Lesson 1: Live stakes on fire coordinates
(Baonghean) -During the resistance war against the US to save the country, Truong Bon (in My Son commune, Do Luong district) was one of the key points that was fiercely attacked by the enemy. The legendary Truong Bon marked the dedication of the Youth Volunteer Force, including sixteen and seventeen year old girls who wore white shirts every night, vowing to be living markers to guide army vehicles through the field; and Truong Bon "became immortal" with the heroic sacrifice of 13 soldiers of Company 317 N65 Youth Volunteer Force Nghe An on October 31, 1968.
Truong Bon is located on strategic road 15A, about 40km west of Vinh city, 10km south of Do Luong town (Do Luong district). During the resistance war against the US to save the country, Truong Bon had a particularly important position, being the traffic artery supporting the southern battlefield.
Truong Bon Victory Monument.
“Along with Cam Bridge, Phuong Tich Bridge (Nghi Loc District, Nghe An), Dong Loc Intersection (Can Loc District, Ha Tinh), Truong Bon is a “fire coordinate”, a focus of fierce bombing by American aircraft”, said Ms. Pham Thi Phong - Vice President of Nghe An Veterans Association: Records kept at Nghe An Veterans Association recorded that from June to October 1968, Truong Bon suffered 2,692 bombs and hundreds of rockets. There were peak days when the enemy mobilized hundreds of aircraft to bomb Truong Bon in an attempt to cut off traffic on Highway 15A.
Under the rain of bombs and bullets, despite the danger, thousands of Youth Volunteers, soldiers, and frontline workers still clung to Truong Bon day and night with the slogan "Live bravely, cling to the bridge and road, die bravely and steadfastly!"; "The heart can stop beating, the road cannot be blocked!". Here, more than 200 officers and soldiers of the air defense force, the engineering force of Military Region IV, and the 317th Youth Volunteer Company of Nghe An sacrificed and were injured. My Son commune (Do Luong) alone had 41 casualties. Notably, the enemy bombardment on Truong Bon in the early morning of October 31, 1968, one day before the ceasefire took effect, took the lives of 13 Youth Volunteers.
“The mission of the Truong Bon Youth Volunteer Force is to clear the road, ensure traffic on Highway 15A; Rescue, unload weapons and goods when cars are attacked by the enemy; Clear mines, and be on air defense duty 24/7 in Truong Bon and surrounding areas!”, said former Youth Volunteer Force Phan Thi Minh (Yen Thanh district). During the days of fighting at the Truong Bon “fire coordinates”, Company 317 was the Youth Volunteer Force unit that had to endure the most hardships and fierceness and suffered great losses in terms of personnel. In the Ky Lon slope area (where 13 Youth Volunteer Force soldiers sacrificed their lives), during a mission to rescue a burning military convoy, 5 Youth Volunteer Force soldiers led by Ms. Liem (from Nghi Thai commune, Nghi Loc district, Nghe An) as Political Commissar heroically sacrificed their lives. In 2008, a group of 14 Nghe An Youth Volunteers from Company 317, Team 65 (including 13 brothers and sisters who sacrificed and the only soldier who survived the bombing on October 31, 1968) were awarded the title of Hero of the People's Armed Forces.
Of the sixteen and twenty year old girls who once went through life and death at the legendary “fire coordinates”, who is still alive? Who is dead? What untold stories are there in Truong Bon? We went to Do Luong, Yen Thanh, to look for witnesses.
From My Son (Do Luong), I crossed the Truong Strait to Yen Thanh district to find Mrs. Le Thi Huong, a former Youth Volunteer of Company 317. Nearly 70 years old, without husband or children, she lives alone in a house of gratitude after a long time living in a duck hatchery in Tang Thanh. Every time Truong Bon and her comrades are mentioned, tears well up in her eyes.
“When I was 17, I wrote an application to join the Youth Volunteer Force but was rejected. I went straight to the committee, met Mr. Hoang Dinh Nha, the Secretary of the Commune Youth Union, and asked for the reason. Mr. Nha flatly dismissed me: You are a child, not old enough, go home and study!”. Mrs. Huong said that back then, every time she saw a blue shirt and a floppy hat, her “guts felt like they were on fire”. Outside the village, at the beginning of the alley, the drums were beating loudly, the “Three Ready” movement and the call to join the army made the village girl toss and turn many nights, unable to eat or sleep.
