Builder of Vietnam War Monument Draws Criticism

A Monrovia pawnshop owner and potential City Council candidate built a monument to people he never knew, who fought in a war he is too young to remember.

Many veterans are praising Rob Hammond for his effort, but some residents say his work is as controversial as the war he set out to memorialize.

On Monday in Monrovia’s Library Park, congressmen, state senators, war veterans and schoolchildren will gather for the unveiling of a granite memorial engraved with the names of the nine city residents who were killed during the Vietnam War.

The memorial is Hammond’s brainchild, but when the war ended in 1973, he was just 12. None of his family or friends fought in Vietnam. He was not directly affected by the war. But with a four-foot cube of granite, the 35-year-old community activist will gain his own piece of the war’s history--a fact that doesn’t sit well with a local cable television talk show host.

“You got to wonder, why is this guy doing this now,” said Ralph Walker, 45, host of the weekly program “Conversations in Monrovia.”

A former Black Panther and a conscientious objector during Vietnam, Walker “wondered out loud” during an on-air interview with Hammond about his motives. On the show, which was taped last week to air Monday at 6:30 p.m. on KGEM, Walker implied that Hammond’s motives for building the memorial are political. “If he’s known as the guy who built a Vietnam Memorial,” asked Walker, “wouldn’t that separate him from the rest of the candidates? How can anybody compete with that?”

Hammond said he was inspired to build the monument before he decided to run for City Council. The idea, he said, struck him several months ago when he found the names of the local fallen soldiers on a computer program about the Vietnam Memorial in Washington.

“To ignore it or postpone it any longer would be disgraceful,” said Hammond, the Monrovia 1994 citizen of the year.

And after all his hard work, he said he resents any implication that the memorial is politically motivated.

As for the more than 300 veterans with whom Hammond has spoken to get ideas for the monument, many said they don’t care if the granite structure is mounted on a pedestal or a soapbox. They’re just happy to see it go up.

“No matter what you do, politics are involved, some way, somehow,” said Ramiro Lopez, president of the society for the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Southern California.