COSTA MESA : ‘Tiger Cage’ Keeps MIA Cause Alive

A bamboo and burlap “tiger cage” sits quietly in the lobby of City Hall, displaying a collage of photos and articles on American servicemen still listed as prisoners of war or missing in action in Vietnam.

The cage--barely three feet wide and four feet high--was built from the descriptions of former prisoners of war, some of whom languished in such pens, and from the recollections of soldiers who saw the discarded cages in the jungles of Vietnam, said Pete Weissman, a member of the support group Vietnam Vets Reunited.

During the war, the cages were used to transport prisoners through the jungle areas and, in some cases, to hold them for longer periods, Weissman said.

Soldiers named them after cages used to transport tigers in the jungle.

His group built the cage two years ago as part of its campaign to raise public awareness about Americans still considered missing in action, their whereabouts unaccounted for 15 years after the Vietnam War ended. The campaign--and the cage--came to City Hall last week, where organizers hope to remind visitors of the plight of missing American servicemen.

“It’s an issue that, for some reason, the majority of the American people are not aware of,” Weissman said. “So rather than try to put together a strike force to go over and liberate them, we’ve decided to make the public aware and, through that, to make the government move on this issue.”

Before the cage took up residence at City Hall, it was taken along on talks before schoolchildren, to service groups and to other events.

“We get a lot of reaction to it,” said Bob Kakuk, who heads the veterans group.

Kakuk, 43, said he was ignorant about soldiers listed as missing in action until he attended a flag-raising ceremony two years ago. That’s when he joined the group.

“I figured there was something I could do to get the word out about it,” he said.

But while the cage is designed to draw attention to prisoners of war and missing servicemen, the group’s mandate extends beyond raising public awareness.

Members also gather every two weeks in Fountain Valley to provide support for each other and help other veterans deal with problems.

“We basically are there for one another,” Kakuk said. “The easiest thing for a vet is to be around another vet to talk about what they went through, family problems or just anything.”