A Virginia Civil War battlefield is dug up, a Kentucky driver ploughs through crosses, and a Los Angeles memorial is defaced.
Veterans' memorials have been damaged in three US states as the nation prepares to commemorate its war dead.
Petersburg National Battlefield in Virginia has been declared a crime scene after suspected looting, according to the National Park Service.
Patches of ground at the 2,700-acre site were dug up by several inches in recent days, said officials.
More than 1,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died in the area fighting during the Siege of Petersburg 151 years ago.
National Park Service spokesman Chris Bryce suspects the culprits were looking for historic memorabilia such as uniform buttons, bullets and artillery shells.
He said it was particularly troubling coming just before America's Memorial Day holiday.
"Someone has essentially come in and has desecrated the park on the eve of a very important weekend for us in terms of commemoration," he said.
Digging up national parks and battlefields carries up to two years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
In Henderson, Kentucky, early on Saturday, a driver ploughed through a Memorial Day cross display intended to honour 5,000 veterans of conflicts dating back to the Revolutionary War.
Anthony Burrus, a 27-year-old local resident, has been charged with criminal mischief in the first degree and leaving the scene of an accident.
He denies involvement, but police said some of the plastic crosses were embedded in the tyres of his late 1970s model Ford Thunderbird.
About 160 of the crosses need to be repaired or replaced.
Meanwhile, a Vietnam War memorial in Los Angeles has been defaced by graffiti.
The Venice area wall for missing veterans has been tagged before, but the latest vandalism is much more extensive.
George Francisco, vice president of the Venice Chamber of Commerce, told Fox News: "It's a desecration. I mean it's very simple."
By Sky News US Team/ Photo: Sky News
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