BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Carrying the names of Kern County-born U.S. veterans killed while serving our country the Veteran's Memorial holds a sacred place in the hearts of our community. But on Thursday morning, hearts broke as remnants from one of the five panels lay shattered on the ground.
Bakersfield resident and U.S. Army veteran Chad Garcia served three deployments in Afghanistan. During that time, he watched friends die and came home to struggle with post-traumatic stress. But he found comfort in a community that honors its veterans.
According to the Bakersfield Police Department, sometime Wednesday night one of the five panels of the Kern County Veterans Memorial was vandalized. The monument, located on Truxtun Avenue next to the Bakersfield Visitor Center, holds the names of veterans from every major conflict from World War I to the Iraq War.
While the broken shards were cleared by Friday, Garcia says the anger he and other veterans are feeling due to this act of vandalism won’t be easily forgotten.
While the back panel was left in pieces the front panel that contains the veterans' names was left intact. Anyone with information is asked to call Bakersfield police at (661) 327-7111.
According to the California census, there were 46,000 veterans in Kern County in 2020.
Of those, 8,000 of them were either World War II or Korean War veterans.
California has over 1.8 million former service members, which is the largest veteran population in the nation.
