Noted AF flyer visits flight test museum Published April 10, 2013 By Laura Mowry Staff writer EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- The Air Force Flight Test Museum welcomed retired Air Force Col. Robert L. Stirm April 5, known from Salva Veder's 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning photograph "Burst of Joy," depicting the reunion with his family after more than five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. While at Edwards, Stirm stopped at Century Circle to visit the F-105 Thunderchief, the airframe he was flying when shot down over Hanoi in 1967. Accompanying Stirm were retired Air Force Lt. Col. B.C. Thomas, who holds the most amount of flight time in the SR-71, and retired Air Force Col. Bill Flanagan, who flew in the Blackbird as a reconnaissance systems officer and currently serves on the board of the Flight Test Historical Foundation.