More O.C. Officials Saluting POW/MIA Flag

Bob Kakuk looked a bit out of place last week among the rows of dark-hued suits at the county’s Board of Supervisors meeting. But his khaki shirt with its somber black emblem was received with clear respect.

Kakuk and Ron Melendez, the county’s veterans services officer, were there for a presentation honoring National POW/MIA Remembrance Week. They spoke of the pain of the lingering unknown on families of POWs and MIAs, of the need to account for every member of the military who disappeared on foreign soil. They want soldiers’ remains returned home.

Kakuk, who wore the now-familiar black-and-white silhouette of the POW/MIA movement, also talked of how U.S. prisoners still may be held hostage in bamboo cages in faraway places.

There was a time when the idea of prisoners still alive in Southeast Asia or Korea were lumped by officialdom with the hazy skepticism of alien abductions and black helicopters. But the notion has gained slow credibility in Orange County among public officials being called upon to push the issue.

It certainly has been an issue among the county’s 264,000 veterans--the largest group of veterans in one place in the country.

“Our guys, who are 42 to 55 [years old], still have friends missing, and they want to believe they’re still alive,” said Deanne Tate, executive director of Veterans Charities, a Santa Ana-based support group.

Even if government officials aren’t ready to fully embrace the MIA issue, they’ve been lining up to officially acknowledge the sacrifices of prisoners of war.

Last week, the Costa Mesa City Council agreed to fly the black POW/MIA flag year-round over City Hall. The flag features a white-lined silhouette of a captive being watched from behind a barbed-wired guard tower.

The action makes the city the sixth in the county to fly the flag, joining Orange, Westminster, Huntington Beach, Fullerton and La Habra.

Supervisor Jim Silva, who presented the resolution to Kakuk and Melendez, said he doesn’t know for sure if MIAs are still alive. But he’s not willing to discount the possibility.

“Everything I’ve been told is that it’s quite possible we do still have people [still prisoners],” said Silva, whose father was held during World War II as a prisoner of war in Germany. “In giving recognition [to the issue], it gives a small bit of comfort not only to families and loved ones but makes the public aware of the personal suffering because of MIAs.”

Silva said he’ll ask his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors to approve flying the POW/MIA flag over the county Hall of Administration.

“As elected officials, we’re in a position to make sure POW/MIAs are not forgotten,” he said.

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Melendez said the sentiment that MIAs might still be alive has grown in recent years. A year ago, former Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) presented declassified documents from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library indicating that more than 900 U.S. servicemen were left in North Korea after the war’s end despite a government declaration that all remaining Americans were presumed dead.

The situation presents an awkward split of loyalties for those who fought for their country in the military, only to now find themselves prevailing upon local governments to fight the U.S. government. The official position of the Pentagon is that there is no evidence of MIAs remaining alive and imprisoned.

“We owe to those left behind to find out what happened,” Melendez said. “Probably in most instances, there is a reasonable belief that the MIAs are deceased. But there are many instances where people we’ve known were POWs, and they haven’t been accounted for. The government told us that chemicals weren’t used in the Persian Gulf and now reports are coming out that they were.”

Perspective is a weekly column that highlights trends and events that define Orange County or an in-depth look at an issue affecting the county. Readers are invited to call Los Angeles Times correspondent Jean O. Pasco at (714) 564-1052 or send an e-mail to Jean.Pasco@latimes.com