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The Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial was vandalized over the past week, with damages running as high as $20,000.
The memorial, built in 1987, honors the 80,000 Philadelphians who fought for America in Vietnam, with particular focus on the 648 who died in the war.
The damage to the memorial was discovered Wednesday by contractor Jim Curry, whose brother served as a military policeman in Vietnam, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The vandals stole seven aluminum light covers, 19 brass light trim covers and 23 bronze star-shaped skate stoppers, the Philadelphia Police Department told the Inquirer. Skate stoppers are design features that deter damage from skateboarders and in-line skaters.
The damaged parts, PVVM explained, are worth $15,000 to $20,000.
“It just seems that for every two steps forward we take, these thugs and miscreants set us back three steps. The PVVM board was planning to take on a number of maintenance projects, including the repair of dangerous and severely damaged walks in the area of the memorial. That will need to be put on hold,” PVVM President Terry Williamson said in a statement Thursday.
The memorial’s executive director, Michael Daily, expressed similarly strong condemnation of the vandals to The Inquirer, saying he was “not feeling the most Christian of feelings about all of this” and that the culprits were “scumbags.”
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