the Cold War Museum in Vint Hill, Virginia, with a friend and received a personalized tour from the museum’s founder and chairman, Francis Gary Powers, Jr. Gary is the son of the famous Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 “Dragon Lady” spy plane pilot who was shot down whilst overflying the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960, and ended up spending a harrowing twenty-one months as a prisoner of the Evil Empire. There were too many cool exhibits to describe here in sufficient detail to do them justice, but as might be expected, there’s plenty of memorabilia pertaining to Francis Gary Power Sr. and the U-2 spy plane in general, and well as a mockup of the SA-2 “Guideline” surface-to-air missile (SAM) that shot down the star-crossed pilot and plane.

It was cool to see that one of the books in the museum’s library was The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America’s Finest Hour, by Andrei Cherny. It just so happens that Andrei was one of my classmates at North Hollywood High School and Walter Reed Middle School.

It was also fascinating to see the collection of the flags on the individual Soviet Socialist Republics of the former USSR—including, yes, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

It was a fantastic experience overall, and I highly recommend the tour.

In Gary’s Own Words

In a follow-up phone interview, Gary was nice enough to provide me with some personal insights as to what motivated him to found the museum in the first place, and how the museum ended up at its particular location.

“I was lecturing at schools in the Washington, DC area between 1992 and 1995, including AP history classes, and the kids didn’t know about the Cold War. When I referred to the U-2, they thought I was talking about the rock band! And in doing my research about my Dad, I learned that Cold War veterans in general were being forgotten. So I founded the Cold War Museum for the purpose of preserving history, honoring Cold War veterans, and educating our kids.”

As for the location:

“I originally wanted a location off Interstate 95 and Highway 123, close to the former Lorton Nike Missile Base. That fell through, but then I received a call from Vint Hill’s Economic Development Authority, and was soon placed in touch with Ike Broaddus (the current Supervisor). Ike said to me, ‘Sorry to hear about Lorton, but hey, come check us out!’ We ended up with a $50K grant matched by [Fauquier] County and two years of free rent in exchange for a 5-year lease.”

The museum officially opened on Veteran’s Day, November 11, 2011. I remarked to Gary with a slight chuckle that it was rather poetically apropos that the opening was 11/11/11, and he agreed.

Further Info

A new five-year lease for the museum was recently signed. The venue is open on weekends and staffed entirely of volunteer docents. Gary gladly provides tours from school groups during midweek, as well as a monthly lecture series, and will be sponsoring a Cold War Espionage Tour of England, Holland, and Germany from April 22 to May 3, 2025.

For information about any of these events and services (and/or if you’d like to volunteer to be a docent), go to the museum’s official website.

Many thanks, Gary!

About the Author: Christian D. Orr

Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ). He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS).