Full Military Funeral Honors with Escort for U.S. Air Force Colonel Robert Stirm in Section 57 at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia on July 29, 2026 - 10

Airmen from the U.S. Air Force Honor Guard, airmen from the U.S. Air Force Band’s Ceremonial Brass and soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) Caisson Detachment conduct full military funeral honors with escort for U.S. Air Force Col. Robert Stirm in Section 57 at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, July 29, 2026. Stirm entered active duty with the U.S. Air Force in November 1953 when he was 21 years old. In 1967, during the Vietnam War, Stirm was serving with the 333rd Tactical Fighter Squadron based in Thailand. During a bombing mission on Oct. 27, his F-105 Thunderchief was hit, causing Stirm to eject. He was shot three times while parachuting to the ground, where the North Vietnamese captured him as a prisoner of war (POW). For 1,966 days, Stirm was held captive in North Vietnamese prisons, including the notorious “Hanoi Hilton.” He was finally released as part of “Operation Homecoming,” which repatriated 591 American POWs from Vietnam following the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973. On March 17, 1973, Stirm reunited with his family on the tarmac of Travis Air Force Base in California. As his wife and four children

Date

2026

Photographer / author

Arlington National Cemetery

Archive

Wikimedia Commons

Type

photograph

Original size

7,576 × 5,051 pixels

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