AUSTINTOWN Rolling Thunder stands vigil to call attention to POWs, MIAs

More than 88,000 Americans have been classified as POW or MIA since World War II.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- His back against the bamboo bars of a cage so small he could barely sit up straight, Patrick Chittock watched the traffic along Mahoning Avenue in front of Wickliffe Circle on Friday afternoon.
Each passing vehicle sent a spray of dirty water over the curb as a steady light rain bounced off the windshields. The water rolled down the corners of Chittock's cage, draped in a waterproof camouflage cloth, and turned the grass under the equipment trailer on which it sat into a mucky swamp.
"Look at them. They don't even look. They just drive by," he said, watching the cars go by the small park where a memorial to Korean War veterans stands. "It's because they feel safe. When they feel safe they don't think about the guys who made it safe for them."
Chittock, president of Rolling Thunder Ohio Chapter 4 and a Marine who spent a year in Grenada and Lebanon in the mid-1980s, locked himself in the cage in honor of the national day of recognition for American prisoners of war and those missing in action.
The National Day of Recognition for POWs and MIAs is always the third Friday in September.
Group's cause
"It's a small sacrifice for me to sit here for 24 hours to call attention to our cause," Chittock, of Cortland, said. "We believe there are living POWs and MIAs in Southeast Asia and possibly Korea and we don't think our government is doing a very good job of trying to find them. They'll do excavations to find remains, but they do not pursue live sightings."
"They're not doing very good work in trying to find Scott Speicher from the first Gulf War," he continued.
Lt. Cmdr. Michael "Scott" Speicher "was shot down the first day of the Gulf War in 1991 and was classified as killed in action by the Navy. Then they changed it to missing/captured. It's not very often that happens, but they're not doing much to find him."
"This is our motto," Chittock said, pointing to the inscription on the trailer beneath his cage: "When one American is not worth the effort to be found, then we as Americans have lost."
Since World War II, more than 88,000 Americans have been classified as prisoners of war or missing in action, he said. More than 8,000 of those are in Korea, more than 1,800 in Vietnam.
Rolling Thunder, which strives to educate the public about POWs and MIAs, also provides support services to disabled veterans. There are 10 chapters in Ohio and 77 chapters nationwide.
Chittock's chapter has 140 veterans.
kubik@vindy.com