Antiques Roadshow

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... captured.

And he was in a variety of different#prisoner... he was at the, the infamous French prison#Hoa Lo, also kn... APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: And that he.. APPRAISER: Did he have any other interesting,#uh, people that...

GUEST: Oh, absolutely.

He told me a great#story that the fi... in jail was a joke that John McCain# had tapped through the wall.

They were## sharing a wall while they were both in solitary#confineme... APPRAISER: (chuckling) So John#McCain tapped the joke...

GUEST: Tapped the joke to him.

Yes.

APPRAISER: Wow.

Wow.

GUEST: John McCain was shot#down the day befo.. and they were repatriated the same#day in order of their sh... APPRAISER: Wow.

Wow, well, he was a, uh, F-105#Thunderchi...

GUEST: Thud pilot, yes, yes.

APPRAISER: Yup, yup.

And we have#some great th.. uh, top and trousers, um, from#jail, uh, from the pri...

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 t... tag right here was written by the North#Vietnamese and t... APPRAISER: And we've got a pair of#sandals that he wore...

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 leap..

GUEST: We were very excited.

APPRAISER: I'm sure.

And I remember this# as a kid.

I remember seeing it .. and I also remember the video footage of him,# uh, leaving North Vietnam with John McCain.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: Great stuff.

Um, and ..

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: ...that goes ..

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... 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.