Vietnam memorial wall in Venice restored

VENICE, CA (FOX 11) - A Vietnam memorial wall in Venice vandalized twice this year was unveiled Monday morning with a fresh coat of paint and a protective layer.

The wall, dedicated in 1992, has the names of 2,237 prisoners of war or soldiers missing in action from Vietnam.

The memorial was first vandalized on the holiday weekend last year with giant letters from one end to the other covering a third of the names.
A known tagger, 24-year-old Angel Castro was arrested and sentenced to four years in prison after pleading no contest to vandalism and robbery in connection to the incident.

During the cleanup a third of the names were washed off, and before they could be replaced another tagger marked the same wall in March of 2017.

The Social and Public Art Resource Center of Venice which has been helping to maintain the wall, was able to track down the original names from the estate of the mural artist Patrick Stewart.

Several local organizations donated to the restoration project including SoCalgas which contributed $10,000.

The names are now covered in a clear coating to protect the names if the wall was to be vandalized again.