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The dark truth of the Pulitzer-winning ‘Burst of Joy’ photo

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.

Slava ”Sal” Veder / Public Domain

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.”

The U.S. National Archives

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.

 Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm, USAF on 17 March 1973 / Public Domain

”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.

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Animal lover finds squirrel with giant tooth, brings him home and gives him a new opportunity – thank you

Living on a ranch in rural Alberta, Canada, Jannet Talbott may be far away from people but is never alone as she is always surrounded by animals.

The animal lover is used to the many animals, both domestic and wild, who live on her ranch and looks out for them all.

One day she was watching a squirrel enjoying a snack from her bird feeder when she noticed something unusual on his face.

“I could see there was something on the side of his face,” Talbott told The Dodo. “I got closer and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s a massive tooth growing out of his mouth.’”

Squirrels have four front teeth that never stop growing but their constant gnawing on nuts and seeds ensure most squirrels’ teeth are kept short. Somehow this had not happened with this squirrel and Jannet knew he was in danger.

The tooth was growing toward the squirrel’s eye and Jannet suspected he was living on powdered bird food as he couldn’t chew on anything.

Now she had the difficult task of trying to catch Bucky, as she named him, so she could give him the help he needed.

“One day, I saw him in the feeder. It was like divine intervention. I just had to reach in and grab him,” she said. “Once I had him in my hand, I just kept telling him, ‘I’m going to help you, Bucky. You’re going to be OK.’”

When Jannet had the canine challenged squirrel in her hands she saw that it wasn’t just one tooth that was an issue.

“His mouth was an absolute mess. His upper incisors were curled around and growing inside his mouth,” she said. “When he ate, his teeth were rubbing on his face. He was so horrific.”

She worried that if she took Bucky to a vet they may not be able to do anything for him and the journey would stress him out too much so she grabbed her cuticle trimmers and attempted the job herself.

After watching some instructional videos on YouTube, Jannet swaddled Bucky and covered his eyes; he instantly became calm which was lucky for this talented rancher as the job took ten minutes.

Squirrels have no feeling in their teeth and even after she had finished trimming, the squirrel was in “no hurry to get away,” Jannet said, as per CBC Canada.

“I took him outside, and he ran to a branch and started rubbing his little cheeks. It was like he couldn’t believe those teeth were gone. He just kept rubbing his face,” she said.

“The next day, I saw him back in the feeder — and he had the most amazing little squirrel smile on his face. He was just so happy.”

Now Jannet hopes to inspire others to help a needy animal.

“I really feel a deep connection to animals, and they always seem to come to me when they need help,” she added.

“I’m always happy to help them, and I think if we all did a little, it would end up being a lot.”


I cannot imagine how nervous Jannet must have been attempting dentistry on this creature in distress but thank goodness she did as he may have starved to death had she not been brave that day.

Help us thank this animal hero by sharing this story.

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Jane Fonda ‘calls out Donald Trump’ during SAG award speech

Jane Fonda's speech. Credit / Getty Images
Jane Fonda’s speech. Credit / Getty Images

Jane Fonda’s hardly been a stranger to political controversy over the course of her long and storied career. Once dubbed “Hanoi Jane” after being photographed sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun in 1972, it’s fair to say she’s had her fair share of public chastisement.

The actress was also an opinion-splitting figure as far back as the 1960s, when she actively supported the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panthers to the chagrin of certain sections of society.

This past weekend, Fonda was awarded the Screen Actors’ Guild (SAG) Life Achievement Award, and used part of her speech to throw shade in the direction of President Donald Trump.

With the current political climate in the US testy to say the least, it’s hardly a wonder that many of the country’s biggest celebrities are making their voices heard.

For 87-year-old Fonda, Sunday’s SAG Awards provided the perfect platform to make a statement.

“Thank you SAG AFTRA. Your enthusiasm makes this seem less like a late twilight of my life, and more like a go girl, kick a**. Which is good because I’m not done.” Fonda said.

Though she didn’t directly namedrop President Trump, Fonda referenced Sebastian Stan’s portrayal of him in 2024’s The Apprentice.

Jane Fonda’s speech

“Though you may hate the behavior of your character, you have to understand and empathize with the traumatized person you’re playing,” she said.

The actress proceeded to then defend ‘wokeness’, stating: “Empathy is not weak or ‘woke.’ And, by the way, ‘woke’ just means you give a damn about other people.

“A whole lot of people are going to be hurt by what’s happening, by what’s coming our way,” she continued.”‘We are going to need a big tent to resist what’s coming at us.”

“And even if they are of a different political persuasion, we need to call upon our empathy and not judge, but listen from our hearts, and welcome them into our tent. Because we are gonna need a big tent to resist successfully what’s coming at us.”

Fonda’s comments come in the wake of some turbulent weeks in US politics. Many had anticipated that Trump’s second term in office would mean chaos, but few could have predicted just how fast the apple cart might be tipped upside down.

Amid a slew of executive orders and typically boisterous claims – many of which have questionable ties to reality – Trump has wasted no time at all in trying to enforce large-scale changes, for better or for worse.

His newly-founded Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Elon Musk, has come in for particular criticism in recent days, while Trump’s apparent siding with despot Vladimir Putin in an attempt to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine has caused concern on the international stage.