“I was present at the key points of Cam Bridge, Phuong Tich Bridge (Nghi Loc), and Khe Than (Tan Ky District) during the war years, but nowhere was as fierce as Truong Bon. There were nights when the ground shook because of bombs and bullets, but the Youth Volunteers were not shaken. We wore white shirts, stood as living markers, and guided the vehicles through,” recalled former Youth Volunteer Le Thi Huong (Yen Thanh District). |
“So much fun! All my friends left, I couldn’t sit still!”, said former Youth Volunteer Le Thi Huong. At the age of seventeen, she and her teammates “fought left and right” at the hot spots where bombs and bullets were boiling: Khe Than (Tan Ky), Hoang Mai Bridge (Quynh Luu) and the final stop at Truong Bon (Do Luong, Nghe An). Here, Le Thi Huong and the soldiers of Company 317 braved the rain of bombs and bullets, day and night sticking to Highway 15A, opening the way to the front line. It was the female Youth Volunteer Le Thi Huong who was the first to discover and, together with two other teammates, save Squad Leader Tran Thi Thong - the only survivor of the tragic bombing in the early morning of October 31, 1968.
Mrs. Nguyen Thi Mien and the portrait of her daughter - martyr Nguyen Thi Hoai.
I went back to Dai Ban village to Dai Phu (Hung Yen commune, Hung Nguyen district) and knocked on the door of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Mien (mother of Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoai, one of the 13 Youth Volunteers who died in Truong Bon). Nearly 100 years old this year, Mrs. Mien still clearly remembers the image of her daughter: "When I was sixteen, Hoai asked to join the Youth Volunteers. I told her she was still young, she should go after finishing school. She said: I'll go to the battlefield, I can work and study at the same time, Mom!" In 1967, Nguyen Thi Hoai packed her bags and followed the volunteer army to Truong Bon.
“Among the female soldiers at Truong Bon, Nguyen Thi Hoai was the youngest, so she was the most cared for and pampered by her sisters. She had a small figure, a chubby face and was very agile. Many nights, despite heavy rain and strong winds, we sisters wore white shirts and stood on the roadside, acting as live markers to guide vehicles through Truong Bon!”, said former Youth Volunteer Force Company 317 Nguyen Thi Minh. After arriving at the Truong Bon key point for nearly a year, at home, we suddenly received news that “Nguyen Thi Hoai was mobilized to receive rice on the Lam River, was swept away by flood and went missing”. Unable to sit still, Mrs. Nguyen Khanh walked from Hung Nguyen, traveling dozens of kilometers to Truong Bon to find her daughter.
That was also the first and last time that Khanh saw her daughter on the battlefield. “After two years of fighting in Truong Bon, Hoai only came home once, then she left forever!”, Nguyen Thi Mien fondled the picture of her daughter. The only picture the sixteen-year-old female Youth Volunteer Force left behind, now faded, stuck to a piece of broken mirror, nestled in the palm of her mother’s hand; on that gentle face, there was a faint smile.
From the beginning of 1967 to October 1968, Truong Bon never stopped hearing the sound of bombs falling and bullets exploding. “When the enemy bombed, the Youth Volunteers sought shelter. As soon as the roaring stopped, we rushed onto the road to rescue burnt vehicles, rescue the wounded, and hide weapons in the ravines. At night, without even having time to eat, we rushed to the bomb site to stand as markers when we heard the sound of the gong!”, said former Youth Volunteers C317 Phan Thi Thao (Tang Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district). The image of sixteen and seventeen-year-old girls in the dark wearing white shirts and floppy hats transforming themselves into living markers guiding convoys through the forest left the soldiers with a lot of admiration.
“At the Truong Bon fire coordinates, enemy aircraft frequently changed bombing times and tactics in an attempt to paralyze and cut off traffic on Highway 15A!”, Squad Leader of the Bomb Disposal Squad Nguyen Tam Con (Lien Thanh Commune, Yen Thanh District) recalled. Thousands of bombs of all kinds were dropped, the road from Truong Bon to Ky Lon slope was destroyed, and rocks and soil were strewn everywhere. Under the rain of bombs and bullets, the young men and women of the 317th Youth Volunteers Company were still determined to stick to the battlefield. In the long, dark night, the flute call of the duty officer Tran Van Hap echoed, mixed with the melodious and innocent singing of Dang from the small hamlet of My Son…
On October 27, 2012, to celebrate the 44th anniversary of Truong Bon victory, Nghe An Provincial People's Committee coordinated with the Ministry of Transport to start the project to expand and upgrade Highway 15A; and to start construction of the remaining items at Truong Bon Historical Site.
Quang Long
