PANO – The Command of Air Defence and Air Force Service on December 24th held a solemn ceremony to hand over the title of Hero of People’s Armed Forces to three retired officers with outstanding achievements during the national anti-American resistance war.

The recipients are Major General Tran Viet, former Deputy Commander; Colonel Nguyen Van Chuyen, former Deputy Chief of the Staff of the service; and Colonel Dinh The Van, former Head of the Operation Training Board.

As a pilot of Regiment 921, Division 371 (the Air Defence and Air Force Service), Tran Viet and his comrades engaged in 52 battles against the US bombardment over Hanoi in 1972. He shot down a B52 bomber.

During the Vietnam War, Colonel Nguyen Van Chuyen, an air traffic controller of the Air Defence and Air Force Service, guided the service’s fighters in 110 dogfights from Hanoi to Nghe An and Quang Binh provinces to down 116 American fighters and sink 3 American battleships and a destroyer.

During the 1972 US bombing blitz, Dinh The Van, Commander of Battalion 77 of the service, directed its troops to strike back and shoot down many US fighters, including B52s.

The three officers were presented with many noble orders like Anti-American Resistance War Orders, Military Feat of Arms Orders and “Determined to Win” Military Flags of different classes.

Translated by Van Hieu