Mother waits for her child to return from the sea of ​​Gac Ma

'If only they would bring the bodies back, my son and his comrades would be spared the guilt,' the mother of martyr Truong Quoc Hung wished, because 28 years after the Gac Ma naval battle, the bodies of the Navy soldiers still lie at the bottom of the cold sea.

The weather in Da Nang in mid-March is gloomy. Standing silently in front of her house watching the sunset, mother Le Thi Muoi (84 years old) remembers her son Phan Van Su who sacrificed his life on March 14, 1988 in Gac Ma. "After 28 long years, this year Su's comrades come to visit, I feel a little more at ease", Muoi's mother said.

In the memory of his white-haired mother, the image of his eighth son always appeared, coming home from school to help his mother chop wood, going to the flooded field in front of the house to use traps to catch fish, and then diligently going into the kitchen to cook rice. Although he was so hard-working, Su never complained about anything, he just made jokes to make everyone laugh. Muoi's mother loved Su the most in the family because of his diligence and hard work.

At the end of 2015, mother Le Thi Muoi volunteered to go to Truong Sa because "she wanted to see where Su's brothers were lying", but due to her old age and weak health, her children advised her to stay home. Photo: Nguyen Dong.

Feeling sorry for his mother's hardship, Su volunteered to join the army, but hid it from his family. After registering for military service at the commune, he came home and whispered to his mother, "I did not stop him. As a man with the will to protect the fatherland, my parents should be happy and proud," Muoi's mother recalled. Before Su accepted the mission to Truong Sa, his father, Phan Van Be, warned him: "If you go, you must do it properly. Don't run away when you see guns and bullets exploding. When you come home, I will beat you to death."

Who would have thought that on March 14, 1988, when Mr. Be was being treated for a stomach disease in the hospital, he heard his son's name being announced over the loudspeaker and he also passed away. "I felt like my soul had been lost, father and son shared the same death anniversary. Every time I close my eyes, Su's image appears again. He followed his father's words, lived a decent life, and died with dignity," Muoi's mother said.

Missing her son, Muoi's mother often took the navy uniform, the only relic that Su left behind before leaving Da Nang for Cam Ranh, to sew it into a shirt for herself. Wearing that uniform, Muoi's mother appeared on television, telling her compatriots and people all over the world that her son was a military engineer who went to build the island, but was shot by China.

"My son went to build an island but the Chinese side shot him dead with guns. He came back to me in my dream," Lai's mother said. Photo: Nguyen Dong.

In the house on Nguyen Xuan On Street (Hai Chau, Da Nang), mother Ho Thi Lai (80 years old) despite being constantly sick can still sit for hours telling stories about her son Truong Quoc Hung. Talking about March 14, 1988, the mother sheds tears: "He came to me in a dream. I saw my son's shadow appear on the glass window of the cooperative."

"I told my mother that I knew you were back, so please go away. I didn't dare look at you anymore. I covered my face and cried, but he was still standing there, his handsome face, his hair combed in two bangs. And the blood...", Lai's mother recounted, tears streaming down her face.

Seeing no one reporting on the situation of his duty on the island, his mother encouraged him that it was just a dream and kept hope. A few days later, his comrades sent a letter from Cam Ranh (Khanh Hoa). Hung's brother read the letter and went to the banana garden behind the house to cry.

A few days later, the older brother told his mother that Hung had died. An altar was set up with a hastily cut photo from his student file and a black and white photo of him and his friends on an outing.

Every time she misses her child, Hang's mother flips through the faded black and white photos. Photo: Hoang Tao.

Mentioning the Gac Ma incident, mentioning martyr Hoang Anh Dong,mMother Nguyen Thi Hang (71 years old, in Quang Tri) was moved to tears again. She still remembers clearly the last Tet with her son.

That year, Dong had 10 days off for Tet, returning to his hometown with his family until January 12 when he returned to his unit in Khanh Hoa. "He told me to go protect the country. After finishing my mission, I would come back to take care of my parents," Ms. Hang sobbed.

After Dong died, the unit sent his family souvenirs such as medals, navy uniforms, a yearbook, a union membership book... Whenever she missed her son, Ms. Hang would take out the faded black and white photos to look at, cherishing the yearbooks that friends wrote for Dong at a camp 4 years before he died.

They fell when they were just 20 years old.

Looking for my child in the crowd

Mother Ho Thi Lai said that a few days after martyr Truong Quoc Hung died, a relative who was an officer of Military Region 5 reported that the Dai Lanh ship had gone to Gac Ma to rescue him but was unable to because it was blocked by a Chinese ship. "If only they had allowed the body to be brought back, my son and his comrades would have been spared the guilt," said mother Lai.

Three years later, families whose children went missing in Gac Ma received death notices. The eight Da Nang martyrs who died in the naval battle were given wind graves, lying together under the shade of large trees in the central cemetery of Da Nang city (Hoa Khuong commune, Hoa Vang district).

Lai's mother believes that her son's soul has entered that grave. "If only I could have a handful of sand from Truong Sa to put in the grave, how great it would be," she wished.

Wind graves for martyrs who died at Gac Ma in the cemetery of Da Nang city. Photo: Nguyen Dong.

In early August 2008, a fishing boat of Quang Ngai fishermen accidentally discovered a sunken iron ship about one nautical mile from Gac Ma. The Navy asked the Thanh Cong 07 ship, which specializes in searching for scrap iron and steel, to search. Divers found a few shin bones and bone fragments under the hull of the HQ 604 ship. People whose children died at Gac Ma had their blood drawn and DNA tested. "My family hoped to find the bones of their children, but only four families saw their children again. My husband waited anxiously. He died three years ago," said Nguyen Thi Hang.

Lai's mother said that finding the remains of her son and his comrades now is "a trivial matter". "When the Chinese shot them, their bodies were not all on the ship. If we only dive to search at the shipwreck site, there will be no results. In my heart, 64 brothers are still holding the island, holding it with their bones and souls", she said. Yet every time she goes out, even to Ho Chi Minh City to visit relatives, Lai's mother stands there, absent-minded, unable to take her eyes off the stream of people going back and forth. "Maybe Hung is driving somewhere", she said and reassured herself: "My son is no longer here, so why are you looking around like that?"

For the past 28 years, mothers still meet their children in their dreams.

How did 64 soldiers of the Truong Sa naval battle die? On the morning of March 14, 1988, while Vietnamese soldiers were on a mission to establish sovereignty over the submerged islands of Gac Ma - Len Dao - Co Lin, China brazenly sent warships to prevent them. At Gac Ma, armed Chinese soldiers captured the flag, opened fire on naval soldiers, and sank ship HQ 604. At Co Lin, captain Vu Huy Le ordered ship HQ 505 to rush straight onto the reef, becoming a living landmark protecting sovereignty. Ship HQ 605, which was on duty to protect Len Dao reef, was also set on fire by Chinese warships and sank on the morning of March 15, 1988. 64 Vietnamese naval soldiers died, 9 were captured by China. Vietnam kept Co Lin and Len Dao. Gac Ma fell into the hands of the invaders from then on. In April 1988, the Dai Lanh ship's diving team discovered through a survey that the HQ 605 ship had sunk at a depth of 40 meters near Len Dao reef. The determination of the location of HQ 604 could not be carried out due to the continuous obstruction by the Chinese military. Decades later, China still has not cooperated with Vietnam in searching for the remains of martyrs.

According to VNE