This story came up on my FB feed and I felt the need to share it with you. It's a tale of "good news, bad news" for a returning North Vietnam POW. It centers around this award winning photograph taken at Travis Air Force Base.



This is the story as copy/pasted from Wikipedia;

Burst of Joy is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph by Associated Press photographer Slava "Sal" Veder, taken on March 17, 1973, at Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, California, United States.

The first group of American POWs leaving North Vietnamese prison camps left Hanoi on a United States Air Force (USAF) Lockheed C-141 Starlifter nicknamed the Hanoi Taxi, which flew them to Clark Air Base in the Philippines for medical examinations. On March 17, the plane landed at Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, California. Even though there were only twenty POWs of that first increment released aboard the plane, almost 400 family members turned up for the homecoming.


USAF Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Stirm made a speech "on behalf of himself and other POWs who had arrived from Vietnam as part of Operation Homecoming."
Smithsonian Magazine says that "Veder, who'd been standing in a crowded bullpen with dozens of other journalists, noticed the sprinting family and started taking pictures. 'You could feel the energy and the raw emotion in the air'."

Veder then rushed to the makeshift photo developing station (for 35 mm film) in the ladies' room of the air base's flightline washrooms, while the photographers from United Press International were in the men's. Smithsonian Magazine says that "In less than half an hour, Veder and his AP colleague Walt Zeboski had developed six remarkable images of that singular moment. Veder's pick, which he instantly titled Burst of Joy, was sent out over the news-service wires".

The photograph depicts United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Stirm being reunited with his family, after spending more than five years in captivity as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. On October 27, 1967, Stirm was shot down over Hanoi while leading a flight of F-105s on a bombing mission, and was not released until March 14, 1973. The centerpiece of the photograph is Stirm's 15-year-old daughter Lorrie, who is excitedly greeting her father with outstretched arms, as the rest of the family approaches directly behind her. Lorrie later recounted in 2003: "We were in a car behind the aircraft on the tarmac, and then they said, "You can get out now." So we just burst out of the car and started running to my dad. . . We were very excited." Lorrie's exuberant reaction earned her moniker "The Jumper" or "The Leaper."

Despite outward appearances, the reunion was an unhappy one for Stirm. Three days before he arrived in the United States, the same day he was released from captivity, Stirm received a Dear John letter from his wife Loretta informing him that their marriage was over. Stirm later learned that Loretta had been with other men throughout his captivity and had received marriage proposals from three of them. In 1974, the Stirms divorced and Loretta remarried, but Lieutenant Colonel Stirm was still ordered by the courts to provide her with 43% of his military retirement pay once he retired from the Air Force. Stirm was later promoted to full Colonel and retired from the Air Force in 1977. Loretta died on August 13, 2010 from cancer.

After Burst of Joy was announced as the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, all of the family members depicted in the picture received copies. The depicted children display it prominently in their homes, but not Colonel Stirm, who in 2005 said he cannot bring himself to display the picture.

Lorrie Stirm appeared on Antiques Roadshow Season 27 Episode 1 on January 2, 2023 seeking an appraisal for an archive of items relating to the event: Lorrie's personal print of the famous photograph (signed by the photographer in 1990), Lt. Col. Stirm's prison uniform, Red Cross luggage with North Vietnamese tag, a spoon engraved Lt. Col. Stirm with a thunderbolt during his imprisonment and a pair of sandals the North Vietnamese claimed were made from the wheels of Stirm's crashed plane. Auctioneer Joel Bohy valued the items as worth $2500-$3000 at auction, but said the "historical value on this is absolutely priceless."

North Korea?

ETA:  it was the daughter on the Antiques Road Show, not the ex-wife.

Hopefully the cheating whore ex-wife died in excruciating pain.

North VIETNAM, not North KOREA

Get your facts straight pleas

I've only had 1 cup of coffee. I fixed it.

HIS items, not hers. She was scum.

We should have a pow forum .this has been posted monthly this year

Hate to disparage the dead, but fuck Loretta

GD hates two things, women and blacks. I wonder if any of the men she slept with were black?

Lorrie is the daughter running out front.

Loretta is the cheating cunt whore pension stealing cunt.

What a despicable person she was. She deserves to rot

The better picture would’ve been dad hugging the kids and punching the wife right in the mouth

Loretta was the cheating whore who died in 2010


Lorrie was the daughter who was on antiques roadshow getting a value placed on her personal items.

