An Orange County Public Works crew demolished this week a Vietnam War memorial that has been sitting unfinished in Mile Square Park.
In 2023, then Supervisor Andrew Do allocated $1 million in First District discretionary funds to the nonprofit Viet America Society for the design and construction of the memorial. The memorial’s wall was built in January 2024, but “granite cladding and other cosmetic features” were never finished, county spokesperson Molly Nichelson said.
The memorial was sitting unfinished when the county sued Viet America Society in August 2024 for breach of contract and fraud for not completing the tribute or delivering on meals for the elderly and disabled people that the county had given millions in COVID relief money for and when the FBI swooped in to raid the homes of leaders with the nonprofit as well as Do.
The cost of demolition was roughly $13,000, Nichelson said. That is much less than previous estimates released for what it would have taken to complete.
First District Supervisor Janet Nguyen, who has advocated for the demolition of the memorial, said Thursday that county officials decided to tear down the wall because it no longer served as an apt tribute to veterans.
“This memorial is a disgrace to veterans and not the respect they deserve,” she said in a statement. “We have been looking for alternative options, including a space at the new veteran’s cemetery.”
Do is serving a five-year federal prison sentence after agreeing to plead guilty for accepting more than $550,000 in bribes to direct millions of dollars in contracts and COVID-related funds to two nonprofits, including Viet America Society, which later employed Do’s daughter as a condition of the bribery scheme. Peter Pham, the president of the nonprofit, has been indicted on multiple charges of wire fraud and concealment of money laundering.
Pham’s attorney has said Pham returned $150,000 of the $1 million earmarked for the memorial.
At a November press conference, Nguyen toured the memorial, pointing out that cracks had formed in the wall and much of the engraving remained incomplete.
“There’s not a lot of documents on this site. We don’t know what was spent, we don’t know what materials were used, we don’t know anything,” Nguyen said at the time, adding that additional improvements and meeting ADA compliance could cost up to $1 million.
Repairing the wall would have cost the county between $168,000 to $420,000, and the engraving of names would add another $30,000 to $40,000, Nguyen said at the time.
Nick Berardino, the president of the Veterans Alliance for Orange County, said he supports the decision to demolish and that he looks forward to working with Nguyen on building a new memorial that would not “diminish the honor” of local veterans.
“We were always proud to have any memorial honoring the brave men and women who died for our country,” Berardino said. “But this memorial became so tainted by the corrupt activities that, while we’re sad to see it go, we certainly support its demolition because we want to see those brave men and women in a positive light.”
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