A war identity

Whenever talking about the suffering and misfortune left by war, the Thai people in Bang village, Chau Ly commune (Quy Hop) often tell the story of Mr. Vi Van Xuyen (born in 1946). Having passed the threshold of "thất thập cổ lai hy", that man had to live in a state of half-consciousness, without his own family, having to rely on the support of his younger brother and his wife from a poor family.

We arrived at Bang village on a cold day. Mr. Xuyen was suffering from an asthma attack and had to cover himself with a blanket and lie in a closed room. Occasionally, in his sleep, he would shout: "Charge, brothers!" Mr. Vi Toan (born in 1949, Mr. Xuyen's younger brother) explained: "It's been nearly 3 years since I brought him back to his hometown. Almost every night, he screams and shouts battle orders. I told him that the war is over and he's back home now, but he still doesn't believe me."

Mr. Vi Van Xuyen (left) is being cared for and protected by his younger brother Vi Van Toan's family. Photo by Cong Kien

According to Mr. Toan, his brother joined the army in 1969. During the fierce war years, the family had no news of Mr. Xuyen, only knowing that he followed his unit to the battlefield in the South. The South was completely liberated (1975), the family waited forever but still did not see Mr. Xuyen return. The longer they waited, the more news they lost. Thinking that their son was still on the battlefield, Mr. Toan's parents were extremely sad and passed away one after another.

Then one day in 1983, his brothers, relatives and villagers were extremely surprised to see Mr. Xuyen return with a comrade. That person introduced him as working with Mr. Xuyen at the Military Region 7 Cultural School. Because Mr. Xuyen suffered from schizophrenia, a consequence of the war, and was no longer conscious and normal, the unit sent someone to take him back to his hometown to hand him over to his family.

Everyone was extremely excited, because after 14 years of no news, thinking there was no chance of seeing him again, Mr. Xuyen had returned to reunite with his family, despite being injured and mentally unstable. When he first returned, his parents had passed away, and Mr. Xuyen lived with his eldest brother Vi Van Viet's family, but after only a few days, he left home and wandered around.
In those days, people in Bang village and neighboring villages often saw Mr. Xuyen in a worn-out military uniform, carrying a backpack with leaves on it, a floppy hat on his head, holding a stick in his hand, running along the roads, constantly shouting: "Charge! Charge!" or "The enemy is ahead, about to sweep into the hamlet, be ready to fight!"

A photo of Mr. Vi Van Xuyen when he was young that his family still keeps. Photo: GGĐCC

Then he went up to the hilltop and built a small hut and stayed there, despite his brothers and relatives calling him to stay. He only went down to the village when he needed to find food, the rest of the time he spent wandering around, eating whatever people gave him, sometimes going into the forest to find cassava, brown tubers and other fruits to survive. "On days when it rained heavily and the wind was strong, Viet and I went up the hill to pull him back, but as soon as we got home, he ran away and returned to the hut. We felt sorry for him living alone, but with his condition like that, we had no way to help him" - Mr. Toan said sadly.

Some time later, around the beginning of 1987, Mr. Vi Van Xuyen's figure was no longer seen on the roads, and there were no signs of human habitation in the old, dilapidated hut. Mr. Viet, Mr. Toan and their relatives split up to search in all directions. From Chau Ly, they expanded to neighboring communes, then to all communes in the district, and moved to another district to search, but still could not find him. The more they searched, the more hopeless it became. There were times when Mr. Toan and everyone thought that their brother had returned to the South to look for his old unit. But the South was too vast, the family's conditions were difficult, and their finances were tight, so they could not go there to search...
Making a living in the highland village of Chau Ly commune has never been without hardship and difficulty. Mr. Viet has passed away due to illness, Mr. Toan is also old and weak, he intended to go to the South to find his brother several times but had to put it aside. On the days of death anniversaries and happy family reunions, Mr. Toan could not hold back the tears of pain and sorrow. In his mind, the image of his brother was always present, many times in his dreams he saw his brother come home and knock on the door... Until one day at the end of 2015, Mr. Vi Van Hoa - Chairman of the Fatherland Front of Chau Ly commune "surfed the internet" and accidentally came across the information posted to find relatives for veteran Vi Van Xuyen. Upon receiving the good news, Mr. Toan was moved to tears, then without hesitation, borrowed more money to cover the travel expenses to Dong Nai to welcome his brother back.

Some documents from Mr. Vi Van Xuyen's military service. Photo: Cong Kien

During that time, Mr. Mai asked Mr. Xuyen many times about his hometown, but he could not remember. One time, reviewing the documents stored in an old backpack, Mr. Mai found Mr. Xuyen's hometown in his military record book. Unfortunately, in the record book, the words "Vi Van Xuyen" were crossed out by someone and replaced with "Le Van Hoai" below, for unknown reasons. However, Mr. Mai still boldly asked someone to post it on the Internet so that Mr. Xuyen could have a chance to return to his homeland. And the miracle happened, Mr. Xuyen was finally able to return to his family.

Military records and related documents show that Mr. Vi Van Xuyen enlisted in January 1969, belonging to C1, Regiment 1, Division 9, participating in many fierce battles. Typical were the siege and capture of Con Tre town (October 1970), the anti-sweep battle in Kong Pong Thom and participating in the Binh Long campaign (December 1971) and was injured, awarded 8 certificates of merit. On November 11, 1977, Mr. Xuyen was transferred to the Cultural School of Military Region 7. On January 1, 1983, he was demobilized and returned to his hometown with the rank of professional Second Lieutenant, a disabled soldier with a labor loss rate of 81%.
During the time Mr. Xuyen was wandering in a foreign land, his disability allowance was cut off by the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Quy Hop district. Mr. Toan completed the procedures for Mr. Xuyen to continue receiving it from September 1, 2016 at the rate of 5,651,000 VND/month. However, the amount cut off over the past 28 years was not paid back, due to Mr. Vi Van Xuyen's fault, and during that time, his family did not complain about this interruption.
Mr. Vi Van Toan shared: “Finding and bringing Mr. Xuyen back to his hometown for reunion is an incomparable happiness. I only hope that the State will support him with a small house to compensate for some of his losses and disadvantages. After he passes away, there will still be a place to worship him. Because of the consequences of war, he was not fortunate enough to have his own family...”.