During the past 15 years, Nguyen Duc Pho, a war veteran from northern Ha Tay province, has shuttled hundreds of times between the north and the south seeking the remains of his comrades who laid down their lives on the former battlefields. His tireless efforts have paid off.
In July 1968, 21-year-old Nguyen Duc Pho from Ha village, Phu Luu Te commune, Ha Tay province, voluntarily joined the army. After a short period of training, he was admitted to Battalion 96 under the Phu Yen provincial Military Command in south-central Vietnam.
After being wounded three times, he was allowed to return to his hometown in 1974, carrying two bullets in his left arm and suffering a painful injury to his right leg. Among the belongings he brought back from the battlefield was a pair of chopsticks and a bowl – the objects he says will be special significance to him for the rest of his life.
He recalls, “I was a scout, working mainly at night. One day the US air force launched an air raid on a group of us who were hiding underground reading letters from our families. Many of our soldiers were killed before the meal. After the bombardment, the survivors asked the local people to buy a bowl and a pair of chopsticks and place them on the altar on the 1st and 15th lunar days or the Tet holidays in the hope that our comrades would return from the after life and join us to have a meal. We vowed that if anyone of us survived the war, they would bring the bowl and chopsticks back to the families of the deceased.” The war ended and only Pho survived.
Whenever he burns incense in commemoration of his comrades, the bowl and chopsticks remind him of his comrades, encouraging him to do something for them. He still keeps a book noting down the names and places of birth of 200 war martyrs. Whenever he opens the book, he cannot hide his emotion.
“I feel as if I owe them a lot because I have not yet repatriated their remains back to their hometowns for reburial,” he says.
In 1993, he decided to sell pigs and silkworms to make a trip to the former battlefield. In Phu Yen, he luckily met up with some of his former comrades who later helped him search for the dead.
At the get-together they could not hold back their tears. The next day, they returned to the former battlefield. Despite their age, they spent the whole day walking through the forests to Van Hoa village, Son Long commune where Pho was stationed more than two decades earlier.
They were welcomed by the villagers who even remembered their names. By chance, Pho met with Mrs Bon – the wife of his comrade Kieu Xuan Tay who was born in Quoc Oai district, Ha Tay province and was killed in 1974. Mrs Bon told him that her daughter, named Han, had not enjoyed any allowances because she could not prove that Han was Tay’s daughter. Later, Pho helped her find her husband’s remains.
After the trip, Pho returned to Ha Tay and informed Tay’s family about the news. They then went back to Phu Yen and repatriated Tay’s remains to his hometown. Tay’s daughter was welcomed by her relatives and since then she has received State allowances given to a war martyr family. Han changed her name into Hanh and she now keeps the post of chairwoman of the Son Long commune Women’s Union.
The first trip away was successful beyond Pho’s expectations. He wrote another letter to martyr Hung’s family in Ha Nam province. On receiving the letter, Mr Doan, Hung’s father, rushed to the rice field, telling his wife of the news. The next day, the couple travelled to Pho’s and they took train to Phu Yen province altogether. Pho later met up with An, one of his comrades who buried Hung. But it was hard to search for Hung’s grave because his remains were reburied in a cemetery of unknown soldiers.
After checking his sources of information about Hung’s description and belongings, they decided to excavate the grave. They were anxious when the lid of the coffin was opened. They found Hung’s broken left hand in tact. DNA tests also showed that Hung was the couple’s son.
Pho says he will remember forever the hard and long trip to search for the remains of war martyr Nguyen Van Binh who was born in his hometown. In Pho’s book, Binh was buried in A Tep hamlet, Hien district, Quang Nam province. It took Binh’s family and Pho a day to walk up hill and down dale to A Tep hamlet and another morning to reach the place where Binh was buried. The long trip hurt his right leg so much that he sometimes had to soak his leg in water to ease the pain. Even worse, their efforts were hampered by landslides and floodwaters caused by the torrential rains. They had to stay in A Tep hamlet for 28 days, despite shortages of proper food. Luckily, they received assistance from the local villagers to survive and repatriate Hung’s remains to his hometown.
This year, Pho turns over 60. Unlike others of the same age, who think about relaxing in their retirement, Pho feels as if he still owes his comrades something that he has not yet done to fulfil his peacetime duty. Despite financial constraints, Pho’s wife always supports his efforts to search for the remains of his comrades.
After hundreds of trips from north to south, he has helped to find 115 sets of remains of his former comrades. The families of the deceased consider him as one of their relatives. He confides, “I will continue to do this work until my last breath.”
Source: VOV