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 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 who "surrounded" the enemy warships in the past.

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 a formation and quietly left the dock. On the boats were camouflage nets, and below the deck were B40 and B41 guns, grenades, explosives... carefully hidden. At about 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 30 meters from the target and ordered to fire. A series of artillery shells and B40 shells were fired straight at the target. A cluster of flames covered the deck. Being attacked suddenly, the enemy ship focused its fire on Nguyen Ba Vanh's boat and fled. 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 enemy's damaged warship quickly fled to international waters.

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

In 1972, after the ceasefire, the US enemy bombarded the North again. The coastal militia bravely performed many feats, making the enemy fear. 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, one feat after another that thrilled the soldiers and people of the whole country. 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 peak 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 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 an AK, he, Nguyen Ba Vanh, Nguyen Ba Trung, Ngo The Vu, quickly jumped into the sea, pushed the bamboo boat out to sea. Following his boat were boats from Dai Lien and Cong Hoa hamlets... together to capture the enemy pilot. When the boat reached the destination, Mr. Sinh commanded the militia soldiers to jump onto 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 lifted up to avoid the bullets, the second plane fired 20mm shells like pouring into the boat. Vu was killed in the first round 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 to avoid enemy fire. After the rescue attempt failed, the two planes circled and disappeared. At about 4 p.m., the boat was hit by bullets, and the crew was rescued by a fishing boat and brought to shore. On the way to the emergency room, Vanh died. Sinh was quickly taken to the district hospital for emergency treatment by the locals.

After a few passionate moments of telling 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 team leader who had captured the American pilots in the past was still alive in him. And that fire has been passed on to 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