His 1973 photo captured Lt. Col. Robert Stirm reuniting with his four children
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photojournalist Slava “Sal” Veder, best known for his 1973 photograph of a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel joyfully reuniting with his family after five years in a prisoner of war camp in Vietnam, died Aug. 22 at age 99, his family said Wednesday. He died in his sleep at his home in El Dorado County, California, outside Sacramento, just eight days before his 100th birthday.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning image shows U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm, who had spent five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, being met by his four children as Stirm and other returning prisoners arrived at Travis Air Force Base in March 1973.
The picture captures the moment Stirm’s four children began to gallop toward their father. The photograph was taken in March 1973 as American prisoners of war returned from Vietnam.
Veder was 46 years old when he was sent to Travis Air Force Base for the arrival of Stirm and other war prisoners returning from Vietnam. He was in a crowded bullpen at the base, jockeying for pictures with dozens of other photographers, when out of the corner of his eye he spotted Stirm’s four children begin to gallop toward their father.
Veder captured the moment as it unfolded, producing the Pulitzer Prize-winning image.
Veder was a San Francisco Bay Area native who had retired from the Associated Press after a career as a photojournalist.