The Tragic Story of the 'Burst of Joy' Vietnam Photograph
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Date: 2022-12-29
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Comments and reviews: 20
Dan
I don't like your treatment of this story. And I really object to the bored tone of your narration.
I looked into the Stirm family story, the Colonel's service record and the post-Vietnam phase. The Stirms are a good American family - all of them. The marriage breakup was sad - all breakups are very painful since nobody wants to fail in a marriage - but both remarried and found contentment. Lori was a great eldest child, kept her head far better than kids today when Veder's photo made her famous. She settled into a career like most women of her generation and has a nice family of her own. The other kids done well too.
I don't know what you think Middle America expects of ordinary service officers' families. It is hard to believe that you really find such marriage breakups any harder to accept than in civilian cases. Surely not. Given the extreme stresses placed on Vietnam service families, surely we can all show a little compassion, a liitle care and a little consideration.
Surely this American family - all of whom have done their duty for their society in every sense of the word - has had more than enough media comment on their private family issues.
Both Col Stirm and his ex-wife have now gone to their eternal reward - a far richer one than many of us may enjoy. Their family have reared their own children and look forward to retirement. I think it's time this photo was left to be appreciated at face value by those who look at it. Envy of an exemplary service and joyful reunion should lead us to respect and admiration, not to a search for human failing.
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I don't like your treatment of this story. And I really object to the bored tone of your narration.
I looked into the Stirm family story, the Colonel's service record and the post-Vietnam phase. The Stirms are a good American family - all of them. The marriage breakup was sad - all breakups are very painful since nobody wants to fail in a marriage - but both remarried and found contentment. Lori was a great eldest child, kept her head far better than kids today when Veder's photo made her famous. She settled into a career like most women of her generation and has a nice family of her own. The other kids done well too.
I don't know what you think Middle America expects of ordinary service officers' families. It is hard to believe that you really find such marriage breakups any harder to accept than in civilian cases. Surely not. Given the extreme stresses placed on Vietnam service families, surely we can all show a little compassion, a liitle care and a little consideration.
Surely this American family - all of whom have done their duty for their society in every sense of the word - has had more than enough media comment on their private family issues.
Both Col Stirm and his ex-wife have now gone to their eternal reward - a far richer one than many of us may enjoy. Their family have reared their own children and look forward to retirement. I think it's time this photo was left to be appreciated at face value by those who look at it. Envy of an exemplary service and joyful reunion should lead us to respect and admiration, not to a search for human failing.
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FromMyEyesToYours
I first saw this photo in a book, in 1982. At first sight it jumped off the page and just blew my mind. Lorrie Stirm and I are the same age, and I also had family in Vietnam, so I related strongly with her emotions. We also lived not far from the Stirm's S. F. Bay Area hometown in Foster City, CA. I kept looking at it for weeks. thinking that nothing says Welcome Home more than this photo. and eventually wanted to have it blown up to life-size and papered onto the facing wall in the entry of my house. Until I saw the price tag. Then, twelve years later, in 1994, I had some extra cash, and finally. finally. had the print made. I still look at it daily. and the visual is still as powerful to me today as the image I first saw in the book. just bigger. much bigger. I long ago learned the sad breakup story. and I deeply regret, yet also appreciate, the fact that Colonel Stirm remembered those times with disdain-- but as a patriot to American war veterans-at-large that aspect does little to diminish the value of the photo for what it was at the moment it was snapped. Sometimes I like to see the color version, so I come check it out online. hence here I am. Awesome video! Thank you for the post!
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I first saw this photo in a book, in 1982. At first sight it jumped off the page and just blew my mind. Lorrie Stirm and I are the same age, and I also had family in Vietnam, so I related strongly with her emotions. We also lived not far from the Stirm's S. F. Bay Area hometown in Foster City, CA. I kept looking at it for weeks. thinking that nothing says Welcome Home more than this photo. and eventually wanted to have it blown up to life-size and papered onto the facing wall in the entry of my house. Until I saw the price tag. Then, twelve years later, in 1994, I had some extra cash, and finally. finally. had the print made. I still look at it daily. and the visual is still as powerful to me today as the image I first saw in the book. just bigger. much bigger. I long ago learned the sad breakup story. and I deeply regret, yet also appreciate, the fact that Colonel Stirm remembered those times with disdain-- but as a patriot to American war veterans-at-large that aspect does little to diminish the value of the photo for what it was at the moment it was snapped. Sometimes I like to see the color version, so I come check it out online. hence here I am. Awesome video! Thank you for the post!
