Credit: Associated Press and photographer Sal Veder

This is Thanksgiving weekend — a time to reflect and give thanks for the lives we are living.  Those of you who are old enough will remember back in 1973 a time when our nation gave “Thanks” for our prisoners being returned home, some following years of captivity, from the Vietnam War.

And, there was probably no image of that thankfulness more ingrained on Americans than the thankfulness expressed in the photo “Burst of Joy”.  “Burst of Joy” captured the family of returning U.S. pilot Col. Robert Stirm on the tarmac of Travis Air Force Base in California upon his return.

We also learned last week that Col. Stirm died on Veterans’ Day, November 11, 2025, in Farifield, California, at the age of 92 years.

Here’s what was said of this photo in this recent article from Military.com:

“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. Taken by Associated Press photographer Sal Veder, it won a Pulitzer Prize and has continued to resonate through the years, a symbol of the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

The same article reported the following about Col. Strim:

“Stirm, a decorated pilot, was serving with the 333rd Tactical Fighter Squadron based 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. He was captured immediately upon landing.

He was held captive for 1,966 days in five different 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 U.S. Sen. John McCain, who also was shot down in 1967.”

Another article featuring Col. Stirm and announcing his death appeared in Stars & Stripes and you can access that article here.

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