Journey to restore memories, a nation's mission of gratitude

July returns, quietly but deeply within the heart of every Vietnamese. Across the S-shaped land, incense smoke rises from martyrs' cemeteries from misty mornings to twilight. On rivers that were once fiery, water still flows, carrying the messages of young soldiers. On hills, ferry landings, intersections, caves, and forests once plowed by bombs, the green of peace has covered the scars of war, but in the hearts of many families, the war has never truly ended.

The war is not over when altars only hold certificates of national merit without a handful of hometown soil to embrace the departed. The war is not over when elderly mothers have lived their whole lives without knowing where their children lie. The war is not over when gray-haired widows still keep the habit of waiting for news of their husbands, as if waiting for them to return from a long trip. The war is not over when children in their fifties and sixties have never once been able to say "Father" before a grave bearing a name and hometown.

Marking the 79th anniversary of Vietnam's War Invalids and Martyrs' Day and looking toward the 80th anniversary of the nationwide tribute to those who rendered service to the revolution, we must not stop at incense, wreaths, and memorial ceremonies.

Gratitude today must translate into concrete actions: searching for, repatriating, and identifying the remains of martyrs; better caring for people with meritorious services; preserving historical memories; and educating the younger generation to look back at the past to hold their heads high in building the future. This is the mission of the entire political system, every family, every clan, and every locality, and it is also the sacred responsibility of the revolutionary press in keeping the flame of gratitude burning forever.

July: From memory to action

The July 27 observance originated in the early years of the resistance war, when the country was still facing immense hardships, but the Party, Uncle Ho, and the State still chose a day for compatriots nationwide to express their gratitude to wounded soldiers, sick soldiers, martyrs, and their families.

From Dai Tu district in Thai Nguyen province in 1947, that milestone entered the spiritual life of the nation as a reminder: today's independence, freedom, unity, and happiness did not come naturally. They are the fruits exchanged for blood, bones, youth, and generations of waiting.

Seventy-nine years have passed, and the moral principle of "When drinking water, remember its source" has never grown old. The further we move away from the war, the more we appreciate the value of peace. Today's wide roads once saw convoys braving bombs to the front lines. Today's brightly lit schools once had girls and boys leaving their books to rush into the fire. Today's peaceful cities are built on the sacrifices of those who forever remain in their twenties. Every inch of the homeland, every season of heavy rice, every sound of children going to class holds a piece of the flesh and blood of the immortalized.

However, gratitude cannot just be a seasonal emotion. It must be a national organizational capacity, a political determination, and an action program measured by concrete results.

As long as there are martyrs unfound, graves unidentified, files unlinked to relatives, and relics lying still in the earth, July must be a month of action, of footsteps returning to old battlefields, of reviewing records, and of every DNA sample collected and matched in hope.

"Compatriots" and the promise to let no one be forgotten

Perhaps rare is a nation that calls each other by a word as close and sacred as "compatriots" (đồng bào). In the Vietnamese consciousness, this word stems from the legend of Father Lac Long Quan and Mother Au Co, from a sac of a hundred eggs hatching into a hundred children. Therefore, "compatriot" is not just a term for people of the same nationality. It is a memory of a common origin, a shared bond, and a mutual duty to rely on each other in times of hardship.

During the war, this word created the strength for generations to go to battle, for the rear to share food and clothing with the front lines, and for mothers to hide their tears when sending their children off.

In peacetime, it continues to resonate in seemingly small but significant acts: a citizen providing information about an old grave site; a veteran trembling as he recounts the coordinates where he buried his comrades; a family preserving a yellowed letter; a young person helping grandparents digitize death notices, diaries, and old photos; or a stranger giving up their turn for DNA sampling to the relative of a martyr whose relic was just discovered.

Therefore, repaying gratitude cannot just be a movement. It is a massive debt to time and history. No matter how much is done, it is never enough, because nothing can compensate for the youth that has become part of the nation's soil, and no medicine can fully heal the hearts of mothers, wives, and children who have waited too long.

But every biological sample collected, every piece of relic restored, every digitized record, every recorded story, and every verified coordinate is a specific tribute, a step closer to bringing the soldiers home.

500-day-and-night campaign: When morality meets science, memory becomes living data

The "500-day-and-night campaign to accelerate the search, repatriation, and identification of martyrs' remains" is implemented from March 15, 2026, to July 27, 2027, looking toward the 80th anniversary of Vietnam's War Invalids and Martyrs' Day

This is the most comprehensive and largest-scale campaign ever to create a breakthrough in searching for, repatriating, and identifying martyrs' remains lacking information.

