"It's the ultimate homecoming photo - a smiling family rushing to reunite with a U.S. Air Force officer in 1973 who spent years as a POW in North Vietnam, his oldest 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 Fairfield, was published in newspapers throughout the nation."
""Just the feelings of that and the intensity of the feeling will never leave me," Kitching told the AP in an interview. "It is so deep in my heart, and the joy and the relief that we had our dad back again. It was just truly a very moving reunion for our family, and that feeling has never left me. It's the same feeling every time I see that picture.""
The iconic black-and-white 'Burst of Joy' photograph shows the Stirm family reuniting at Travis Air Force Base in 1973, with the oldest daughter sprinting toward her father. Associated Press photographer Sal Veder took the image, which won a Pulitzer Prize and symbolized the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Former Lt. Col. Robert Stirm died at 92 in an assisted living facility in Fairfield. Stirm served with the 333rd Tactical Fighter Squadron and was shot down over North Vietnam on Oct. 27, 1967, captured and held for 1,966 days in multiple POW camps. Daughter Lorrie Kitching recalled enduring feelings of deep joy and relief.
Read at The Mercury News
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]