Daughter in iconic Vietnam War photo "Burst of Joy" reflects: "It's still very fresh in my heart"
The iconic photo taken at Travis Air Force Base in 1973 of a family running towards their father, Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Stirm, after he was freed from being a prisoner of war in Vietnam is known as "Burst of Joy."
Stirm's then-15-year-old daughter Lorrie, seen with her arms outstretched in the photo, still lives within driving distance of Travis AFB five decades later.
With the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon approaching this week, CBS News Sacramento talked to Lorrie to reflect on that moment frozen in time during the Vietnam War.
"It is just a glorious moment of time of my dad coming home to his family," Lorrie Kitching said.
Her first words to her father in that famous moment?
"Nothing profound," Lorrie said. "Just, 'Oh daddy, oh daddy."
Now married with children of her own, Lorrie's father remains her hero.
She saved the letters he wrote from the prison camp, which feature heartbreaking and heartwarming messages – always with perfect penmanship.
"I'm so proud of my teenage girl," Lorrie read from one of the letters.
Kitching also has Stirm's prison uniform carefully packed in the suitcase issued him upon his release.
"They were released in order of their shoot-down date," Lorrie said. "The Vietnamese told him that these sandals were made out of the tires of the aircraft that he was flying."
One of his prison mates was John McCain, who was shot down a day before Stirm.
The two pilots shared a wall in solitary confinement and communicated in a tapping code.
"And so John McCain was tapping a joke to my dad, through the wall … and my dad said that's the first time he laughed when he was in jail," Lorrie said.
Kitching's father never did tell her the joke.
This milestone anniversary of the Fall of Saigon is a time for reflection for Kitching.
"It's still very fresh in my heart, in mind, in my life," Lorrie said.
It was a war that created a deep divide in a country – a country her father served to protect.
"There were a lot of people who were just against the United States being involved at all," Lorrie said.
Kitching says reflecting on that time has helped her to seek understanding.
"I hope that I'm more empathetic," Lorrie said.
"Burst of Joy" was taken by AP photographer Slava Veder and won the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.