The campaign aims to search for and repatriate about 7,000 martyrs' remains; complete sampling for about 230,000 unidentified martyrs' graves; conduct DNA testing on about 18,000 remains samples; build and operationalize a genetic database of martyrs' relatives; and complete unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance in key areas to serve the search and repatriation efforts.

From a national governance perspective, these are massive targets requiring synchronized coordination among the Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Public Security, localities, specialized agencies, forensic institutes, UXO clearance forces, grassroots authorities, and the people.

However, from the perspective of each waiting family, these numbers are far from mere statistics. A DNA sample can reconnect a father with a child, a brother with a sibling, a soldier with his hometown. A piece of paper with remaining letters can reveal a person's identity. A spoken memory can lead the repatriation team to the exact stream, mountainside, garden, or old cemetery where their former comrades lie.

These results demonstrate that the nation's gratitude today is carried out with both heart and mind: with incense and technology, with witnesses' memories and digital data, with the hands of the repatriation soldiers and modern equipment searching underground, and with solemn spiritual rituals and strict scientific procedures. This is the exact intersection of age-old morality and the nation's modern capabilities.

Calls from the ground of Le Thi Rieng Park

Amidst the vibrant Ho Chi Minh City, Le Thi Rieng Cultural Park emerges as a peaceful green space. Beneath the tree-lined paths and the everyday laughter of locals, few could imagine this place was once the former Do Thanh Cemetery, also known as the Chi Hoa graveyard, associated with the tragic yet heroic memories of the 1968 Tet Offensive. Nearly six decades have passed, and the motherland silently embraces her children who fell in the storm of fire.

The search journey at Le Thi Rieng Park is a meticulous and deeply respectful restoration of memory. From historical records, documentary photos, military maps, domestic and foreign archives, and witness accounts, to ground-penetrating radar, resistivity measurement, and geophysical analysis, specialized teams have gradually pinpointed abnormal underground signals. This is not merely a technical operation; it is how today's generation bows their heads to listen to the depths of the motherland, listening to the unspoken words of former comrades.

When the mass grave trench was opened, each layer of soil was peeled away slowly and meticulously. The repatriation soldiers did not just dig the earth; they handled every piece of bone, every rotting piece of canvas, every bullet, every wallet, and every piece of paper yellowed by time with utmost reverence. There were remains lying next to each other, as if in the final moment before falling, the soldiers were still leaning on each other with the oath of the Vi Xuyen soldiers: "Live clinging to the rocks, die turning into immortal stones." They fought together, fell together, and now return together to the embrace of the Fatherland.

Particularly moving was the relic related to martyr Huynh Van Quen. On a piece of paper, phrases could still be read: "South Vietnam Liberation Army," "Battalion Command's decision," "Comrade Huynh Van Quen," along with the unit designation. By comparing the unit designation and historical data, authorities initially identified this as martyr Huynh Van Quen, a soldier of the Long An 1st Battalion under the South Vietnam Liberation Army, a unit that participated in the Y-shaped Bridge battle in 1968. Although DNA testing must still be strictly conducted for scientific confirmation, his name has echoed this July like a call to return after nearly sixty years.

From an initial discovery of a few sets of remains, by July 26, 2026, the Le Thi Rieng Park area had yielded 104 martyrs' remains, along with 5 mass graves containing about 13 remains and many relics. Each discovery here not only adds data to a specific search but also awakens a historical layer buried by time within the urban memory, helping the city today profoundly understand the price of the peace it enjoys.

From Minh Duc, Tuyen Quang to neighboring Laos and Cambodia

Not only at Le Thi Rieng Park, this July's journey also opens up many new search sites. In Minh Duc commune, Dong Nai city, forces have deployed search and repatriation efforts in an area that witnessed many fierce battles from 1967 to 1975. The area where the remains were found is on the northwest slope of Hill 74, Dong Dau hamlet, which was once the center of the "Search and Blockade Minh Duc" sweep in November 1969. By July 20, 2026, the search forces had found 21 sets of remains and many martyrs' relics.

In Tuyen Quang, including the Vi Xuyen core area, fierce battles once took place to defend the northern border. Unexploded ordnance clearance and the search for mass graves have been accelerated. Five mass graves with about 23 martyrs' remains have been discovered. That number reminds us once again that the war to defend the Fatherland after 1975 also left unclosed wounds, soldiers who have not returned, and mountain peaks, deep ravines, and heights that still hold many secrets of comrades.

In neighboring Laos and Cambodia, repatriation teams continue to silently cross forests and streams, tracking every clue. The rainy season, malaria, treacherous terrain, fading witness memories, and leftover landmines all make the search more arduous.

