In 1973, the photo “Burst of Joy” captured a jubilant family rushing toward a returning POW, a moment so powerful it won a Pulitzer Prize. The image, full of euphoria, symbolized hope and reunion after the Vietnam War.

But the true story behind the photo? It’s a heartbreaking twist you won’t expect.

The Vietnam War was still raging in 1973, leaving deep scars on the American soul. But on March 17 of that year, a single photograph captured a rare moment of unfiltered joy. Taken at Travis Air Force Base in California, the image showed a returning prisoner of war, Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm, being embraced by his whole family in an emotional homecoming.

Leading the charge was his 15-year-old daughter, Lorrie, her arms outstretched as she ran toward her father, followed closely by her brother Robert, sister Cynthia, mother Loretta, and youngest brother Roger, 12.

It was a picture-perfect moment — the kind that seemed to sum up everything Americans wanted to feel about the war’s end.

Sprinted across the runway

Lt. Col. Stirm, an Air Force fighter pilot, had been shot down over Hanoi in 1967 and spent nearly six grueling years as a prisoner of war. His family had long feared the worst, and when they finally received word that he was alive, they could hardly believe it. For Lorrie, the day felt surreal.

”I just wanted to get to Dad as fast as I could,” she told Smithsonian Magazine.

Sitting in the back seat of a station wagon on the tarmac, she had carefully chosen her favorite fuchsia miniskirt for the occasion. After six long years without him, she wanted everything to feel special.

But before they could embrace, there was another moment of waiting. Her dad was required to stand before a jubilant crowd and deliver a speech on behalf of those who had been freed as part of Operation Homecoming — the mission that brought 591 American POWs back after the Paris Peace Accords.

For the family, the wait felt endless. But when the speech was finally over, the door opened, and Lorrie took off running. Her sheer joy and eagerness earned her the nickname The Jumper or The Leaper in the years that followed.

As she sprinted across the runway, photographer Slava “Val” Veder, covering the event for The Associated Press, instinctively lifted his camera.

”You could feel the energy and the raw emotion in the air,” he recalled.

Won the Pulitzer Prize in 1974

He snapped a rapid series of shots just as the overcast sky provided perfect, shadow-free lighting.

”I had to back up 10 or 15 feet to shoot the picture over the back of another photographer. I was lucky”, said Sal Vader, a native of Berkeley, California.

The resulting image, which he titled Burst of Joy, was so powerful that he rushed to a makeshift darkroom — a repurposed women’s restroom on the base — to develop it. Within 30 minutes, the photograph was ready, and it was quickly sent out over the news wires.

It became an instant sensation, dominating newspaper front pages across the country. The following year, it won the Pulitzer Prize.

Why it became a symbol

What made this photograph so powerful that it resonated with so many people and even won the Pulitzer Prize in 1974? For one, it became the ultimate symbol of homecoming from the Vietnam War.

Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm, then 39 years old, had endured 1,966 days in captivity —years filled with hardship. He had suffered gunshot wounds, endured torture, mock executions, and lived in constant fear.

Yet in the photograph, he appears in a crisp, new uniform, his face turned away from the camera. This anonymity made him more than just one man — it allowed him to represent all returning POWs and, in a broader sense, every soldier who had come home to waiting mothers, fathers, wives, daughters, and sons.

But despite the overwhelming joy captured in the image, there was a painful truth behind the moment — one that the photo didn’t reveal.

A hidden heartache

As with so many iconic images, there was more to the story than what the Burst of Joy photo captured.

Just three days before his return to American soil, Lt. Col. Stirm had received a devastating blow. A military chaplain delivered a letter from his wife, Loretta — a Dear John letter informing him that their marriage was over.

”I have changed drastically—forced into a situation where I finally had to grow up,” Loretta wrote. ”Bob, I feel sure that in your heart you know we can’t make it together—and it doesn’t make sense to be unhappy when you can do something about it. Life is too short.”

During his years in captivity, Loretta had been involved with other men, and by the time he returned, three of them had proposed to her. For Stirm, the news was an unbearable betrayal. The photo of his homecoming, which had come to symbolize national healing, was for him a reminder of personal loss.

”I can’t help but feel ambivalent about it,” he admitted in 2005. ”I was very pleased to see my children—I loved them and still do, and I know they had a difficult time—but there was a lot to deal with.”

”In some ways, it’s hypocritical”

Within a year, Robert and Loretta divorced. She remarried almost immediately and moved to Texas with her new husband. Stirm, meanwhile, continued his military career and was promoted to colonel before retiring in 1977.

