Memorial Unveiling Postponed

A fund-raising shortfall has stalled the completion of a Vietnam War memorial in Westminster, postponing Friday’s planned dedication to spring.

Cloaked in canvas and duct tape in an otherwise barren park, a pair of 15-foot, solemn-looking bronze soldiers awaits the addition of a black-marble fountain, a memorial urn and flags of the United States and the former South Vietnam.

Considered the first memorial to honor troops from the United States and Vietnam, it is now scheduled for formal unveiling April 26, four days before the 28th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.

A Nov. 24 performance at the memorial site by a group of Vietnamese American singers is expected to raise $150,000 to complete the memorial, with work to be finished about two months later.

Memorial committee members said they wanted time before the dedication to send out invitations to dignitaries.

Sculptor Tuan Nguyen said he understands donors’ irritation about the delays in the four-year project.

“I see their frustration as a sign of how much they care,” he said. “But when you look at the 13 years [the] Pearl Harbor [Memorial] took to be built, we’re doing pretty well.”

To protect the bronze soldiers from vandalism, volunteers from former South Vietnamese veterans groups stand watch from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day.

Memorial committee spokesman Joey Nguyen said the panel will try to find another means of protecting the statues as winter looms.

Tuan Nguyen visits the sculpture some evenings to encourage the volunteers, some of whom are in their 70s and 80s.

“It hurts me to see how they live in fear,” he said. “But it’s moving ... that the memorial already means so much.”