Lesson 1: The boys from the coastal countryside

(Baonghean)Editor's note: 25 years have passed since the incident on Gac Ma Island (March 14, 1988), the day 64 officers and soldiers of the Vietnam People's Navy fell under the guns of the Chinese invaders. Among them, there were 8 outstanding sons of Nghe An. Each person had a different situation, but they had one thing in common: the spirit of self-sacrifice for the survival of the country, ready to exchange their youth to affirm an eternal truth: Truong Sa is the flesh and blood of Vietnam. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the naval battle to protect Truong Sa and the 82nd anniversary of the founding of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, Nghe An Newspaper would like to introduce an article about the spirit of self-sacrifice and the family circumstances of some martyrs from Nghe An who sacrificed their lives in the Gac Ma battle that year...

Lesson 1:The boys from the sea

We visited Nghi Yen and Nghi Tien in Nghi Loc district on a day in mid-March, when the rice fields and peanut gardens were lush and green. The peaceful, frugal scenery of this coastal countryside is evident in every field, village, road and moss-covered tiled roof. This is the hometown of Dau Xuan Tu and Ho Van Nuoi, ​​two young men who fell far away at sea to protect the sacred sovereignty of the country.

Old mother blind eyes love her child

Receiving us in the house of gratitude donated by the Petro-Soviet Group, Mr. Dau Xuan Thuot (91 years old) and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Nhon (82 years old) - parents of Martyr Dau Xuan Tu could not hold back the tears rolling down their old faces. Having lived together for over 50 years, they gave birth to 5 children, both boys and girls, now only the youngest child remains. Two of them are martyrs (in addition to Tu, there is also Dau Xuan Chan who died in 1972 at the Southern front), and the other two died due to illness and accidents. Talking about Tu, Mrs. Nhon could not hide her sadness: “He is the fourth child, my husband and I named him Tu. When he was young, family life was difficult and poor. Feeling sorry for his parents, Tu asked to leave school early to help with the family work. In 1985, when he was just 20 years old, he joined the army, I heard that his unit was stationed in Hai Phong”.



Mr. Thuot and Mrs. Nhon with their son's memento (Martyr Dau Xuan Tu).

In letters sent home, Mr. Dau Xuan Tu said that he was added to the Navy, regularly trained and always ready to fight. In the unit, he was loved by his superiors and comrades because of his sincere and open nature. And he tried his best to be promoted to a professional soldier after 3 years of service. The last letter that Mr. Tu sent to Mr. Thuot and Mrs. Nhon was received in early 1988, not by the postman but by a person in the neighboring village. That person said that in the morning, while driving buffaloes to the field, he picked up this letter on National Highway 1A and immediately brought it to his grandparents. Due to their poor childhood and not being able to go to school, Mr. Thuot and his wife were illiterate and had to ask a neighbor to read the letter. Through the letter, the son Dau Xuan Tu said that he was about to join the ranks of the Communist Party of Vietnam, with the possibility of serving long-term in the military. This time, due to the complicated situation, his unit was ordered to move to the southern region to be ready to receive the mission. Time was pressing, he could not arrange to visit home, on the way to the south, he took the opportunity to write a few lines and waited for the vehicle to pass through Nghi Yen commune to drop it off, hoping that someone would pick it up and deliver it to his parents. "During the 3 years in the army, Tu did not visit his family once, only sent a few letters of inquiry" - Mrs. Nhon said in tears.

A few months later, Mr. Thuot's family was struck by lightning when they heard that Dau Xuan Tu had sacrificed his life in the Truong Sa archipelago, in a confrontation with the Chinese invaders. Mr. Thuot became dazed, then became critically ill. Mrs. Nhon - the woman who gave birth to Mr. Tu, cried until she had no more tears. This pain was too great, too much for a mother to bear, because before that, one of her children had sacrificed, two others had also died from accidents and illnesses. She thought she would collapse, but then, feeling sorry for her sick husband and her youngest son, Dau Xuan Chuong, who was still young, Mrs. Nhon had to persevere. Moreover, she realized that Mr. Chan and Mr. Tu had sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom and sacred sovereignty of the Fatherland, so she had to try to live. The pain of a mother who lost her child accumulated and condensed into tears over the years, and because of crying so much, Mrs. Nhon's eyes gradually became blind. Now, after 25 years of mourning her child, the mother's eyes can no longer recognize the source of light.