Despite her infidelity, a judge ordered him to give Loretta 43% of his military retirement pay.

”It was kind of ironic,” Stirm later reflected. ”In some ways, it’s hypocritical, because my former wife had abandoned the marriage within a year or so after I was shot down. And she did not even have the honor and integrity to be honest with the kids. She lived a lie.”

The photo that had touched millions had, in his mind, always been a false image.

A divided family

After the divorce, custody of the children was split — Lorrie and Robert Jr. stayed with their father, while Roger and Cindy went with their mother.

”There was so much that my dad missed out on,” Lorrie later shared. ”And it took a while to let him back into our lives and accept his authority.”

For years, Stirm refused to display Burst of Joy in his home. But for his children, the image remained deeply meaningful. Decades after it was taken, all four of them had a copy hanging in their homes.

”It’s a wonderful piece of history that we just happened to stumble into,” Lorrie told AP in 1993. ”It never would have gone away in my mind, but seeing that photo brings it all back again — just all the joy that was there.”

Her younger sister, Cindy, standing just behind her in the photograph, had a more distant connection to the moment.

”It seems like another lifetime ago,” she said. ”I look at the picture, and I don’t see me. . . . I don’t feel like I was really a part of it. I was so young. I didn’t really know him when he left, and I thought it would be wonderful to have a dad because all my friends had dads at their functions.”

Why was Loretta there?

Though Loretta’s presence in the photo puzzled some — given that she had already decided to leave the marriage — her daughter Lorrie remained sympathetic to the challenges she faced.

”She had a rough job, raising four children on her own,” she said. ”She was very young.”

Loretta and Robert had met at a party just after he graduated from Air Force cadet school. They married in 1955 when she was just 19.Years later, after everything that had happened, Stirm found love again — but married and divorced once more.

Loretta passed away from cancer on August 13, 2010.

Though Burst of Joy continues to be celebrated as a symbol of resilience and reunion, for those in the photo, it remains a reminder of a far more complicated reality.

As we reflect on the iconic Burst of Joy photo, it’s clear that while the image captured a moment of triumph, it also held within it untold stories of betrayal, heartbreak, and the emotional toll of the Vietnam War.

For Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm, the joy of the moment was intertwined with a painful reality—the collapse of a marriage, the scars of war, and the complexity of rebuilding a life after such an ordeal.

The Burst of Joy photo is more than just a snapshot of a homecoming; it’s a window into the emotional complexity of a generation that carried both the pride of survival and the weight of their personal battles. Behind every smile, every embrace, there are stories that remain untold, shaping the legacies of those who served and the families who waited.

The Presidential inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States will be held on January 20th, 2025, in the US Capitol building in Washington, DC.

The entertainment line-up was a mystery till recently, and it has now been revealed who will be performing on President Trump’s big day.

Keep reading to know more!

Donald Trump will begin the celebration of his upcoming inauguration next weekend when the festivities will kick off with a fireworks show at Trump’s golf club in Sterling, Virginia, followed by a campaign-style rally held in D.C., then a visit to the Arlington National Cemetery, followed by various dinners before Trump is sworn in for his second time in office.

Joe Biden is expected to attend the ceremony. “President Trump is dedicated to uniting the country through the strength, security, and opportunity of his America First agenda,” Steve Witkoff and Kelly Loeffler, the co-chairs of the inaugural committee, shared in a statement.

Witkoff is Donald Trump’s selection for his incoming Middle East envoy, and Loeffler, a former Georgia senator, is the President-elect’s choice for running the Small Business Administration.

“The 2025 inaugural celebrations will reflect President-elect Trump’s historic return to the White House and the American people’s decisive vote to Make America Great Again,” Witkoff and Loeffler write in their statement.

On Saturday, Trump will be attending the firework display at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia. While at the same time, Vice President-elect JD Vance will be attending a reception for the incoming Cabinet members.

On Sunday, Trump will be at a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. Followed by a “MAGA Victory” rally at Capital One Arena in downtown Washington.

The musical line-up is has been revealed, and it includes two of his personal favorite musicians: country singer Lee Greenwood and opera singer Christopher Macchio.

Apart from that, country superstar Carrie Underwood will also be performing “America the Beautiful” at the occasion. Carrie Underwood began her career on the hit show, ‘American Idol’ in 2005. She will be performing shortly before the President-elect takes his oath to take office.

