HAVERHILL, Mass. — Vandals in this city on the border between New Hampshire and Massachusetts have a favorite target — a memorial to Korean War veterans.

Visiting to plant flowers before Memorial Day, Russell V.J. Chaput noticed one of six LED floodlights that ring the memorial and illuminate it at night was smashed.

It wasn’t the first time vandals damaged the monument.

In the past, benches have been broken, along with a stone wall surrounding the memorial. Vandals also smashed a plastic bin that held fundraising fliers for the monument’s maintenance fund.

Dedicated in 2002, the memorial honors 16 Haverhill men killed in the Korean War.

Chaput and his group, the Korean War Veterans Memorial Committee, raised more than $130,000 to erect it at the northern edge of this city’s GAR Park.

The group of veterans have since raised money to pay for the memorial’s upkeep, which was challenged during the pandemic and is growing even more difficult as its members age.

“We don’t have many local Korean War veterans to help,” said Chaput, now the committee’s treasurer, secretary and caretaker, who himself will be 90 in January.

But Chaput said the group is determined to raise enough money to maintain the “best looking memorial in the city” and keep it under private control.

Mike LaBella writes for The Eagle-Tribune in North Andover, Massachusetts. Reach him at mlabella@eagletribune.com