However, pure international solidarity and the promise to comrades have kept those footsteps moving forward. Every return of the remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts to the motherland is a moment for the whole nation to bow before the sacrifices made beyond geographical borders, for noble international duties, and for the loyal solidarity between nations.

We can measure the campaign's results by the number of remains repatriated, DNA samples collected, and hectares of landmines cleared. But one thing cannot be measured by data: the sense of peace of a mother, a wife, or a child after decades of waiting, and relatives having the chance to finally call out the right name. It is the peace of mind of comrades when the promise "as long as we live, we keep searching for each other" is continued by the responsibility of today's generation.

Red addresses and unforgettable stories

On Vietnam's map of memories, there are places whose names alone make hearts sink. Dong Loc Junction is where ten female youth volunteers of Squad 4, Company 552, gave their lives on July 24, 1968. Amidst the rubble, the call in Yen Thanh's poem "Oh Cuc!" still seems to echo forever: "Oh Cuc! Where are you that you haven't returned to fall in?" It is a call for a comrade, and a call of the whole nation searching for its fallen soldiers.

At Truong Bon, at dawn on October 31, 1968, just hours before the US announced a halt to the bombing of the North, 13 of the 14 youth volunteers of the "Steel Squad," Company 317, gave their lives while leveling bomb craters to keep the route open. Eleven girls and two boys, the youngest only 17 years old, some holding university admission letters in their hands, did not live to cross the threshold of peace.

When Pham Phuong Thao's song "Lullaby for the soil of Truong Bon" raises the question "Is this handful of soil you?", listeners understand that there are sacrifices so great that the land itself becomes a body, becomes remains, becomes a homeland embracing its children.

On Route 20 Quyet Thang in Quang Binh, Eight Ladies Cave marks the tragedy of November 14, 1972. Eight youth volunteers were buried after a bomb collapsed the cave entrance. Comrades outside heard the fading cries for help but could not break the giant rock. The cave became a mass grave and a testament to ultimate sacrifice.

In Hoang Mai, Nghe An, Rocket Cave remains a war wound in the rocky mountain. On April 28, 1966, 33 youth volunteers of Team 4, Unit C271, Squad 27, bravely gave their lives while carrying out the task of ensuring traffic during the resistance war against America. Sixty years later, that memory still reminds us that some roads were paved with youth, and some trains could pass because so many had laid down their lives.

And there is also Quang Tri Ancient Citadel, Truong Son National Martyrs Cemetery, Route 9 Cemetery, Thach Han River, Eight Ladies Cave, Gac Ma, Vi Xuyen... These "red addresses" do not just mark victories. They are pages of history written with blood and bone, places where the country bows to those who went into the earth so the Fatherland could stand up.

Beside the Thach Han River, every paddle stroke today seems slower, lighter, because beneath that water lies the blood and bone of so many twenty-year-old soldiers during the fiery days of Quang Tri Ancient Citadel: "Oh boat going up the Thach Han, row gently / At the river bottom still lies my friend / Their twenties have turned into water waves / Peacefully lapping the shores for a thousand years."

The deeper into the campaign, the more today's generation profoundly understands that behind every statistic is a heart-wrenching life story, a sleepless family, and a wait spanning multiple generations. Some soldiers left when they were too young, unable to leave a final letter or a souvenir photo. Some lie in the deep jungle, like martyr Nguyen Van Hung in the Kon Plong forest, Kon Tum province, who was struck down by severe malaria on a march in 1974; he voluntarily stayed behind in a parachute hammock strung between two small trees so as not to hinder his unit's advance.

For 25 long years, those two small trees grew into giant trees, elevating the soldier's resting place halfway to the blue sky. The image of the hammock hanging 15 meters above the ground in the old-growth forest not only breaks the hearts of the living but also serves as a strict reminder to today's generation: under every inch of peaceful ground beneath our feet, under every silent forest canopy, there might be a soldier lying, quietly waiting to be called by name.

Science cannot replace gratitude, but it empowers it

In the search, repatriation, and identification of martyrs' remains, science and technology are not alien to spirituality and morality. On the contrary, science gives gratitude a stronger basis, gives hope more means, and allows the fragmented memories of many sources to connect into comparable data.

Ground-penetrating radar, resistivity measurement, satellite imagery, digital maps, martyrs' data management software, genetic databases of relatives, next-generation DNA technology, and artificial intelligence in data analysis and exploitation are all contributing to shifting the search from isolated experience to a more systematic, accurate, and transparent process. Behind every technical operation is a humane goal: to give the soldiers back their names.

