“The unit is so crowded today…”
On the southwestern outpost island of the Fatherland, I was surprised to hear the “mo, te, rang, rua” accent of my hometown. I turned around. In front of me was a petite woman, her hands quickly arranging dishes in the kitchen of Radar Station 610. I asked her: “Are you from Nghe An?”
She looked up at me. There was a bit of surprise in her eyes, mixed with joy, when she met a fellow countryman on a distant island, thousands of kilometers away from Nghe An: “I am from Quynh Luu, my dear. I followed my husband here, and it has been 11 years now…”.
When asked, I found out that her name is Hoang Thi Tuyet, the wife of Major Dang Ngoc Manh - Head of Radar, Radar Station 610. Both of them are originally from Quynh Luu (Nghe An), met, fell in love with each other and became husband and wife. She said: “When I first got married, I was still in my hometown, he was working here, we only saw each other for a few days each year. When the second child was 2 years old, we decided to bring our child to Tho Chu to stabilize our lives. When we first came, we were very sad, lacking many things, and far from our families, but we still told each other to try our best. And yet, we have been attached to Tho Chu for more than 11 years now.”
This year is the ninth year that the couple celebrates Tet on the island. “Tet here is not much different from the mainland, there are peach blossoms, kumquat trees, and especially there are brothers and comrades from the unit gathering together, so every Tet is as warm as at home,” Tuyet shared.
Those are the thoughts of Ms. Ha Thi Oanh (Vice Principal of Tho Chau Primary and Secondary School, Tho Chau Commune, Phu Quoc District, Kien Giang Province) - who has been attached to Tho Chu Island for nearly 30 years. She is the wife of Lieutenant Colonel Bui Anh Dung, currently working at Radar Station 610. Both husband and wife are originally from Vinh Bao, Hai Phong. In 1992, he received an order to transfer to Tho Chu Island, and in 1995, Ms. Oanh also packed her bags and followed her husband to the island.
“What will we do when we get to the island?” – she still remembers the worries when her husband proposed that the whole family move to Tho Chu to settle down. At that time, the young wife still could not imagine where Tho Chu island was, what she would do there to build a family. She only knew about Tho Chu through her husband’s stories, about her brothers and comrades in the unit. However, the belief and hope in the land with that familiar name brought her to the island, becoming the first people to build a home here.
“At that time, Tho Chu was still very sparsely populated, with only a few dozen households, one teacher and two classrooms on the island. At that time, I had just graduated from high school, and I studied and worked until 2005 when I graduated from the University of Education. The more I worked in the profession, the more I loved and appreciated the children in Tho Chu. They were innocent, carefree and pure. There was always hope in their eyes, giving teachers like me more faith and motivation to stick with this beautiful island.”
Not only Ms. Oanh and Ms. Tuyet, on Tho Chu island there are also many wives who follow their husbands to the island to build families. Some stay home to raise livestock, do housework, others do business. Ms. Ha Thi Oanh shared: “The sisters in the Radar Station 610 family are very united and love each other. During holidays, Tet or special occasions, we are each other's spiritual support, supporting and helping each other like family. Here we have family and friends, so to me, Tho Chu is home.”
According to Captain Tran Huu Toan - Political Commissar of Radar Station 610, thanks to the solid rear, the officers and soldiers of the station are always assured in their work, have a good understanding of their tasks, have a high determination, strictly follow military discipline, state laws as well as the regulations of the unit. On this occasion of Tet, the entire station thoroughly grasped and organized the implementation of training tasks and combat readiness. The officers and soldiers working at the unit, although coming from different hometowns, always consider each other as a family. And you, the solid rear, are the belief and motivation that helps the officers and soldiers at the station feel secure in their work and successfully complete their assigned tasks.
