Vietnam POW Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Stirm Archive
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GUEST:
Today, I brought the clothes that were worn by my father when he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He was shot down in North Vietnam. In October 27, 1967, captured. And he was in a variety of different prisoner of war camps. When he was released, he was at the, the infamous French prison Hoa Lo, also known as the Hanoi Hilton.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
And that he was, uh, repatriated March 14, 1973.
APPRAISER:
Did he have any other interesting, uh, people that he was with in prison?
GUEST:
Oh, absolutely. He told me a great story that the first time he ever laughed in jail was a joke that John McCain had tapped through the wall. They were sharing a wall while they were both in solitary confinement, while they were in, uh, Son Tây.
APPRAISER:
(chuckling) So John McCain tapped the joke to him?
GUEST:
Tapped the joke to him. Yes.
APPRAISER:
Wow. Wow.
GUEST:
John McCain was shot down the day before my dad, and they were repatriated the same day in order of their shoot down.
APPRAISER:
Wow. Wow, well, he was a, uh, F-105 Thunderchief. Thud pilot is what they were called.
GUEST:
Thud pilot, yes, yes.
APPRAISER:
Yup, yup. And we have some great things here. We have his, uh, top and trousers, um, from jail, uh, from the prison camp...
GUEST:
Yes, from jail.
APPRAISER:
...with his prisoner numbers on them.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Um, we've got his bag, uh, with more material in there. And the bag has the original Red Cross tag on it.
GUEST:
Yeah, this is the original Red Cross tag. And this little tag right here was written by the North Vietnamese and they handed him the bag.
APPRAISER:
And we've got a pair of sandals that he wore in prison right here.
GUEST:
Yes, the Vietnamese said that those were made out of the tires of the airplane that he was shot down in.
APPRAISER:
Hm.
GUEST:
So it was mental cruelty right there, too.
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
That he had to walk in those shoes.
APPRAISER:
And what about the spoon?
GUEST:
The spoon, that was his spoon when he was, uh, for-for all his meals. And in an act of defiance, he etched a thunderbolt in the bowl of the spoon. I guess it was just his own little way to have some sort of control.
APPRAISER:
Right, right. And then one of the most iconic things here, because I remember it as a kid, um, I remember this picture, is the one right here. Tell us about that.
GUEST:
This picture is called Burst of Joy. It was taken at Travis Air Force Base on March 17, 1973. Um, this was the first moment we saw my dad. When the aircraft landed, we were in a car behind the aircraft on the tarmac, and then they said, "You can get out now." So we just burst out of the car and started running to my dad. And it was captured by Sal Veder, uh, an A.P. photographer, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in photography for this picture, the Burst of Joy. The photograph was given to me personally by Sal in 1990; he signed it, "Lorrie, with best wishes, Sal Veder."
APPRAISER:
Wow. And where are you?
GUEST:
(laughs) I'm known as "the leaper" or "the jumper.”
APPRAISER:
"The leaper?” (laughs) Well, I gotta say, if it was my dad, I'd be leaping, too.
GUEST:
We were very excited.
APPRAISER:
I'm sure. And I remember this as a kid. I remember seeing it on the news, and I also remember the video footage of him, uh, leaving North Vietnam with John McCain.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Great stuff. Um, and it's, in a way, this is kind of hard to appraise because of the...
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
...that goes along with it.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
I'm having a hard time, too.
GUEST:
(chuckling) Yeah, it-it is, it touches.
APPRAISER:
Um, so as an auction estimate, it would be in the $2,500 to $3,000 range...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
...which doesn't seem like a whole lot. However, um, the historical value on this is absolutely priceless. Um, and what a moving story it is.
GUEST:
My dad is alive. He is doing fabulous. Uh, he's healthy. He's well. He's 89 years old.
APPRAISER:
Wow. Well, please, uh, tell him when you get home, thank you for his service.
GUEST:
Thank you, I will. He'll be very pleased to hear that, thank you.
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