What did you make of Jane Fonda’s statement? Let us know in the comments.

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A Black baby was born to my wife, and I was by her side forever

There was an almost electric sense of expectancy in the delivery room. Emma, my wife, was lying on the hospital bed with her fingers clenched around mine and a look of excitement mixed with fatigue. A dreamlike atmosphere was created by the quiet voices of the nurses, the regular beeping of the monitors, and the doctor’s gentle words of encouragement.

It was this. The time we had been anticipating. Choosing baby clothes, experiencing small kicks in the middle of the night, and nine months of delight. We spent nine months wondering if our unborn child would have Emma’s golden hair. My angular cheekbones? The dimples that were inherited? Everything else in the room was broken by a piercing wail. The baby was here.

I looked over and saw the doctor gently lifting our baby, her face wrinkled up as she drew her first breaths, her tiny limbs wriggling. My eyes pricked with tears. She was flawless. But Emma’s terrified scream, which I had not anticipated, broke the moment.

“This isn’t my child!” The room became quiet. The nurses froze. The doctor paused in mid-step. I thought my wife would be overwhelmed, perhaps simply in shock from giving birth. However, the expression in her eyes was one of utter incredulity rather than simply fatigue.

In an attempt to maintain composure, one of the nurses gave a soft grin. She remarked, “She’s still attached to you,” as though to reassure my wife that nothing was wrong. Emma, however, gasped for air and shook her head angrily. “It’s not feasible! Never in my life have I dated a Black man!

The words were piercing and weighty as they hung in the air. Everyone was uncertain of how to respond, and the room remained strangely still. As I turned to face our daughter, a gorgeous newborn girl with skin that was substantially darker than either of ours, my heartbeat hammered in my ears. However, her features were definitely ours.

Emma was shaking next to me, and it felt like the whole world was tilting beneath her. I grounded her by squeezing her hand and making her look at me. I stated unequivocally, “She’s our baby,” in a firm voice. “That’s the only thing that counts.”

Emma’s gaze shifted from our daughter to me and back again. As a nurse gently placed the infant in her arms, she gasped. At first, she seemed hesitant to touch her, as though she was scared of something she didn’t comprehend. However, something changed the instant our daughter’s little fingers encircled her pinky.

She loosened her shoulders. Something softer replaced the stiffness in her face. She felt a mixture of relief, tiredness, and love as tears filled her eyes. She let out a trembling breath. She muttered, “She’s gorgeous.” The room seems to breathe once more. The nurses looked at each other but continued working. With a nod, the doctor and I exchanged a quiet agreement.

The days that followed were a haze. I found myself watching our kid nonstop while Emma recovered, trying to figure out what was going on. She had my chin, my nose, and even the same tiny frown I had as a newborn, so I knew without a doubt that she was my. However, Emma’s tirade persisted.

She had been so convinced, not because I had any suspicions or doubts about her. Emma was the first to propose the DNA test. “I just need to know,” she said one evening in a little, nearly embarrassed voice. “I do love her.” But I must comprehend.

So we did it. We waited after sending off the samples. Two weeks later, the results were received. Emma opened the email with shaking hands. My heart was racing as I stood behind her. As she read, she covered her mouth with one hand and gasped.

The screen showed her ancestry record, which in bold letters verified what we had never known: Emma had generations of African ancestry. She turned to face me, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I didn’t know,” she muttered. “All this time, I was unaware.”

I kissed the top of her head as I drew her into my arms. I muttered, “It doesn’t change anything.” “We own her. She was always. Emma laughed softly and drippingly. “I suppose my panic was in vain.” I grinned. “Well, people experience that during childbirth.” She pushed me and rolled her eyes, then turned to face our daughter, who was now soundly asleep in her cradle. There were no more questions after that. Just love. The world had its questions, of course.

Members of the family arched their brows. In supermarket stores, strangers made remarks on the discrepancies. “Is she adopted?” some even questioned. Emma would initially become uneasy when asked those questions because she wasn’t sure how to react. Then, however, she would smile and declare, “No,” with utter assurance.

We own her. We vowed to nurture our kid with pride in all facets of her background as the years went by. We studied the customs, background, and cultures associated with Emma’s DNA as we dug deeper into her newfound ancestry. We made sure our kid never doubted her place in the world by surrounding her with love.

She played with her fingers while sitting on Emma’s lap one evening when she was around five years old. She said, “Mommy?” “What causes my skin to differ from yours?” Emma brushed a curl from her forehead and grinned. “Because you are unique, my dear. You had a lovely past that we both shared. “Like a mix?” she tilted her head in question. “Exactly,” I remarked as I sat next to them. “Like the most exquisite painting, with both Mommy’s and Daddy’s colours.” Satisfied with the response, she smiled and resumed playing.

“Thank you for reminding me that day in the hospital,” Emma muttered as she sought for my hand as we watched her sleep that night. “For what purpose?” “That she belongs to us,” she declared. “That was all that was ever important.” And I knew without a doubt that I would always be there for them as I gazed at my daughter, who was so lovely and full of love. through each query. through each obstacle. through everything. Because appearances weren’t important in family. It wasn’t.

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