Legend of a road

(Baonghean) -Truong Son Road, the legendary road named after President Ho Chi Minh, has gone down in history, its mark with glorious feats of arms that decisively defeated the American invaders will forever exist with the history of building and defending the country of our people.

From the beginning, there was only a secret single-line road with 9 port stations operated by Battalion 301, the first Transport Division of Group 559 (military engineering and transport group), consisting of 440 officers and soldiers, and had to operate under strict secrecy conditions (living without a home, traveling without a trace, cooking without smoke, speaking without a sound).

After 16 years of arduous, resilient, and courageous fighting until the Spring of 1975, before entering the Ho Chi Minh campaign to completely liberate the South, the Truong Son road named after Uncle Ho became a great comprehensive project with nearly 20,000km of road, including 5 longitudinal axes and 2 transverse axes in the East and West of Truong Son. Construction of a 1,400km long petroleum pipeline connecting the rear to Bu Gia Map in the Southeast.

Truong Son Army veterans offer flowers,
reporting to Uncle Ho at Ho Chi Minh Square

Truong Son troops fought over 2,500 battles, eliminated 18,740 enemies, captured 1,190, destroyed over 100 military vehicles and thousands of guns of all kinds, shot down 2,455 aircraft of all kinds. Transported and organized over 2 million troops and cadres to and from the Truong Son route. Transported over 1 million tons of technical materials of all kinds to the battlefields.

During the fighting and combat service, on the Truong Son route, nearly 20,000 cadres and soldiers heroically sacrificed their lives, and more than 32,000 were injured. The Truong Son Martyrs' Cemetery currently has 10,300 martyrs gathered. The Truong Son area has an operating area of ​​140,000 square kilometers. During 16 years of operation, the enemy used up to 4 million tons of bombs and ammunition out of a total of more than 7 million tons of bombs and ammunition dropped on the battlefields of Vietnam (both the North and the South). Along with bombs and ammunition, millions of liters of toxic chemicals that the enemy sprayed on Truong Son caused serious harm to the health of Truong Son soldiers, whose long-term consequences for descendants are still a painful pain.

One-time comrades on the Truong Son road.

Bombs, toxic chemicals and diseases, especially malaria, have taken thousands of lives, especially among the young people who have just entered Truong Son. Until now, there have been no complete statistics on the children of Nghe Tinh in general and Nghe An in particular who have participated in combat and served in combat on the Truong Son route. According to the estimate of Lieutenant General Dong Si Nguyen, Commander of the Truong Son Army, Nghe Tinh people account for 1/3 and almost all commanders at all levels prefer to accept soldiers from Nghe Tinh.

After 36 years of national reunification, Nghe An still has over 30,000 youth volunteer soldiers and laborers who have been operating on Route 559. The State has chosen to place milestone 0 (the starting point of Truong Son Road - Ho Chi Minh Road) in Tan Ky district. Nghe An has comrade Nguyen Minh Thong in Dien Chau, the first martyr of Truong Son Road. There is Colonel Chu Dang Chu, the first Battalion Commander of 559, now 88 years old, currently living in Block 8, Truong Thi Ward, Vinh City. There are heroes Nguyen Viet Sinh, Phan Van Tu, Phan Van Quy, Ho Thi Thu Hien, ... who are heroes of the armed forces who have worked on the road named after Uncle Ho.

Generations of Truong Son soldiers today in the windy Square.
Photo: Tran Hai

Honored and proud, the Truong Son soldiers of the past returned to normal life, each with different circumstances, but the Truong Son veterans always tried to promote the nature of Uncle Ho's soldiers. In mid-April, in Vinh city, the Truong Son Troops Liaison Committee of Nghe An province held the first conference "Commending Truong Son veterans of Nghe An province for their good economic performance". At the conference, comrade Tran Hong Chau, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, said: "Commemorating the 52nd anniversary of the Truong Son Troops' tradition, we are grateful and remember the heroic martyrs who fell for the road so that we can have today. We share with the wounded comrades and comrades infected with toxic chemicals, comrades who still face many difficulties in daily life".

The ancients have a saying "remember the past and remember the new" a time of past battles, for the sake of the lives of our descendants now and in the future, we vow to live up to the heroic and glorious traditions of our predecessors, contributing our small part to building a better and better country.

Nguyen Khac Tuyen