While Tet festivities sweep across Vietnam, Vietnamese peacekeepers in UNMISS have embarked on a unique "return to the root" journey. In February 2026, shortly after arriving at Tomping Base in Juba, South Sudan, the PAN delegation and members of Vietnam’s Level-two Field Hospital (L2FH) Rotation 7 visited Thailand’s Horizontal Military Engineering Company (HMEC) barracks. This site marks a historic milestone in Vietnam’s U.N. peacekeeping participation.
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Members of Vietnam’s Level-two Field Hospital Rotation 7 pose with the photograph at the exact location where the inter-agency delegation took a commemorative photo in 2013. |
Looking back, to officially join U.N. peacekeeping operations, in late 2013, Vietnam underwent years of methodical preparation, including vital reconnaissance missions to "open the way."
On June 23, 2013, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, then Deputy Minister of National Defense, led an inter-agency delegation to survey UNMISS. The high-level group included Lieutenant General To Lam, then Deputy Minister of Public Security (now General Secretary); Major General Phan Van Giang, then Deputy Chief of the General Staff (now General, Minister of National Defense); Major General Nguyen Trong Nghia, then Deputy Chief of the General Department of Political Affairs (now General, Chief of the General Department of Political Affairs); and Ambassador Le Hoai Trung (now Minister of Foreign Affairs).
A photograph at the Japanese Engineering Company's barracks remains a landmark memory of this trip. As late Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh noted in his book "Journey for Peace," the successful mission dispelled all doubts, confirming Vietnam’s capability to excel in global peacekeeping duties.
Over time, the surroundings of the location where the 2013 photograph was taken have changed significantly. This is largely due to conditions at UNMISS, where prefabricated facilities with short life cycles are commonly used, and military units from contributing countries rotate regularly.
Driven by the desire to rediscover the place that once bore the footprints of Vietnam’s pathfinders in U.N. peacekeeping mission, Vietnamese peacekeeping officers made persistent efforts to search for and cross-check information. With the enthusiastic support of international partner units, Vietnam’s “blue-berets” ultimately identified the exact location, now part of the barracks of Thailand’s Engineering Company at Tomping Base.
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The photograph is presented as a gift to Thailand’s Horizontal Military Engineering Company. |
Holding the photograph in their hands and standing precisely at the site of 13 years earlier, Vietnamese peacekeeping officers felt immense pride. From modest beginnings in a once-unfamiliar field, Vietnam has excelled, earning high praise from U.N. leadership and international colleagues. Today, the Vietnamese flag flies proudly across Africa, where the nation’s name has become a familiar presence in arid, conflict-torn lands.
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Vietnam’s inter-agency delegation at the barracks of the Japanese Engineering Company at UNMISS, June 23, 2013 |
“This can be regarded as a ‘red address’ for Vietnam’s peacekeeping force. The previous generation opened the path, and it is our responsibility to maintain and carry it forward,” shared non-commissioned Major Huynh Thanh Phong, a member of the aeromedical evacuation team of Level-two Field Hospital Rotation 7.
Out of deep respect for the story associated with this symbolic site, the Thai Engineering Company extended every possible facilitation for the Vietnamese officers’ “return to the root.” Lieutenant Colonel Harun Teinkub, Commander of the Thai Engineering Company, even expressed his wish to receive the photograph as a gift so that it could be displayed in a place of honor and introduced to visiting delegations.
(To be continued)
Translated by Trung Thanh