A touching story

(Baonghean)My unit served in Cambodia on an international mission from 1979 to 1986. We witnessed many examples of noble and compassionate fighting and sacrifice by Vietnamese volunteer soldiers, including Comrade Dang Van Toi - Platoon Leader of the 2nd Engineering Regiment (8th Division, 9th Military Region).

Dang Van Toi, originally from Nghi Lien (Vinh City), enlisted on August 15, 1978. After completing 10th grade, Toi joined the army. At the end of 1981, the situation in Cambodia remained very complicated. The remnants of Pol Pot's forces intensified their sabotage of the Cambodian revolution. Crops failed, the people lacked food, and famine was rampant. Toi's platoon had to reduce their own rations to help the starving people, delivering rice to each household, caring for the elderly and children, and providing medicine to the sick; they also encouraged the people to actively increase production, stabilize their lives, and combat famine. One day in February 1982, on his way to Koshala to receive his assignment, Toi met a Cambodian woman named Van Na who was in labor when it started raining. Seeing her fear, Toi reassured her in Cambodian: "Don't worry, the Vietnamese army will help you."



A Cambodian mother pours water for the Vietnamese volunteer soldiers.
Illustrative image

Seeing the woman in pain, struggling, and crying for help, Toi was at a loss. He used plastic sheeting and branches to build a makeshift shelter to protect her from the rain, then gave her his dried rations to eat; she had been starving for several days and her health was depleted. After eating, she gradually regained consciousness. The Cambodian woman calmed down and, visibly moved, clasped her hands together and begged, "Please, Vietnamese soldiers, save my child and me!" After nearly 20 minutes of struggling and sweating in the rain and wind, at times, Toi felt as if he were suffocating. He used a dagger to cut the umbilical cord. A healthy baby boy cried out, his first cries filling the eyes of the Vietnamese volunteer soldier and the young Cambodian mother with tears of joy.

Suddenly, a series of deafening 82mm mortar shells exploded in quick succession. He quickly shielded the mother and child with his body. A shrapnel fragment lodged in his head, causing him to bleed profusely… He fainted, and by the time his unit took him to the regimental surgical station, he had already breathed his last, beneath a palm tree in Cambodia on a spring day…

Upon hearing the news of Dang Van Toi's death, Van Na was devastated, as if she had lost a loved one, and mourned Toi as if he were her own brother. Some time later, she urged her husband, Xe Noi, a soldier in the 310th Division, Southwest Military Region, commanded by General Ta Mok, to surrender to the revolution. Subsequently, the Khmer Rouge's "Youth Volunteer Battalion," in which she had once served, also surrendered to the revolution.

Mr. Xe Noi and Ms. Van Na were deeply moved by the noble actions of Dang Van Toi. They discussed naming their son Dang Van Nghia to commemorate the profound gratitude they felt towards Platoon Leader Dang Van Toi and the Vietnamese army.

Nguyen Van Tai (108 Hec Man Street, Vinh City)