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liane
Reading these comments is so sad. The picture is only a second in time. He endured a lot of pain for years. She felt that she couldnt go on with the life that she had. She tried to do the right thing but couldnt
The kids thought they had a father for only a few moments in time. He had to endure the changes of everyday life. Teenagers, his kids, were grown and were trying to be adults and you know that they rebelled to their parents. Life moved on without him and he had to except it the best way he could. He had to have been angry at the whole world
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Reading these comments is so sad. The picture is only a second in time. He endured a lot of pain for years. She felt that she couldnt go on with the life that she had. She tried to do the right thing but couldnt
The kids thought they had a father for only a few moments in time. He had to endure the changes of everyday life. Teenagers, his kids, were grown and were trying to be adults and you know that they rebelled to their parents. Life moved on without him and he had to except it the best way he could. He had to have been angry at the whole world
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Robert
They got no help to reintegrate with the public and nobody wanted to help, people who were in the military back then were ostracized and spit on by the people
I was released from active duty in 1976 and no jobs available for veterans and VA hospitals were a disaster and the doctors who worked there were either incompetent or couldn't practice in a regular hospital because of their mal-practice law suits
Thankfully things have changed and now the VA is the best care anywhere
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They got no help to reintegrate with the public and nobody wanted to help, people who were in the military back then were ostracized and spit on by the people
I was released from active duty in 1976 and no jobs available for veterans and VA hospitals were a disaster and the doctors who worked there were either incompetent or couldn't practice in a regular hospital because of their mal-practice law suits
Thankfully things have changed and now the VA is the best care anywhere
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Bob
Can you know it's crazy to me feminist keep saying they want to be more equal than they get treated horrible and blah blah blah look at this man comes back from hell to find his wife with some other guy and he's got to pay her now and what about all these girls using abortion has birth control and they don't need the guys consent to kill their baby so I think a guy should be able to opt out a fatherhood too
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Can you know it's crazy to me feminist keep saying they want to be more equal than they get treated horrible and blah blah blah look at this man comes back from hell to find his wife with some other guy and he's got to pay her now and what about all these girls using abortion has birth control and they don't need the guys consent to kill their baby so I think a guy should be able to opt out a fatherhood too
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Douglas
I was at Travis the day this went down. I did not witness this iconic scene but being in the military there were rules. Mostly military officer POWs wives stuck together for a variety of reasons. Mostly to avoid the temptation we all knew was fact. The captors constantly taunted the captives what their wives were doing with other men. The tragic truth was. some were fact.
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I was at Travis the day this went down. I did not witness this iconic scene but being in the military there were rules. Mostly military officer POWs wives stuck together for a variety of reasons. Mostly to avoid the temptation we all knew was fact. The captors constantly taunted the captives what their wives were doing with other men. The tragic truth was. some were fact.
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Susan
The Burst of Joy photo is in no way similar to a photo of the moment Joe Theismans's leg was snapped on the football field. A better analogy would be a picture of Joe Theismann after he completed physical therapy and was able to walk again, but never play football. I would hope that the most terrible moments of his life were as a POW, not his return.
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The Burst of Joy photo is in no way similar to a photo of the moment Joe Theismans's leg was snapped on the football field. A better analogy would be a picture of Joe Theismann after he completed physical therapy and was able to walk again, but never play football. I would hope that the most terrible moments of his life were as a POW, not his return.
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Shenandoah
We actually met him by chance at a strange moment in life when we had to empty out my husbands deceased brothers apartment in California. He told us who he was, and it was really thrilling to be in the presence of someone whod seen so much and had been in such an iconic, though sad, photo.
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We actually met him by chance at a strange moment in life when we had to empty out my husbands deceased brothers apartment in California. He told us who he was, and it was really thrilling to be in the presence of someone whod seen so much and had been in such an iconic, though sad, photo.
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spazz
Were there really 'unofficial' POW outposts such as those depicted in The Deer Hunter ok Netflix's Cobra Kai (se03) where US Marines were forced to play lethal games against each other? Regardless, my everlasting thanks to these men. They gave a lifetime of peace and prosperity.
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Were there really 'unofficial' POW outposts such as those depicted in The Deer Hunter ok Netflix's Cobra Kai (se03) where US Marines were forced to play lethal games against each other? Regardless, my everlasting thanks to these men. They gave a lifetime of peace and prosperity.
