Severely injured, thought to have sacrificed on the battlefield
On the occasion of the 79th anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs' Day (July 27, 1947 - July 27, 2026), I went to the house of veteran Le Van Cho (77 years old) in Thanh Sen ward, Ha Tinh province. At an age of rarity, Mr. Cho is still healthy and quite agile.
Mr. Cho recounted that in December 1966, when he was nearly 18 years old, he left his hometown of Thach My commune, Thach Ha district (old), Ha Tinh province to enlist in the army. After 6 months of studying special forces reconnaissance, from September 1967, he was assigned to be a reconnaissance officer of Regiment 812, Division 324, fighting in the Tri Thien battlefield.
Having gone through many fierce battles, he and his comrades destroyed many enemy forces, but there were also many heroic comrades who sacrificed, making him always painful and choked up.
That made him even more angry, and more determined to fight with the survivors to the last breath to defeat the enemy.
Recalling the fiercest battle, Mr. Cho recounted that in early May 1970, in response to the call of the front, battlefields all tried to emulate to fight the Americans to celebrate Uncle Ho's birthday.
On the night of May 18, Company 20 special forces and Company 2 of Battalion 4 led by Vo Mai Phong received orders to raid and destroy Battalion 3, Regiment 54 of the puppet regime on Chiem Dong cave in the west of Hai Lang (height 440).
In this battle, Mr. Cho was assigned to command the main force leading troops to penetrate deeply to attack the enemy's headquarters and information center. The battle was fierce, the enemy fired bullets like rain, Mr. Cho was slightly injured in the hand but still determined to rush forward to destroy the enemy.
Successive volleys of enemy fired, Mr. Cho continued to be seriously injured when the bullet pierced his abdomen, was bandaged temporarily by his comrades and then taken to the field ambulance station behind the battlefield for treatment.
After waking up, I was told by my comrades that in that battle, Battalion 4 had 9 people sacrificed. I was seriously injured but luckily survived," Mr. Cho recounted.
After being seriously injured in the fierce battle mentioned above, Mr. Cho was sent back to the rear for treatment. In 1971, when he recovered, he was transferred to work as a special forces assistant to the Ha Tinh Provincial Military Command.
After that, he was transferred to be the Company Commander of a youth volunteer unit, participating in defusing delayed-action bombs and building traffic roads on key routes along Highway 15A to Dong Loc intersection. When peace was restored, in 1976, Mr. Cho was discharged from the army and returned to his hometown.
More than 30 years of tirelessly searching for comrades
After being discharged from the army, with the bravery of a brave veteran, regardless of difficulties and hardships, in 1993, Mr. Cho established the 27th of July Cooperative. The cooperative's good business has created jobs for many veterans and former youth volunteers in the locality.
When his family's economic life temporarily stabilized, from 1995, veteran Le Van Cho had the opportunity to start his journey to find comrades, find the remains of martyrs in the old battlefield that he had long pondered and worried about.
Before each trip, Mr. Cho contacted veterans in the liaison committee, and at the same time grasped information from relatives of martyrs to compare, when he saw that there was a lot of matching information, his group set off to search.
Thanks to that, in many search trips, there were unexpected results, making everyone burst into emotion, happy to tears.
For more than 30 years with many times climbing mountains and wading streams, arduous and hard, but many trips were unsuccessful. However, we always tell ourselves not to be discouraged," veteran Le Van Cho confided.
According to Mr. Cho, a few days ago, he and his comrades in the liaison committee had a trip to A Luoi (Hue City). The trip was to survey the field because there was information that many soldiers had sacrificed here but their remains and graves had not been found.
As for my health, I will continue to participate in supporting the search for comrades, searching for martyrs' remains. Because the result of a successful search not only brings joy to the relatives and families of the sacrificed comrades but also brings joy to myself," Mr. Cho shared.
The 77-year-old veteran said that he is very happy that the Party and State always pay attention to the search and repatriation of martyrs' remains, especially now that they are implementing a 500-day and night campaign to search, repatriate and identify martyrs' remains.
He believes that this campaign will achieve outstanding results, bringing great joy to thousands and tens of thousands of families across the country.