“I love our country and am honored to have been asked to sing at the Inauguration and to be a small part of this historic event,” she shared in a statement Monday. “I am humbled to answer the call at a time when we must all come together in the spirit of unity and looking to the future,” Carrie Underwood conlcuded.

However, not all netizens reacted kindly to Carrie’s acceptance to perform at the occassion. One person wrote, “Shame on Carrie Underwood. She has been removed from my playlists. Is it so hard to stand up with moral principles? Money is truly the root of all evil.”

Another chimed in with, “Carrie underwood you are most famous for singing about keying the car of a man who cheated!!!! And you’re now performing for a man who has cheated on every wife he’s had and has cheated the country out of peace and common sense governing!!!! Girl gfy”

Another person lamented, writing, “Carrie Underwood Jesus is about to take the wheel and drive your career right into the toilet.”

On Tuesday will be Donald Trump’s first full day in office, which will begin with a National Prayer Service in the morning.

Macchio is Trump’s choice to sing the National Anthem at the end of the program. They performed at the Republican National Convention in July.

The invocation is set to be delivered by Franklin Graham, son of the late pastor Billy Graham, and New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan.

What do you think of the line-up for Trump’s election? Let us know in the comments and share this with others so they can know more about the line-up and schedule.

A sleepover prank took a terrifying turn when the trusted friends of a 12-year-old Georgia boy dumped scalding water on him, ripping the skin from his face and leaving him with severe burns.

Georgia’s Trey West spent New Year’s Day in hospital, recovering from the severe burns left on most of his face after three of his friends allegedly found amusement in pouring boiling water over his face while he slept.

According to WALB 10, the 12-year-old was at his neighbor’s Tifton apartment, enjoying a sleepover with three other boys – ranging in age from 12 to 15.

When the incident happened, Trey was sleeping while the other pre-teens were playing video games. Then one of the kids dumped hot water on Trey, said his mother, Tiffany West.

“I mean, I really can’t describe it now. In that moment I was just mad, hurt, in shock,” West said of the alleged prank, that caused second degree burns, primarily on the boy’s face, requiring immediate medical attention.

“I was seeing red. I was just trying to hurry up and get him some help.”

Medical News Today writes these burns can be extremely painful and following an almost months-long healing process, “second-degree burns often leave a scar, which may fade over several years.”

‘Numb’

West’s son was rushed to the hospital where he underwent surgery to treat his injuries.

“He was transported to the burn center in Augusta. He had to have surgery. Of course, he is out of surgery and is recovering at home, now. But it is going to take him 12-14 days to heal,” said West about Trey’s journey ahead, which will have both physical and emotional challenges.

“You got to be in shock to know your friends are capable of doing this to you. Like somebody you trusted, it’s just horrible. He never thought something like this would happen to him,” said Nachelle Austile, the boy’s aunt.

“I always ask him if he’s mad, sad…he just doesn’t have [any] emotion about it,” Austile says while West adds, “he’s numb about it.”

The three boys responsible for the prank were arrested but later released to their families as they await court hearings scheduled for next month.

Challenging moments

Meanwhile, the community has rallied around the victim and his family, offering donations and support.

West expressed her gratitude in an emotional Facebook post, thanking well-wishers for their generosity and encouraging words. “I woke up to SO much LOVE being shown to my son!” she wrote. “It brings tears to my eyes to know so many people care for me & my son and that we are not alone in this.”

The post continued, “I drop to my knees every day thanking God that my baby is still here and he is going to be ok because it could have been [worse],” West writes in the January 3, 2025 post.

Referring to her son as a “warrior,” West celebrated the positivity that the community’s kindness has brought to their lives: “Every donation, gift, encouraging word, and prayer has put a smile on my son’s face!” she added.

Days later, she shared another social media post, explaining that her young boy was at home and recovering well.

“My son is recovering beautifully since surgery! He may be able to go back to school next week after his second follow up appointment Tuesday! Occasionally, he does have some challenging moments but overall, he’s in good spirits,” she writes. “When we first got home from the hospital, he had to stay elevated and sleep in a recliner but now he’s able to sleep normal in his own bed…I don’t only cry because of sadness and madness but also because of joy that my baby boy is going to be just fine!”

Perhaps the most heartwarming update is a clip that West shared on January 11, where Trey is seen smiling and dancing with his sister.

“Video of my son & his baby sister. He’s healing Beautifully! Nobody But God,” she writes.

The ordeal serves as a sobering reminder of the dangers of reckless pranks and the importance of fostering empathy and accountability among youth.

What are your thoughts on this terrifying incident? Please let us know what you think and then share this story so we can hear from others!