At the end of their lives, Mr. Thuot and Mrs. Nhon's pain was somewhat comforted and eased when in 2009, the family received a report on the identification of the martyrs' remains. It included the following passage: "On August 10, 2008, the Navy discovered a sunken military transport ship in the Truong Sa archipelago, sunk at a depth of 21m, 3.72 nautical miles south of our Co Lin island and 1 nautical mile west of Gac Ma island illegally occupied by China. The Navy Command determined that the sunken military transport ship was the HQ-604 ship of the 125th Naval Brigade, which sank during a battle with the Chinese Navy on March 14, 1988. Of the 56 martyrs who died on the HQ-604 ship when the ship sank, they had not yet escaped, so their remains remained in the ship...". And the appraisal report concluded: "From the results of morphological and genetic appraisal, we come to the conclusion: The bone samples with symbols S3, TL2 are the remains of martyr Dau Xuan Tu."

And the father thought... turned to stone

Leaving Nghi Yen commune, we followed the coastal mountains, through Bai Lu eco-tourism area to hamlet 10, Nghi Tien commune, the hometown of martyr Ho Van Nuoi. Living alone in a house of gratitude, even though she is over 80 years old, Mrs. Luu Thi Linh (mother of martyr Ho Van Nuoi) still takes care of her own life. She has 7 children, Mr. Nuoi is the 5th child in the family. Most of the remaining people are married and have settled down far away. Mr. Ho Van Hoan (the youngest child) lives near her. Compared to Mr. Dau Xuan Thuot and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Nhon, Mrs. Linh's life is somewhat less difficult and arduous. But from the bottom of her eyes, the pain of the past 25 years seems to never fade away.



Mrs. Luu Thi Linh (mother of Martyr Ho Van Nuoi).

Trying to hold back her tears, Ms. Linh said: “Nuoi was born in 1967, had just dropped out of school for a while to go to sea, helping his parents raise his younger siblings when he received a notice to join the army. That year, he was exactly 18 years old. No matter what, in my eyes, he was always a child. During his time in the army, Nuoi came home on leave once to help his parents fix the roof tiles and plant more trees in the backyard. When his leave ended, he said goodbye to his family to return to his unit, but unexpectedly he passed away forever...”. And like 63 other fathers and mothers whose children died in the Truong Sa naval battle (March 14, 1988), Mr. Ho Van Thinh and his wife Luu Thi Linh could not believe it when they held the death notice in their hands. The longing for his son had almost made Mr. Thinh lose his mind. While working as a local official, he quit his job and wandered along the coast. To anyone who met him and talked to him, he had only one answer: “Looking for Nuoi”. When he returned, the father ransacked the house looking for his son's belongings, including clothes, books, and letters, piled them all up and burned them. According to him, he "burned them to call Nuoi back."

On stormy afternoons, when the wind blew loudly and thousands of waves rose up in anger, Mr. Thinh would run to the shore and call his son's name: "Nuoi! Come back, my son, the sea is rough!" His call was drowned out by the wind and waves. He climbed up the cliff and sat on a rock, looking out to sea. At times, the people of Nghi Tien thought that the father had turned to stone. One day, Mr. Thinh told his wife and children: "Nuoi is far away, I have to go find him." Thinking it was just like every other day, Mrs. Linh and the children did not stop him. Unexpectedly, he did not return that night, and the same thing happened several days later. The whole family frantically searched everywhere but to no avail. After a while, they found him wandering in Quy Chau, refusing to return home because "Nuoi has not been found yet". The pain of losing his son and the sun and wind of life had made his body emaciated, his strength exhausted, and he collapsed. Mr. Thinh died in Quy Chau in 1992, after 4 years of wandering everywhere to find his son who had been reincarnated in the vast ocean.

Faced with that situation, Mrs. Linh decided to suppress her pain to continue living and taking care of her family. Every day, she silently worked in the fields, despite the scorching summer sun and the cold winter wind. When the pain of her son was so intense that she felt like she was about to cry, she would walk alone and quietly along the beach, where her brother Nuoi used to follow his mother to wash clothes as a child, where she often went to welcome him back from each trip to the sea. When her whole body ached, her mind was spinning and she felt like she was about to collapse, she still struggled to live, to live to wait for something. She could not recognize that, because it was so vague and indistinct. And then, one day in 2009, she received a report on the identification of martyrs' remains, concluding: "The bone sample with the symbol S11 is the remains of martyr Ho Van Nuoi". After that, her brother Nuoi's remains were brought back to be buried at the cemetery in her hometown. Only then did Mrs. Linh realize that this was what she had been waiting for all these years. "Nuoi sacrificed himself to protect the country's sea and sky. Any mother would be heartbroken when losing her child, but I am still very proud to have given birth to him," Ms. Linh shared.

Following Mrs. Linh along the coast, the sea is calm this season, we can still feel each wave in the hearts of Mrs. Linh, Mrs. Nhon, Mr. Thuot and the waves in our hearts. Suddenly, we painfully remember the poem by Nguyen Viet Chien: "Is there any wave in the soul?".

Cong Kien