BOSTON — Soap, scrubbing, and power-washing. Initially, that's what Department of Conservation and Recreation workers thought would clean up South Boston's defaced World War II memorial, but the efforts are proving more difficult than originally thought.
Officials say the memorial, located near Castle Island, was doused with what is believed to be cooking oil on or around Saint Patrick's Day.
>> Search continues for vandals who poured oil on World War II memorial
Workers spent much of Monday and Tuesday applying steam and streams of water in an attempt to dislodge oil particles which have by now, sunk deeper into the memorial.
"It seems that whoever is guilty of this knew what they doing, that they’d want it to be a lasting impact and we are going to make sure these memorials are cleaned up and more protected going forward," said Nick Collins.
All day Tuesday, residents, state workers and even private companies tried in vain to clean up the stains on the World War II memorial.
The damage was particularly hurtful to the family of John Mullen, the man who spearheaded the creation of the memorial.
"Devastated disgusted, all I could think of was god almighty please don’t let my father in law see this on tv thankfully he never did because I don’t know what that would have did to him because that would have been horrific," said Christine Mullen, John Mullen's daughter-in-law.
Mullen passed away on Monday night.
"He was an amazing person, kind of the patriarch of our post and the World War II memorial is a living legacy he has," said Dave Falvey of the local VFW.
That legacy will live on regardless, but it has made those who knew him even more determined to get the memorials clean.
"Words can’t describe how that makes people feel. It hurts a lot of people, spent a lot of time and effort to pay respect to those people that served our country and have made the ultimate sacrifice," said VFW Commander Tom McCarthy.
State Police are investigating the apparent vandalism, but with no security cameras in the area, they are relying on witnesses to come forward.
The memorial opened 15 years ago. Former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn says once the community gets past this incident, a rededication is in order.
"Everybody here has got a relative or a friend or a family member that's name is engrained in that wall," Flynn said. "And we're very proud of them we love them. We marvel at their contributions and their families. So to the families out there that might have World War II veterans on this, we're very sorry, what happened. But I know the elected officials in this town, in this community... stand behind putting this memorial back on track."
Flynn says he's never seen anything like this in his 50 years of public life, but he's heartened by the way the community has come together to fix the problem.