HE SERVED two tours of duty in 'Nam. He's visited countless memorials that honor soldiers who died in the war. So, Al Maberry, of South Philly, knows a good Vietnam War memorial when he sees one.

"I think we have one of the best Vietnam memorials in the United States right here in Philadelphia," said Maberry, 61. "But it's kind of like a best-kept secret."

The Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial, at Front and Spruce streets, was designed more than 20 years ago as a quiet, contemplative haven for vets and their families.

But the layout of the memorial - much of which is tucked away behind granite walls and shrubbery - makes it easy to overlook. Worse yet, police say, the enclosed design provides cover for vandals who continually tarnish the memorial.

All of that could soon change.

The Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund board recently started raising funds for a $2 million redesign to make the memorial more inviting to the public and to protect it from vandals.

Terry Williamson, board president, said that the idea for the redesign has been in the works for several years.

"We realized that the memorial needed some restoration work, because it had deteriorated over time," Williamson said. "We also thought this could be a chance to open it up more, to make people more aware that it's down there."

The board turned to Cope Linder Architects to create a new vision for the memorial. The local firm, which worked on the redesign on a pro bono basis, didn't want to overhaul the site.

"It's sort of a serene location for a lot of contemplation," said Sam Bonsall, Cope Linder's associate of landscape development, "so there was a concern on my part that we were going to be changing the quality of the park."

The architects and the board settled on a redesign that will open up the Spruce Street side of the memorial, currently walled off by eight 7-foot-high, 5-foot-wide panels that feature scenes of the war.

"They screen the park from Spruce Street," Bonsall said. "We're going to open them up, which will make the amphitheater and the wall of names visible from the sidewalk."

The redesign also calls for construction of steps that would lead visitors from Spruce Street to the heart of the memorial, the wall that features the names of the 646 local soldiers who died in Vietnam, Bonsall said.

Visitors would file past the vivid scene panels, which would be almost parallel with Front Street.

LED lights would be installed to illuminate the wall of names, and an area in the rear of the park would be set aside to honor POWs and MIAs, Williamson said.

The board also wants to refurbish the park's granite walls, which have been chipped and scuffed over the years by skateboarders, Williamson said.

Also on the wish list is a new surveillance system.

Currently, the park has four aging security cameras, which sometimes break down - much to the delight of vandals, said Jim Moran, the memorial's unofficial custodian, whose brother, Bernard J. Moran Jr., is among the 646 names on the wall.

"We need newer, better cameras," Moran said last week, while trying in vain to repair a broken lighting fixture. "We'd have a much easier time catching some of those guys."

Police Capt. Brian Korn, head of the 6th District (headquartered at 11th near Vine streets), where the memorial is located, said that about a dozen people are arrested every year for urinating or scribbling graffiti on the Vietnam memorial.

"It really is offensive," said Korn, who is also a member of the board. "I take it personally.

"Even though the incidents aren't every day, they're frequent enough that it is a problem."

On May 31, police arrested a 25-year-old man who had painted pentagrams on the grounds of the memorial, Korn said.

A few weeks before that, Moran discovered pornographic photos plastered across the wall of names.

"That kind of stuff hurts you to the heart," said Maberry, who served tours in '68 and '71 with the Air Force Combat Engineers, and routinely visits the memorial.

Maberry said that he and many other Vietnam vets approve of the board's desire to remodel the memorial.

So does Perry M. Morgan, the architect who designed the original memorial, Williamson said.

The tricky part, of course, is paying for it.

Williamson said that the board has raised about $500,000, including donations from the city and state.

It will cost about $1 million to repair the wear-and-tear damage to the park and open the scene panels on the Spruce Street side.

"That is to do the absolute minimum, but to realize some of the other architectural and structural change we are suggesting, we will need to raise more funds toward the $2 million goal," Williamson said.

Anything raised beyond that point would go into an endowment that could pay for future repairs to the memorial, he said.

"Frankly, many of us are in our 60s, and we recognize that we're not going to be here forever," Williamson said.

"If we're going to do something for the memorial, we need to do it now."

Donations to the Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial can be made at www.pvvm.org.