Veterans Day is typically full of pomp and parades, but one group who wanted to remember the veterans who haven’t come home decided to have a more solemn vigil. In a cage.
In Canton, the Catholic War Veterans’ Maryland chapter held a vigil outside St. Casimir Church. According to WBAL-TV, they set up a cage across the street, where members took turns sitting overnight. They were looking to remember the veterans who never returned from Korea and Vietnam. By the group’s count, 164 Maryland soldiers were either captured or went missing in the two wars.
So why sit in a cage? Unfortunately, that’s how prisoners were often kept. According to survivors like Sen. John McCain and long-held POW Ernie Brace have said, the Viet Cong often held prisoners in bamboo cages, where they were bound to keep fro escaping and frequently tortured.
