Two veterans groups say people are urinating on the Vietnam veterans memorial in Buffalo, New York, according to The Buffalo News.
"I've seen the stains on the monument," said Al Brusetti, a Vietnam veteran active with Chapter 77 of Vietnam Veterans of America, told the paper. "It's disrespectful. I actually wake up at night thinking, 'How could people do this?'"
The memorial honors 530 service members from Western New York who sacrificed their lives, but also serves as a place for privacy with its low lighting and sloping walls.
"We would like lights to shine on the front of the monument," Brusetti said.
"It's just disappointing that people would have such a lack of respect for such a sacred spot," Ralph Sirianni, a member of the restoration committee who also designed the monument's center stone told The Buffalo News.
The naval park board has received a grant for $25,000 from the Niagara River Greenway Commission to help improve lighting around the memorial.
"That memorial means a lot," Brusetti said. "We have to respect the individuals who gave up their lives at a young age. I've had a decent life, a good life. But these individuals never had an opportunity to live full lives."
