Returning to Quynh Long, I heard the story of surrounding warships and capturing American pilots.

At the Martyrs Memorial of Quynh Long Commune, on both sides of the stage are two paintings depicting the feats of the Quynh Long militia during the resistance war against the US. Following the memories of time, looking for the witnesses who made those feats, we met Mr. Bui Si Hau, one of the members of the Hai Long Squadron that "surrounded" the enemy warships.

Mr. Hau recounted: In 1965, the US escalated its attacks on the North, at sea they sent commando ships to harass and prevent fishermen from producing. In that situation, the Hai Long Squadron was established. On the night of August 8, 1968, taking advantage of the rough sea and big waves, 4 boats in the Hai Long Squadron were ordered to launch. The 4 boats followed the formation and quietly left the dock. On the boats were camouflage nets, under the deck were B40 and B41 guns, grenades, explosives... carefully hidden. At around 5 a.m., the sound of a strange ship's engine was detected, and the entire formation went on combat alert. The leading boat, commanded by Nguyen Ba Vanh, discovered the enemy ship when it was about 30m from the target, and gave the order to fire. A series of hand cannons, along with B40 shells, were fired straight at the target. A cluster of flames covered the deck. Being attacked unexpectedly, the enemy ship focused on firing at Nguyen Ba Vanh's boat while fleeing. 5 soldiers were sacrificed. The boat was hit by bullets and sank. Taking advantage of the darkness, Nguyen Ba Vanh and two soldiers swam to shore. The wounded enemy warship quickly fled to international waters.

Former militiamen recall memories of the battle to capture American pirates at sea in Quynh Long (Quynh Luu).

In 1972, after the ceasefire, the US again bombarded the North. The coastal militia bravely performed many feats, making the enemy fearful. On April 17, 1972, the Quynh Lap militia used 75mm artillery to burn an enemy warship. On May 27, the Nghi Hai militia shot down an F4 aircraft, feat after feat that made the army and people of the whole country proud. On October 29, 1972, with two rounds of 12.7mm bullets, the Quynh Long-Quynh Thuan militia shot down an F8 aircraft on the spot, capturing the pilot about 10km from Kien mountain towards the sea. It has been nearly 40 years, but Mr. Tran Xuan Sinh, who was then the deputy captain, still remembers clearly the day when he and the Hero of the Armed Forces Nguyen Ba Vanh surrounded and captured the American pilot. At that time, around 10 am, he was on duty checking at the commune's trading cooperative, hearing the news that the American plane had crashed, the enemy pilot parachuted into the sea, quickly grabbed the AK, he, Nguyen Ba Vanh, Nguyen Ba Trung, Ngo The Vu, quickly jumped into the sea, pushed the rowboat out to sea. Following his boat were boats from Dai Lien, Cong Hoa hamlets... together to capture the enemy pilot. When the boat reached the destination, Mr. Sinh commanded the militia soldiers to jump into the rubber boat to capture the enemy pilot. At that moment, 21 enemy planes from the fleet flew in to drop bombs, firing 20mm artillery shells like pouring down around the boat carrying the enemy pilot. The rain of bombs had just stopped when 2 helicopters flew in to circle around the boat and drop a rope ladder to rescue the enemy pilot. While steering the boat, Mr. Sinh raised his AK and fired 1 shot at the plane, the plane quickly rose high to avoid the bullets, the second plane fired 20mm shells like pouring into the boat. Vu was killed in the first volley of bullets, Vanh was seriously injured, and Sinh was also grazed by a bullet that went through his shoulder and down to his thigh. He endured the pain and continued to steer the boat, avoiding enemy fire. After the rescue attempt failed, the two planes circled and disappeared. At around 4 p.m., the boat was hit by bullets, and the crew was rescued by a fishing boat and brought to shore. Vanh died on the way to the emergency room. Sinh was quickly taken to the district hospital for emergency treatment by the locals.

After a few moments of excitement talking about the exploits of the Quynh Long militia, his voice dropped, regretting that he was old, but if an enemy dared to invade our airspace and sea, he would still be ready to fight to protect the country's sovereignty. It seemed that the fire of the deputy commune militiaman who had captured the American pilots in the past was still alive in him. And that fire has been passed on to the generations of his children today, they are the soldiers in the Quynh Long maritime militia platoon who are day and night sticking to the sea to produce while also performing the duty of guarding the sea and sky of the Fatherland.

Mr. Tuan