Journey to “Find Fallen Comrades, Restore Their Names”

Relevant forces organize a memorial service and burial ceremony for the remains of a fallen soldier recently recovered near Huong Thuy Station at Huong Thuy Martyrs’ Cemetery

Fragments of memory beneath sandy ground

Under the blazing July sun, the once-empty sandy ground near Huong Thuy Station came alive with the rumble of an excavator and the clatter of shovels striking gravel and rocks. Beneath the sparse, withered canopy of scrub trees, veteran Le Huu Tong, 81, from Phu Bai Ward, Hue City, stood silently. His eyes reddened as the former lieutenant colonel and former special forces soldier of Battalion 1 of the Hue City Military Command intently followed every bucketful of earth being lifted. Each turn of the sandy soil seemed to stir up a trove of memories from more than half a century ago.

The memory of the night of May 20, 1968, came rushing back to him, vivid as scenes from a slow-motion film. That night, three special forces battalions - Battalion 1 and Battalion 2 of the Hue City Military Command, and Battalion 12 of the 6th Regiment - under the direct command of City Military Command Chief Than Trong Mot, launched a surprise assault on the enemy’s armored vehicle base at Dong Toa.

"By the time my men from Company 3 reached the final fence line, they triggered a flare trap. The sky over Dong Toa suddenly lit up like daylight. With the element of surprise gone, we had no choice but to switch to a direct assault under a relentless barrage of mortar shells and machine-gun fire. As the B41 gunner, I helped destroy numerous military vehicles. The battle was brutally fierce... By 5 a.m. the next morning, I was among the last to escape, making my way out through a deep trench,” Mr. Tong recalled, his voice breaking.   

Undeterred by long distances and rugged terrain, Team 192’s forces are driven by one wish: to soon bring the fallen home to their motherland

The unit set out with more than 100 officers and soldiers, but when they regrouped, only a little over 10 wounded men had managed to make it out. As they saw dozens of backpacks lying silently in the bunkers, with no one ever to return for them, the surviving soldiers embraced each other and wept uncontrollably. The backpack of a comrade whose name he had barely had time to learn, and with whom he had never had the chance to exchange hometown addresses, remained a painful memory etched in his mind for decades.  

Shortly after the battle, Mr. Tong learned through a secret contact that the enemy had collected the bodies of our soldiers and transported them to the open sandy ground in front of Huong Thuy Station for mass burial. For decades, the veteran has never been able to put that haunting memory to rest.    

In 1993, information provided by Mr. Tong helped authorities recover the remains of 83 fallen soldiers. Yet he maintains that this area was once used for the mass burial of soldiers killed in numerous battles, and that most of his comrades from the Dong Toa battle - sons of Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, Ha Nam, Thai Binh, Hai Phong, and elsewhere - still lie somewhere beneath this 2.5-hectare expanse of sand. When the “500 Days and Nights Campaign” began, Mr. Tong returned to the site with his carefully kept notebook, serving as a “guide.”

Carefully peeling each layer of soil

In response to the veteran’s heartfelt wish, nearly 10 officers and soldiers from Team 192 for the Search and Repatriation of Fallen Soldiers’ Remains, under the Hue City Military Command, remained at the Huong Thuy Station site for days on end. Under the scorching sun and hot winds that stung their faces, their work began each morning at 6:30 a.m. with incense lit at a makeshift altar hastily set up at the edge of the hill.

Undeterred by long distances and rugged terrain, Team 192’s forces are driven by one wish: to soon bring the fallen home to their motherland

After more than half a century, the terrain has changed beyond recognition, covered with graves and dense thorny vegetation. The team had to use a “strip-by-strip” excavation method. Once they dug deeper into suspected spots, machines were set aside for hoes, shovels, and careful hand excavation. At the sight of even a decayed button, a piece of parachute cord, a fragment of a hammock shelter, or suspicious soil, all work immediately stopped. The soldiers carefully peeled back thin layers of soil, taking care not to disturb the remains or any artifacts that might still be there.

That perseverance finally brought hope on the afternoon of July 17. Beneath a layer of soil about 50 centimeters deep, Team 192 successfully recovered the remains of a fallen soldier. Carefully wrapped in a green poncho, the bones and teeth were still relatively intact. Nearby lay a distinctive artifact: a 22-centimeter-long infusion tube, its surface darkened by the passage of time.

Lieutenant Colonel Ngo Tri Hung, Team Leader of Team 192, confided: “Every piece of information provided by Mr. Le Huu Tong and the witnesses is an invaluable lead for us. No matter how arduous the task, the officers and soldiers of Team 192 are always ready to take on the mission, undeterred by the prospect of venturing into remote areas and the most rugged terrain, determined to bring the fallen soldiers home to their families and hometowns as soon as possible. All procedures for searching, recovering the remains, and collecting DNA samples are carried out strictly and scientifically, with no room for subjective judgment, because this is a sacred responsibility to those who fell.”

Determined to bring the fallen home

Personally inspecting the search sites and offering incense at Huong Thuy Station and other locations in the inner city, at Gia Hoi High School, in Phong Thai Ward, and on Bach Ma Mountain, Hue City leaders and the city’s Steering Committee 515 have remained closely on site, encouraging the forces carrying out the mission. Their timely presence amid the freshly excavated earth reflects the firm direction and deep sense of responsibility throughout the “500 Days and Nights Campaign.”

Undeterred by long distances and rugged terrain, Team 192’s forces are driven by one wish: to soon bring the fallen home to their motherland

Alongside the task of searching for and recovering the remains of fallen soldiers in the field, Hue City is stepping up efforts to identify them. The city is focusing on collecting DNA samples from more than 7,200 graves with no clear information at 42 cemeteries, while also completing the collection of more than 2,000 samples from relatives for comparison with the national gene bank.

On the morning of July 27, at Phu Bai Ward Martyrs’ Cemetery, the Hue City Steering Committee 515 solemnly held a memorial service and burial ceremony for the remains of the fallen soldier recently recovered at Huong Thuy Station, laying him to rest in his motherland. Though his identity has yet to be established, he is no longer alone on the sun-scorched sandy ground.

Shortly after finalizing the search at Huong Thuy Station, the forces under the Hue City Military Command moved on to the next suspected locations. The search and recovery teams are now concentrating their efforts in the Phuoc Tuong Pass, Hai Van Pass, and Truoi River areas.   

Nguyen Van Manh, Vice Chairman of the Hue City People’s Committee and Head of the City’s Steering Committee 515, stressed: “The city is determined to mobilize all available forces, equipment, and resources to carry out this work of gratitude to the fallen in the best possible way. In newly identified areas or anywhere a lead emerges, we will direct efforts to verify it to the very end. With a deep sense of responsibility and guided by the principle of ‘When drinking water, remember its source,’ the city will make every effort to restore the names of the fallen as soon as possible and bring them home to their families, who have waited so long for them.”