By Barbara Zaragoza / South Bay Compass
Community activist and veteran Jack Gechter noticed graffiti on the veterans memorial in Chula Vista. When he called the city, initially he received no response. Then he called the Turko files. When the piece aired, the city immediately remedied the problem.
A similar situation happened with the veterans memorial in Kimball Park a few years back when plaques were pried off a wall at D Avenue and later found in an apartment complex of San Ysidro.
These acts against veteran commemorations have been occurring for decades, perhaps with very little media attention. In the 1940s a marble commemoration was erected in front of the San Ysidro Public Library to honor San Ysidrans who served in WWII. At some time during the 1950s the marble structure vanished and nobody knows how or why.
Now, a small group of old-timers from San Ysidro–known as Los Amigos–hope to re-erect the WWII memorial in front of the library. However, they are still asking community members to locate the history of the memorial and all the names that originally appeared. [Read more…]