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Hatsunama
I wish you would extend the videos like 5 SECONDS so I can actually look at the next 2 videos you're suggesting. It's impossible to read and decide in the 2 seconds you give us
I usually can't even get my phone out of my pocket before the next video starts on it's own
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I wish you would extend the videos like 5 SECONDS so I can actually look at the next 2 videos you're suggesting. It's impossible to read and decide in the 2 seconds you give us
I usually can't even get my phone out of my pocket before the next video starts on it's own
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Kenneth
As you are bitter, so shall you sow, the depth of that feeling, only you will know, so look to the future, cause that's where you'll go or dragging Marley's chains is all you will tow (the things you prioritize in life will be shackled to you for eternity)
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As you are bitter, so shall you sow, the depth of that feeling, only you will know, so look to the future, cause that's where you'll go or dragging Marley's chains is all you will tow (the things you prioritize in life will be shackled to you for eternity)
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Paul
If I was Him. Id be pissed my beautiful lady and mother to my kids had moved on with someone else too. boy the tragedy in this - go to war. become POW for 6 years return home to find you have lost everything. what a shitty hand fate dealt out grrrrrrrrrrrrrr
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If I was Him. Id be pissed my beautiful lady and mother to my kids had moved on with someone else too. boy the tragedy in this - go to war. become POW for 6 years return home to find you have lost everything. what a shitty hand fate dealt out grrrrrrrrrrrrrr
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Abiding
Soldiers coming home from the Vietnam war were treated terribly. The Press the hippie movement. they were called baby killers by protesters, it was terrible. I think that affected the mental health of a lot of Vietnam vets. They deserved better.
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Soldiers coming home from the Vietnam war were treated terribly. The Press the hippie movement. they were called baby killers by protesters, it was terrible. I think that affected the mental health of a lot of Vietnam vets. They deserved better.
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education
There were many marriages that turned into divorce because of military service in Vietnam. To put it straight, they werent the same people when they came home, many had PTSD and worse. Very sad times for many veterans and their families.
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There were many marriages that turned into divorce because of military service in Vietnam. To put it straight, they werent the same people when they came home, many had PTSD and worse. Very sad times for many veterans and their families.
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Richard
The former Mrs. Stirm disgusts me beyond most any words I can write. Coming from an extended military family, we all stuck together no matter what. I never thought that that homecoming photograph could be devalued, but Mrs. Sturm did it.
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The former Mrs. Stirm disgusts me beyond most any words I can write. Coming from an extended military family, we all stuck together no matter what. I never thought that that homecoming photograph could be devalued, but Mrs. Sturm did it.
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Christopher
On top of being physically tortured by the viet cong, he gets emotionally tortured by the wife that was unfaithful, gets remarried, and still receives alimony? He is a saint for only being bitter instead of something much worse.
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On top of being physically tortured by the viet cong, he gets emotionally tortured by the wife that was unfaithful, gets remarried, and still receives alimony? He is a saint for only being bitter instead of something much worse.
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Joe
My father flew C-130s in & out of every dirt landing strip in SE Asia. He brought more than one back looking like Swiss cheese. He came home on a stretcher but he came home alive. This was his third war and he was never the same after.
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My father flew C-130s in & out of every dirt landing strip in SE Asia. He brought more than one back looking like Swiss cheese. He came home on a stretcher but he came home alive. This was his third war and he was never the same after.
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Ziggy3339
It was (and still is) how many are after war, surviving as a POW, and the PTSD that is forever there. After wars, the U. S. never goes deep enough of Lomb enough or effective enough to make things right. Its sorrowful.
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It was (and still is) how many are after war, surviving as a POW, and the PTSD that is forever there. After wars, the U. S. never goes deep enough of Lomb enough or effective enough to make things right. Its sorrowful.
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Life
The marriage was already having problems, so it made it easier for her to leave. Even at that 5 to 6 years is a long time to be waiting for someone. If the positions were reversed most men would have moved on also.
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The marriage was already having problems, so it made it easier for her to leave. Even at that 5 to 6 years is a long time to be waiting for someone. If the positions were reversed most men would have moved on also.
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Still
Whether an historical reunion of a family torn apart by war, or the natural rupture of a marriage and family due to dysfunctional connection between individual members, reuniting does not mean reconnecting.
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Whether an historical reunion of a family torn apart by war, or the natural rupture of a marriage and family due to dysfunctional connection between individual members, reuniting does not mean reconnecting.
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