Released prisoner of war Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm is greeted by his family at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif., as he returns home from the Vietnam War, March 17, 1973.
Photojournalist Sal Veder, best known for his Pulitzer-Prize winning photo "Burst of Joy," depicting a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel reuniting with his family after spending five years in a prisoner of war camp in Vietnam, died at the age of 99 on Saturday.
According to the Associated Press, his family confirmed he died in his sleep at his home in El Dorado County, Calif., just over a week before he'd have turned 100.
In a 2015 interview with The Guardian, Veder said he was waiting with dozens of other photographers in a bullpen at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, competing for shots of other returning POWS and their loved ones, when he sensed movement off to one side. "This family came out of nowhere, got out of their car and dashed for the soldier, who'd been a POW for five years," he said in the interview.
"I saw them out of the corner of my eye, turned and started shooting. You could tell, even at a distance, what they were feeling. It was all over them, their faces, the way they all broke into a run. There was a surge of emotion from the crowd, too. But the PoW, Robert L. Stirm, appeared stoic. He's very formal, very uptight, walking in a downbeat manner." It was only later, Veder said, that he learned that the serviceman, Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm, had received a note from his wife ending their marriage just a few days before his release.
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Associated Press photographer Slava "Sal" Veder holds a copy of his Pulitzer Prize-winning picture and a congratulatory telegram from Wes Gallagher, then-AP president and general manager, in San Francisco on May 7, 1974.
Throughout Veder's three-decade career at the AP, where he worked from 1961 until he retired in 1993, he photographed several consequential political moments and figures, including Dianne Feinstein, when she was elected mayor of San Francisco after the assassination of Mayor George Moscone; political activist Angela Davis, when she was on trial for conspiracy for murder; newspaper heiress Patty Hearst, after she was arrested for bank robbery; and members of the Black Panther Party.
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Dianne Feinstein, named mayor following the assassination of late Mayor George Moscone in San Francisco, won the office in her own right beating challenger Quentin Kopp by a large majority on Dec. 12, 1979. With her on the victory platform are, from left, Moscone's widow, Gina Moscone, Assemblyman Willie Brown and Feinstein's fiancé, Richard Blum. Feinstein, who was the first woman to serve as mayor of San Francisco, went on to become the longest-serving member of the U.S. Senate.
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Professor and activist Angela Davis during an interview with AP reporters at the Santa Clara County jail in Palo Alto, Calif. on Dec. 27, 1971. At the time, Davis was on trial for conspiracy for murder charges, which she was acquitted of in June 1972.
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Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks at a rally at the University of California, Berkeley in an undated photo. (AP Photo/Sal Veder)
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Patty Hearst is seated in a U.S. Marshal's car, leaving the San Mateo County jail in Redwood City, Calif., on Dec. 12, 1975, on her way to San Francisco to an appearance in federal court. Hearst, the granddaughter of newspaper publisher and politician William Randolph Hearst, was tried and convicted on bank robbery charges in 1976, which were later commuted by President Jimmy Carter.
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In this March 7, 1979 file photo, former Black Panther leader Huey Newton speaks to reporters outside the courthouse in Oakland, Calif.
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In this Nov. 22, 1965 file photo, heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali holds a "Muhammad Speaks" newspaper bearing his picture as he and followers of the Nation of Islam leave the Las Vegas convention center after weigh-in ceremonies to defend his title against challenger Floyd Patterson.
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Cast members of the play Hair join activist and Southern Christian Leadership Conference co-founder Rev. Ralph Abernathy (second from left) during an anti-war rally in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on Nov. 15, 1969.
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Singer Joan Baez (right) and Avital Sharansky at Sproul Plaza at the University of California campus in Berkeley on July 20, 1978, at a rally for Sharansky, the wife of Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky.
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A young woman sets up large bottles of drinking water on Alcatraz Island on Nov. 17, 1970. This was part of a 19-month-long occupation by Native American activists in protest of U.S. government policies on treaties.
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A crowd surges forward as Jimmy Carter shakes hands following a political rally in San Francisco on Oct. 31, 1976.
