City Clerk Gene Glasco was presented a certificate of appreciation by Mayor Gary Kovacic at Tuesday’s City Council Meeting (April 19, 2016) for spearheading a new Arcadia Vietnam War Monument.
The monument, to be in Arcadia Park across from the Elks Lodge on Huntington Drive, will be dedicated May 28 as part of Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich’s annual Salute to Veterans and their Families in the County-owned park. The monument will pay tribute to all living Vietnam veterans and memorialize the 14 Arcadia servicemen who were killed or missing in action from 1967 to 1974 in South Vietnam.
From 1967 – 1974 fourteen Arcadia servicemen were killed in hostile actions while fighting the war in Vietnam. The Arcadia Vietnam War Monument project is a vision that Gene Glasco, the monument’s founder, Vietnam veteran and Arcadia City Clerk, has had for many years. One of Glasco’s high school classmates, Eugene Hicks, was an Army Infantryman who began his tour of duty in Vietnam on December 3, 1967. A little more than one month later he was killed in action on January 16, 1968. “I returned home from Vietnam but (Eugene) didn’t,” Glasco said. “Building a monument in his honor is the least I can do for (Eugene) and fellow Arcadians who lost their lives in South Vietnam.”
Click image above to enlarge.
Antonovich, who himself served in the U.S. Army Reserves for eight years and is very supportive of war veterans causes, quickly supported the project.
Donations for the Arcadia Vietnam War Monument can be made to the Arcadia Elks Lodge, 27 West Huntington Drive, Arcadia, CA 91007 or by credit card by visiting the Arcadia Vietnam Monument website (www.ArcadiaVietnamMonument.org/contribute).
You are also invited to attend a fundraising dinner at the Elks Lodge on January 23, 2016 – details on flier below (Click here to download flier to complete reservation/donation form).
— By Scott Hettrick