Ah, that I can understand, however, I'd NEVER dream of even thinking of selling those things. Stuff like that deserves a place in the family forever. If you don't want it, offer it to another family member at no cost.

Same. I have a .300 savage that was my grandpa's. It could be worth millions and I'd never sell it.

Loretta was a whore.

I agree. However, at least this is educational and informative unlike some of the other useless BS I see posted in GD.

Just judging by the photo, she was a pretty good looking woman, but like someone else said, you can just smell the Aquanet and cigarette smoke wafting off her.

It must take a special kind of cuntiness to write your husband who is a POW in an enemy country to inform him you've been fucking other men for years and that you're done with the marriage.

I mean...wow.

She wasn’t putting up for sale, she was just getting an appraisal. The appraisers give insurance and preservation advice as well as interesting back stories along with values.

It belongs in a museum.

Again?

I dont know why he picked that post from 2020, but we did just do this thread a week, or so, ago.

Sir, two points. First, “hate” is a strong word, and the wrong word.  Secondly, if you think GD’s theatrical disdain is limited to only two types of people, you are really selling this forum short.

Could not find the one from last week but how about this?

Attached File

Better?

She should’ve taken the stuff to Pawn Stars for a valuation from the Clark County Museum guy and a $5 offer from the proprietor and then had the crew from American Pickers come out and go through the old man’s shed (will you take $10 for that whimsical  “F-105 Parking Only” sign?”) before eventually losing all the stuff in a past-due rent storage unit auction on Storage Wars.

Really bring the whole story home.

When a woman betrays a man, it doesn’t just change how he looks at that woman..... it changes how he looks at the world.
-Charles Sage
Balance of Trust.

Well in the case of this low down cheating whore she earned that hate.

Furthermore you brought up race.

We also hate trolls.

This post is stunning and brave

A short time after that I was at Sheppard AFB, standing 20 feet away, when retired and deceased Lt. Col. Robert Norland Daughtry first laid eyes on his 7 year old son.  I still get misty eyed recalling it.

Rest in peace, sir.  May God grant you eternal rewards.

Yeah, that's kind of a sad story.

Seems like she got around too, must be a helluva piece of ass if 3 guys were trying to marry her while she's fucking a bunch of dudes while her hubby is a POW in a North Vietnamese prison.

I don’t think so…

GD does not like dirty cheating whores!

43% one would hope he had a 100% VA disability Payment from being a POW, aren't they exempt from alimony? so hopefully what he had to give her wouldn't be the full amount

This is the first time I’ve seen it here. And I’m on literally every single day generally for several hours.

Colonel Stirm endured much heartache and sadness, more than any human being ought to. He was a mentally strong man.

There wasn’t concurrent receipt of VA Disability and retirement back then, so he probably didn’t gain anything other than some tax advantage.

I found the 'wifes' obituary here

I thought back then the VA amount it was still deducted from his overall pension amount so it would been 43% on the remainder? no? In this case would have been worth it... but you are right not sure what the va did back then.  fuck that cunt.    

I remember the multi-page thread from last year.  Fucking tragic how his wife fucked him.  She was not well thought of.

"It's 102 degrees here today, but I'm pretty sure that's downright freezing compared to where you are."

Sad.  I've read of GIs who exposed themselves to enemy fire after a Dear John letter.

What a strange post.

He got off easy!

Floyd James Thompson

Thompson spent the next nine years (3,278 days) as a prisoner of war, first at the hands of the Viet Cong in the South Vietnam forests, until he was moved in 1967 to the Hanoi prison system.[6] During his captivity, he was tortured, starved, and isolated from other American POWs.[7] His captors pressured him to sign statements proving that the United States' involvement in Vietnam was criminal. He refused and was beaten, choked and hanged by his thumbs. They also tied his elbows behind his back and hung him from a rafter until he passed out. At night he was tossed into a tiny wooden cage, where he was handcuffed and shackled in leg irons.[4] At one point, Thompson did not speak to another American for over five years. In January 1973, Thompson was transferred to H?a Lò Prison.[4] He was released with the other POWs in mid-March 1973 in Operation Homecoming.

I dunno, did yo momma?

Guess she thought that hot ass was going to waste sitting on the shelf...I'm guessing a lot of guys did, as well.

yup

The "Moment of Joy" photo is from the mid '70s and she looked pretty good there for 38ish. This photo looks like the early '80s or so, so that puts her in her mid 40s. Still a very good looking woman. She knew what she had and clearly was cashing in on it while she had it. Sucks for her husband and kids, though.