New American Patriot Bench at Vietnam War Memorial

Military veterans and veterans’ surviving family members often remark about how meaningful and healing remembrance can be. Members of the Heartland Youth for Decency (HYFD) were teenagers who recognized this in 1970, even as political rancor over the Vietnam War swirled around the nation. And that is when they began their vigil to preserve the memories of their East County neighbors who had recently perished in combat in Southeast Asia, advocating, and then supporting, a memorial to honor their fallen countrymen who had once lived nearby.

Military veterans and veterans’ surviving family members often remark about how meaningful and healing remembrance can be. Members of the Heartland Youth for Decency (HYFD) were teenagers who recognized this in 1970, even as political rancor over the Vietnam War swirled around the nation. And that is when they began their vigil to preserve the memories of their East County neighbors who had recently perished in combat in Southeast Asia, advocating, and then supporting, a memorial to honor their fallen countrymen who had once lived nearby.

Their efforts led to construction of the HYFD Vietnam War Memorial, which nearly 45 years later rests at the intersection of University Avenue and Spring Street in La Mesa. This was one of the first such memorials ever to casualties of Vietnam. (The “Heartland” area refers to East County’s La Mesa, El Cajon, Spring Valley, Lemon Grove, and Lakeside. The original, completed monument was dedicated on June 14, 1970.)

Their vigil continues into a fifth decade, with installation of a new addition to the memorial grounds. A lovely mosaic-inlaid blue metal seat, permitting visitors to the monument to sit and contemplate the sacrifice of their East County neighbors whose names are engraved on the plaques amid the stonework of the memorial centerpiece. The American Patriot Bench was bolted into place on March 6, by Dan Evers and Matthew Peace, both of whom participated in the teamwork designing and building the bench. Evers was a founding member of HYFD. He designed the metal structural parts of the bench, which bears two small inlays along the front, acknowledging that the bench honors his father, Ellis W. Evers, and William P. Monahan, who was father-in-law of his sister, Dinah Evers Monahan. Both of these men were U.S. Army veterans of World War II. Peace laid the mosaic tiles. Others on the bench team were Gabriel Dice, project manager, and Yesenia Aceves, the creative director who drew the bench’s design art.

The now-mature HYFD founders are saddened that vigilance in preserving the monument is necessary. Evers and Oresta Zalopany Johnson, another founding member of HYFD, discovered the attempted theft of two copper-brass mixed metal plaques at the site. Bolts affixing the paired plaques to the memorial column had been tampered with, the plaques nearly removed. Johnson has taken down the plaques for the time being, for safekeeping.

A small unveiling ceremony for the American Patriot Bench was held on March 7, for several of the HYFD founding members and other La Mesa community members and officials who had participated in preservation and maintenance of the memorial throughout the years. Johnson and members of the extended Evers family attended. Also there were Clayton and Eleanor Baum, longtime La Mesa residents, both in their 90s, whose son, Douglas Bruce Baum, is memorialized, his name etched on one of the plaques. He died when he was 20.

Endeavors to renew and restore the HYFD memorial began again in earnest roughly two years ago. Johnson was daughter of Orest Zalopany, the mason who volunteered and built the stone memorial with engraved plaques on the sides and a white cross atop. Groundbreaking to completion took four months. 

Johnson visits the HYFD Vietnam War Memorial on special occasions to remember her father and place a rose amid the stones. On her father’s birthday in early 2013, she was troubled to discover that two of the memorial plaques had been stolen then and that royal blue graffiti tagged the entire left side of the stonework. The irrigation system was broken. The flagpole was rusting.

She enlisted helpers who cleaned the memorial’s masonry, then applied an anti-graffiti clear coat of urethane for protection. The two missing plaques were reproduced in granite and readied for remounting, but mason James Elliot noticed that the name of one local young man, known to have died in the Vietnam War, was missing. By mid-2013, Johnson had reconnected with former HYFD leader Denise Evers Rhoads to track down another five names of Vietnam casualties that needed to be added to the memorial walls. There were 57 names on the original dedication day. There are 74 now.

Fundraising efforts last year for restoring and maintaining the memorial were paired with a search for surviving family members and friends in the area to attend a planned 44th anniversary ceremony to honor their deceased loved ones. Johnson received support from La Mesa American Legion Post 282 and from Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 472. The HYFD volunteers re-gathered in La Mesa on June 14, 2014, for a 44th anniversary rededication of the memorial, with nearly 400 attendees. 

These HYFD founders added another groundbreaking chapter to their ongoing efforts at that time, with installation of a permanent POW/MIA empty chair sculpture to the memorial grounds, to acknowledge those whose fate remains unknown. The monument also features a blank plaque, to be engraved with the name of any Heartland serviceman whose remains are discovered and repatriated. 

What does Johnson have to say about the would-be thieves of the memorial plaques? “These are the lowest of the low,” she replied. “Every name on those plaques gave the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our freedom. This is one of the most disrespectful things anyone can do.”

The “matriarch” of the memorial, Virginia Evers, who in 1969 had the original idea, was there at last June’s rededication ceremony. She had encouraged the youth group she and her husband counseled to spearhead the efforts. Her husband is honored in memory with the new American Patriot Bench.

Evers plans to offer replicas of this bench to any other communities or organizations seeking to express appreciation for military service or to cope with loss of fallen war dead. Duplicate American Patriot Benches can be personalized with small honor plaques. A replica could be shipped anywhere, in four packages, with mosaic tiles to be inlaid at the destination site. Evers suggests that a donation of around $5,000 would cover costs of constructing each bench.

HYFD is still seeking sponsors to help with donations funding maintenance of this rededicated, restored place of remembrance. The plaques now removed for security will be reattached, as more site surveillance becomes available. More information about the event and the monument’s history and future can be found at www.hyfd.org.

Anyone with information about the acts of vandalism and attempted thefts at the HYFD Vietnam War Memorial may contact the La Mesa Police Department, which is located at 8085 University Avenue, directly across from the monument. Crime tips can be delivered by a phone call to (619) 667-1400.