He was also awarded a POW medal?  For what war?  The Cold War?

Yes, for his cold war service at the hands of the Russians. They also cited the 20th anniversary of the dissolution.

 So what do you sharp troops think is going on with this award being upped to Gary Powers and a day after the DOD yanks the CWSM from the NDAA and next week being then 20th anniversary?

For Gary's efforts and Gary's Dad this is a good thing and deserved.

 But, there are problems here that are troubling. The DOD is standing on the fact that the Cold War was not a war, Repeat(Not a war). So what was Gary P doing, joyriding? No, his incident is public, the tendency is to give it up proper to make good of a bad PR situation. This is an easy one for DOD and for Gary P to to get his award elevated, but the DOD would have a cow if they had to review all medals issued to others if now the CW was a war. It was practice to issue lesser medals if possible during the CW to keep actions off radar for multiple reasons. Awards are available during war time differently than peacetime and this measure is a revealing about the DOD'd hypocrisy and misapplications of their own rules.

I am very suspect that the SS to Gary P was timed intentionally to take us off the news and as a diversion. 

Remember, the DOD reads this forum and so do the special interests that want us to go away.       

 That's an interesting thought. Given that they don't have a logical leg to stand on misdirection could very well be an intentional plan. It's a well-deserved honor for Gary Powers, but it cheapens the significance if that is really the reason behind it. I do have to say that the DoD stock responses that completely avoid the actual facts remind me of a Monty Python skit.

The Cold War is gaining local recognition. I continue to read news articles that one town, city or
another is erecting memorials to the Cold War. 

Gary Powers is a shining example of Cold War Service. The honor being bestowed on him with the Silver Star
is long overdue and so very well deserved.

Can we possibly use this to our advantage? One would hope so. I will of course mention it in my continuing barrage
of letters and phone calls. And as Scott pointed out it was possibly a way to derail us.

Also as he pointed out, our forum is read by those in Washington, quite often, so we can not get nasty in our
posts; we do not want to cut off our nose to spite our face.

We must put up a determined and never ending effort. All with a smile(even though it is hard to do sometimes).

We are like the guy on the Fugitive, always struggling for justice and right.

Jerry