The folks we give thanks for – LTC Stirm

First off – a Happy Thanksgiving to all you turkeys (you just knew some one of we smartasses just had to say it, didn’t you?) Now, if you’re more than, say, 50 or so, try to hear the word “turkey” used like that without hearing it in Jerry Reed’s voice. If you can – if not I, guarantee you either have no sense of humor or are from somewhere up North of God’s country.

Thank you. Thank you for serving. Thank you for writing that famous blank check for all of us – without all of you, we wouldn’t have a country (albeit screwed up as it presently is) to give thanks IN. Go have a great Thanksgiving, and may you spend it (hopefully) with family. I suspect most have done the other and spent a past Thanksgiving or two out of country doing America’s bidding.  And thank you for making it back so your loved ones can be with you. And thanks for dropping by TAH – even if you feel one of us deserves a little hell,  and give it to us – it’s all one big mostly-happy family. Have an extra drumstick – on me.

Now the actual subject of today’s column is a fella named Robert Stirm. You might not know him by name, and probably not even by face – but you know his back and his family. Lieutenant Colonel Robert Stirm was a guest of the North Vietnamese in various prisons from 1967 to 1973 after his F-105 Thunderchief was shot down on October 27.

He was held captive for 1,966 days in five different POW camps in Hanoi and North Vietnam, including the notorious “Hanoi Hilton,” known for torturing and starving its captives, primarily American pilots shot down during bombing raids. Its most famous prisoner was the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, who also was shot down in 1967.

McCain and Stirm had known each other. They shared a wall in solitary confinement and communicated through a tapping code.

“John McCain tapped in this joke. First time Dad laughed in jail,” Kitching said. “I just wish I knew what that joke was,” she said. “I’m sure it was something very ribald.”

A member of our military saying something off-color? Say it ain’t so!

Stirm, who was 39 when the photo was taken, told the AP 20 years later that he had several copies of it, but didn’t display it in his house. He had been handed a “Dear John” letter from his wife, Loretta, by a chaplain upon his release.

The couple divorced a year after Stirm returned from Vietnam and both remarried within six months.

Stirm retired from the Air Force in 1977 after 25 years of service. He joined Ferry Steel Products, a business his grandfather started in San Francisco. He also had worked as a corporate pilot.  Military.com

The Pulitzer-winning photo, known as the “Burst of Joy”, was a heartbreaking memory for Stirm, as you can imagine.

Appropriately, LTC Stirm crossed the rainbow bridge on Veteran’s Day this year at the age of 92.

Category: Air Force, Vietnam, We Remember