Just Days After Vandalism, Fallen Soldiers Honored At Dorchester's Vietnam Memorial
DORCHESTER (CBS) - It was a Memorial Day service some feared wouldn't happen.
"The site was devastated. All the trees and bushes were cut down and destroyed, the flagpole was thrashed, the flag was thrashed, so it was really damaged, but the community came together," Joseph Zinck, the president of the Dorchester Vietnam Memorial Committee, said.
Service men, women, Gold Star families and friends of the fallen gathered at Dorchester's Vietnam Memorial.
A site that was vandalized not once but twice.
On Thursday, the site was hit again, and police have identified a suspect.
"Good comes out of bad things, and just looking around today, the people who are here today - many of them have been here since the beginning," Zinck said.
One of those people - Mayor Marty Walsh.
"I come here every year. I've done it for over 25 years to this memorial. It's a memory of all the Dorchester fallen in Vietnam, and I'm not here because of what happened twice to this memorial. I'm here because we should be here," Mayor Walsh explained.
On the memorial are the names of 80 men who lost their lives in Vietnam.
The average age of them all - just 19 years old.
"As it's engraved on this memorial, through us they will live forever," one man said.
A flower for each of the names on this memorial was placed down during the roll call.
It was a very emotional moment for those who knew and grew up with these men.
"Those are guys we grew up with right off the corne -r at least five on my corner - but we all knew each other we all knew each other," Joe Hamner, a Vietnam veteran, said.
For these veterans, this is a time to reflect and think about what this day truly stands for.
"Everybody always says happy Memorial Day to you, but it's not like a happy day. It's a day remembrance. You know, a sad day. I'm choking up talking about it," Veteran Charles Santangelo added.
And to see so many come together year after year eases that pain.
"We are very happy, you know? Very grateful," South Korean veteran Tuan Tran said.
