- Powers is shot down during a CIA espionage mission in 1960
- The incident is one of the most dramatic and tense moments of the Cold War
- He spends almost two years in a prison in Moscow and is freed in a swap
(CNN) -- An American pilot whose spy plane was shot down will be awarded the Silver Star posthumously next week, 50 years after he left imprisonment in the Soviet Union.
Air Force officials said they will honor pilot Francis Gary Powers for exhibiting "exceptional loyalty" during harsh interrogation while in captivity.
The Silver Star is the third-highest combat military decoration awarded to members of any U.S. military branch for valor in the face of the enemy, the Air Force said.
Powers was shot down during a CIA espionage mission in May 1960, and spent almost two years in a prison in Moscow.
He languished through 61 days of interrogation by the KGB, a trial and conviction for espionage and started serving a 10-year sentence.
The incident was one of the most dramatic and tense moments of the Cold War. Powers finally returned to the United States in 1962 after a spy exchange with the Soviet Union.
He wrote about his rocky return to the U.S. in his 1970 book, "Operation Overflight: A Memoir of the U-2 Incident."
Upon his return, Powers was criticized for not destroying his plane and the intelligence cache, and for not taking a suicide pill before the Soviets captured him.
He was debriefed by the CIA and testified before the Senate Armed Services Select Committee. It was determined that he followed orders and did not give away critical information to the Soviet Union.
Powers worked at Lockheed Martin for seven years and later served as a helicopter pilot broadcasting traffic updates in Los Angeles. He died in a 1977 helicopter crash.
