Robert L. Stirm, Returning P.O.W. in Pulitzer-Winning Photo, Dies at 92

Retired Col. Robert L. Stirm, an Air Force pilot whose return home to his family after more than five years of captivity in North Vietnam was the subject of a jubilant Pulitzer Prize-winning photo — an image that hid the painful truth about his marriage ending — died on Nov. 11 in Fairfield, Calif. He was 92.

His death, in a senior living community, was confirmed by his daughter, Lorrie Stirm Kitching.

On March 17, 1973, then-Lieutenant Colonel Stirm arrived home with 19 other former prisoners of war to Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, about 50 miles northeast of San Francisco. Lorrie, who was 15 at the time and his eldest daughter, raced to him on the tarmac in a moment immortalized by a photojournalist. Grinning ecstatically, she had her arms outstretched for a hug, and her feet were off the ground, as if levitating.

“It was like when you’re a little kid, and Santa is going to be coming, and you know it’s going to be amazing but you don’t know how amazing it’s going to be,” Ms. Stirm Kitching, now 68, said in an interview.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/obituaries/robert-stirm-dead.html