HOULTON – Less than 24 hours after a new World War II memorial was erected at Monument Park in downtown Houlton, it has become the target of local vandals.

Veterans and nonveterans alike expressed anger, shock and dismay Thursday upon learning that a rock had been thrown at the memorial, chipping it.

“That enrages me that anyone would disgrace this in any way by defacing it,” Torrey Sylvester of New Limerick, a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Navy and Naval Reserve, said as he stood looking at the monument on Thursday. “If they catch [the people who did it], I hope they prosecute them.”

Similar reactions came from others as they stopped to look at the monument, unaware until they were told about what had happened to the shiny, black-granite memorial located next to the Cary Library.

“There’s no need of that at all,” said a shocked Chris Richardson of Houlton, who stopped to look at the monument with his girlfriend, Bonnie Tomah. Her father’s name is on the memorial.

“It’s awful,” said Tomah.

Jack D. Smart, who together with his wife, Anita, has made a gift of the 21-ton monument to the town, was equally blunt.

“It’s a damn shame,” he said Thursday.

The monument, which bears the names of 1,232 Houlton men and women who served in World War II from 1941 to 1945, will be formally dedicated and presented to the town on the Fourth of July.

“There’s absolutely no need of this,” said Smart, holding a rock the size of a medium-sized potato that was found Thursday morning at the base of the monument. “It’s right in the middle of town.”

The rock’s impact on the monument chipped a piece of granite near a letter in one of the names in the center panel and put two other nicks near another name. None of the damage is immediately noticeable.

Smart said he realized that youths will get into mischief from time to time, but he was upset with the wanton destruction of property and the lack of respect shown toward the people whose names are listed on the monument.

He planned to meet later that day with Houlton Police Chief Darrell Malone and acting Town Manager Cathy O’Leary to see if the town can increase police patrols at night near the park.

“This has gone way beyond kids having fun,” Smart said.

Houlton police had not been made aware of the vandalism early Thursday afternoon, but Malone expressed his own disgust at what had taken place.

“They can’t leave anything alone, can they?” he said.

The damage to the World War II monument isn’t the first time there has been vandalism in the park.

In September 1998, less than three months after the town’s amphitheater was dedicated, anti-gay graffiti were spray-painted across engraved memorial bricks that make up the rear wall of the structure. Forty of 622 bricks were damaged.

As recently as three weeks ago, someone used white error-correction liquid to write graffiti on some of the bricks.

The bricks had been sold by the Houlton Rotary Club to help raise money for the project.

Over the years, the town’s granite GAR Civil War memorial erected in 1912 also has been the target of spray-painted graffiti. Mounted cannon balls on the base of the monument also have been tipped over.

“They can’t let you have something decent,” said James Holden of Houlton, who stopped Thursday to look at the World War II monument with Lewis Berce, whose name is engraved on the monument.