'Bringing home to comrades': The meaning of the trips

(Baonghean) - We, thousands of veterans of the former Soviet Regiment living in all parts of the country, join hands to organize marches to express gratitude to our comrades who have remained forever on the Quang Tri battlefield. The pilgrimages "Bringing the homeland to our comrades" have begun and will continue forever...

Warm night in the forest comrades

After the departure ceremony in Nam Anh, Nam Dan - where the Regiment was established in 1968, we marched straight to Quang Tri. The last days of April suddenly turned windy and rainy, as if it were a small challenge for the pilgrimage group. The cajuput forest of Cam Thanh (Cam Lo) suddenly became warm with the sounds and wartime uniforms of more than 500 veterans of the Regiment who had just arrived. We began the "show" of hanging hammocks for wartime camp - simulating the program: "Warm night in the comrade forest".

Veterans of the Regiment marched to begin the "warm hammock" show - simulating the program Warm Night in the Forest with Comrades. Photo: Tran Canh Yen

The mobile loudspeaker of the pilgrimage's general director blared: "The Thai Binh delegation in the North, the Hanoi delegation in the West, the Nghe An delegation in the South; the Hai Duong delegation... the loudspeaker of veteran Le Ba Duong was drowned out by the sound of the wind, the clamor of the army and the sounds of the mountains and forests! It might be better to have the delegations interspersed with each other.

Indeed, the hammocks of the ladies in the Tri-Thien Military Region's former art troupe surrounded us, making a section of the cajuput forest light up with eye-catching costumes and performance costumes that were being hung up to dry along the paths. Apart from the members who were relatives of martyrs, almost the vast majority of the members participating in the pilgrimage were in their sixties and seventies, but they were still agile and had the demeanor of a soldier.

There was an old veteran who was quickly tying the hammock rope next to him. I asked him and found out that he was 88 years old. He introduced himself: "I am Nguyen Huu Nghi, a former nurse of C3/D3, from Truong Loc, Can Loc, Ha Tinh. I have participated in all 5 pilgrimages, uncle."

In just a moment, the cajuput forest was covered with all kinds of hammocks, parachute hammocks, net hammocks and clotheslines. The speakers started to rustle and adjust the volume, and almost the entire cajuput forest of Cam Thanh rose up with the "combined choir" of Truong Son during the battle days! "My life is a military march..." - It seemed like the singing was from the Ha Tinh troupe; "On the top of Truong Son, we meet again in the middle of the fighting season..." - A high-pitched male voice, unknown from which troupe, was soaring up so heartily!

“Stopping by the hammock stream…” - a female singer sang loudly, listening to the singing voice, the girl was probably very young, I squeezed through the tangled hammocks and came across two girls in military uniforms swinging their hammocks and singing enthusiastically. “We are from Hai Duong... I joined the army later, and here... my grandchild is a relative of a martyr...”. My heart suddenly choked up, I knew that on this pilgrimage and the previous ones, there were dozens, hundreds of martyrs’ relatives following us to visit the land where their fathers and brothers had once bled! The girl who just sang “Song by the Hammock” was very young, must be the grandchild generation of the martyrs.

Veteran Nguyen Huu Nghi, 88 years old, joins the pilgrimage. Photo: Tran Canh Yen

We received the boxed lunches brought by the mothers and sisters in the villages, then arranged them neatly in clumps on the carpet of dry cajuput leaves and lit incense to invite our comrades to eat. The whole forest seemed to be immersed in the smoke of the incense as we prayed for the souls of our comrades! Everything began to be inspired by the heartfelt words: "Please row gently on the boat down Thach Han/My friend still lies at the bottom of the river/At the age of twenty, he becomes water waves/Lapping peacefully on the shore forever and ever" by journalist and soldier Le Ba Duong.

Soldiers return to the village

Leaving Tan Lam cajuput forest, Ho Khe Da Bac, leaving Dau Mau, Pu Lo, Doc Mieu... places that are evidence of the fierce battles of the regiment in the past, we returned to the plains. "Mother welcomed our soldiers home to rest...", we sang enthusiastically again. Quat Xa (Cam Thanh, Cam Lo), Phuong Ngan (Trieu Long, Trieu Phong), Hien Luong (Vinh Thanh, Vinh Linh), to An Don (Quang Tri town), wherever the pilgrimage group went, they were warmly welcomed by the local people and cadres. We seemed to relive the seething atmosphere of the days of working together to fight and protect the village in the past!

Just like the previous pilgrimages, although there was a detailed plan to allocate the number of "soldiers returning to the village" to each village, each neighborhood down to the households, it was still inevitable that "unfair" incidents arose. Many mothers and sisters went to see the village chief but were not resolved, so they went to Commander-in-Chief Le Ba Duong to "complain" because their families had registered but were not allowed to adopt soldiers.

We returned to the bustling village, which was no longer small, but bustling and spacious. Red flags and banners with welcome slogans were hung all over the village roads and alleys. After a warm and joyful dinner with the families, we returned to the village's cultural house yard to organize exchanges with the villagers and local organizations.

Blending the homeland into the heart of Thach Han

With the wish that if we cannot bring our fallen comrades back to their homeland, we will bring the homeland to them, since April 2009, the pilgrimage program "Bringing the homeland to our comrades" has been supported and successfully organized and implemented by soldiers who once fought in the Quang Tri front - the core of which are comrades of the 27th Trieu Hai Regiment (Formerly the 27th Xo Viet Nghe Tinh Regiment) of the 390th Division - 1st Corps.

Night of releasing flower lanterns on Thach Han River. Photo: Tran Canh Yen

This is the 5th large-scale pilgrimage since 2009, initiated and chaired by veteran journalist Le Ba Duong. The final stop of the pilgrimage group is the martyrs' shrine at the flower-dropping dock on the northern bank of the Thach Han River (Quang Tri town). After the "comrades' memorial" meal organized by the Quang Tri Charity-Gratitude Center, we began to prepare for the most important event of the pilgrimage, which is "Blending the country and rivers into the heart of Thach Han". Soil and water were taken from the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, Hoan Kiem Lake; from Hung Temple, Thao River; from Lam River, Quyet Mountain; along with soil from "Eighteen villages of betel gardens in Hoc Mon", water from Nha Rong River... were mixed together in a solemn ceremony before being turned into the heart of the Thach Han River, the resting place of the souls of soldiers during the 81 days and nights of the summer of the fiery Citadel.

Ceremony of merging the homeland into the heart of Thach Han. Photo: Tran Canh Yen

More than ten thousand candles and hundreds of flower rafts were gathered at the northern river wharf. After the bell rang to summon the souls of martyrs, lines of people silently followed each other down to the river wharf. The flower rafts with incense were released into the water, thousands of flower lanterns were like blinking eyes in the night to pay tribute to the souls of martyrs. The night of Thach Han, the night of the river of flowers and fire - the last tragic part of the pilgrimage; but also on this night, we believe that the night of merging the land and water of our homeland into the heart of Thach Han is also the beginning of the never-ending pilgrimages of those who stay!

Tran Canh Yen