SCRANTON, Pa. — Crews in Scranton were fixing the base of the spirit of the American Doughboy statue.
The fixture honoring World War I vets is located at the Colonel Francis J. Duffy Memorial Park along the Harrison Avenue bridge. Sometime over the winter, someone damaged the statue by trying to remove it.
"We're grateful that the vandals didn't actually succeed in removing it because it would've been damaged, and it was just a few years ago that we cast it," said Constance Bassett with Moreland Studios.
While the original Doughboy was dedicated in 1940, it was moved in 2016 during the construction of the new Harrison Avenue bridge. The state then replaced the old statue, made of zinc, with a bronze replica. Moreland Studios cast the new fixture in 2018 when it was re-installed.
"Well, honestly, I feel badly when artwork is damaged, and it's such a noble symbol from a great war, so, of course, we all feel badly about that. But all I can say is I don't think it was a person in their right mind," added Bassett.
Duffy Park memorializes Lieutenant Colonel Francis J. Duffy, the highest-ranking Scranton and Lackawanna County serviceman to die in World War I.