Robert Stirm, Who Didn't Display Iconic Photo of His Return, Dies

It's the ultimate homecoming photo—a smiling family rushing to reunite with a US Air Force officer in 1973 who had spent years as a POW in North Vietnam, his eldest daughter sprinting ahead with her arms outstretched, both feet off the ground. "Burst of Joy," the iconic black-and-white image capturing the Stirm family at Travis Air Force Base in California, was published in newspapers throughout the nation, the AP reports. Taken by AP photographer Sal Veder, it won a Pulitzer Prize and has resonated through the years, a symbol of the end to US involvement in the Vietnam War and the pain it caused; Robert and Loretta Stirm's marriage did not survive the separation.

Retired Col. Robert Stirm, shown in the photo in uniform with his back to the camera, died Nov. 11—Veterans Day—at an assisted living facility in Fairfield, California, his daughter, Lorrie Stirm Kitching, confirmed Thursday. He was 92. "It's right in my front foyer," Kitching, 68, of Mountain View, said of the photo. She was 15 when that moment was forever preserved. "Just the feelings of that and the intensity of the feeling will never leave me," Kitching said. "It is so deep in my heart, and the joy and the relief that we had our dad back again." Kitching says she still gets that feeling every time she looks at the photo, a reminder of how grateful she is "that my father was one of the lucky ones and returned home."

Stirm, a pilot, was serving with the 333rd Tactical Fighter Squadron at Takhli Royal Thai Air Force in Thailand in 1967. During a bombing mission over North Vietnam that Oct. 27, his F-105 Thunderchief was hit, and he was shot three times while parachuting. Stirm was captured immediately upon landing. He was held captive for 1,966 days in five POW camps in Hanoi and North Vietnam, including the notorious "Hanoi Hilton," known for torturing and starving its captives, primarily American pilots shot down during bombing raids. Its most famous prisoner was the late US Sen. John McCain, who also was shot down in 1967. McCain and Stirm shared a wall in solitary confinement and communicated through a tapping code. "John McCain tapped in this joke. First time Dad laughed in jail," Kitching said. "I just wish I knew what that joke was."

Stirm, who was 39 when the photo was taken, said 20 years later that he had several copies but didn't display it in his house. He had been handed a "Dear John" letter from his wife by a chaplain upon his release. "I have changed drastically—forced into a situation where I finally had to grow up," the letter read. "Bob, I feel sure that in your heart you know we can't make it together." The couple divorced a year after Stirm returned from Vietnam, and both remarried within six months. Loretta Adams, who had led her children in prayer nightly for their father's safe return, died in 2010. Stirm retired from the Air Force in 1977. He worked as a corporate pilot and joined a business his grandfather started in San Francisco. Stirm was honored with three awards of the Silver Star, two awards of the Legion of Merit, and the Distinguished Flying Cross, per the New York Times.