However, there should be no illusion that technology can solve everything overnight. Remains buried for many years are often weathered, and sample quality degrades. Records, grave diagrams, and unit designations are in many cases incomplete or inaccurate. The terrain and features of old battlefields have changed. Historical witnesses are dwindling. DNA testing capacity, though being strengthened, still faces a massive workload. Therefore, the requirement is to work cautiously, meticulously, and firmly at every step; every extracted sample must be protected as a rare chance for reunion.

In that journey, the press has an irreplaceable role. The press must promptly report results while clarifying the humanistic, scientific, and legal aspects of the search; spread touching stories while verifying information, avoiding exaggeration, preventing data distortion, and avoiding the trivialization of pain into cheap sentimentality. The press must be a bridge between policy and the people, between authorities and martyrs' relatives, between hard data and the living memory of the community.

The call of July

The 500-day-and-night campaign is not just the task of relevant agencies. It is a call to the responsibility of the whole society. Any family still keeping death notices, handwritten letters, diaries, burial diagrams, old photos, memorabilia, unit information, or comrades' stories, please do not let those documents be lost to time.

Localities deploying DNA sampling of martyrs' relatives, please coordinate with all your heart. Young people in every family and clan, please help your grandparents and parents digitize memories: photograph documents, record stories, save information, and connect with authorities when necessary.

Sometimes, what brings about a reunion is not a large file, but a small detail: the name of a stream, a unit symbol, a march date, someone from the same hometown, a yellowed photo, or a piece of paper folded in a soldier's wallet. Every clue kept is a guiding light in the journey to find comrades. Every DNA sample collected is an opportunity for an unidentified martyr to regain his name.

The Prime Minister has emphasized the spirit of striving with the highest determination to search for, repatriate, and identify the remains of martyrs; while demanding the work be carried out cautiously, methodically, scientifically, strictly, thoroughly, safely, and in accordance with the nation's cultural traditions. This is not just an administrative order. It is an order from the heart of a nation that always upholds its moral values.

From Vietnam's peace to humanity's aspiration for peace

Marking the 79th anniversary and looking toward the 80th anniversary of of Vietnam's War Invalids and Martyrs' Day, we bow before the wounded soldiers who left a part of their bodies on the battlefield; deeply pay tribute to the martyrs who dedicated their entire lives to the Fatherland; to the Vietnamese Heroic Mothers, martyrs' wives, and policy beneficiary families who have silently borne the longest suffering of the war. But along with that bow, there must be a promise: let no sacrifice be forgotten, let no martyr's relative be alone in the search journey, and let no fallen person forever remain just a line reading "unidentified."

From the newly opened mass graves in Le Thi Rieng Park, from the remains returning from Laos and Cambodia, from the mass graves in Tuyen Quang, from the search sites in Dong Nai and many other localities, Vietnam wants to send a simple yet profound message to humanity: war leaves irreparable losses. No victory can erase the tears of a mother who lost her child, no medal can replace a family meal without a father, and no tombstone is large enough to contain all the years of youth cut short.

Therefore, preserving peace is not a distant slogan. It is the common duty of mankind. In a world increasingly facing non-traditional security threats such as natural disasters, earthquakes, climate change, epidemics, humanitarian crises, food security, water security, cybersecurity, and more, nations need all the more to be friendly, cooperative, and respectful of one another. Humanity cannot heal the earth if we continue to hurt each other through war and armed conflict. We cannot jointly overcome natural disasters, epidemics, and climate change if new cemeteries keep sprouting up.

July is not just a month to remember. July is a month to act, to act to return the names to those who have fallen. To act to better care for people with meritorious services and policy families. To act to educate the younger generation to love peace, value independence, look back at the past, and hold their heads high to build the future. To act so that every Vietnamese, whether at home or far from the Fatherland, contributes a part to the journey of searching, repatriating, and identifying martyrs' remains.

So that one day not far away, before the straight rows of steles in martyrs' cemeteries, those who remain will no longer have to sadly light incense for unnamed graves, but can tearfully call out their exact names, allowing the world to hear a reminder from Vietnam's July incense: Keep the peace, because after every war, what remains the longest is not the sound of gunfire, but the search for loved ones spanning multiple generations.

Leaders pays tribute to fallen soldiers on War Invalids and Martyrs Day

VOV.VN - Senior Vietnamese leaders on July 26 offered incense in tribute to fallen soldiers and President Ho Chi Minh on the occasion of the 79th anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs Day (July 27, 1947 – 2026).

Vietnam pays tribute to fallen heroes in Laos on War Invalids and Martyrs' Day

The Vietnamese Embassy in Laos held a wreath- and incense-offering ceremony at the Laos–Vietnam combatant alliance relic site in Keun village of Thoulakhom district, Vientiane province, on July 24 to mark the 79th anniversary of Vietnam's War Invalids and Martyrs' Day (July 27, 1947–2026).