On July 18, Steering Committee 515 of Dong Nai city, Team K72 is searching for witnesses who are veterans, historical witnesses, people who have related information who participated in combat, served in combat or treated and buried soldiers at the Minh Duc commune front in the period 1968 - 1975; relatives and comrades of martyrs who have information about martyrs named "Tien Quy" (or martyrs whose keepsake is a pen engraved with the name Tien Quy) who sacrificed on the Southeast battlefield; as well as local people in Dong Nai and across the country who know information related to trenches, fortifications or old burial locations in the rubber forest area, low hills of Minh Duc commune.
According to information from the Military Command of Dong Nai city, from the 500-day and night campaign to promote the search, repatriation and identification of martyrs' remains, Team K72 discovered 2 locations with artifacts and remains of martyrs in Minh Duc commune.
From initial information from the people, Team K72 urgently mobilized manpower and machinery to survey and expand the search area to hundreds of square meters.
At the scene, functional forces cordoned off 2 locations with mass graves at a depth of about 1.2m. Officers and soldiers of Team K72 found many artifacts lying deep underground including: 1 AK rifle, 6 pens (including ink pens, ballpoint pens, pencils), 2 cylinders, 4 pairs of rubber sandals and hammock pieces, belts. In particular, in this area, there is 1 ink pen still quite clearly engraved with the words "Tien Quy" and the image of a pair of doves.
However, accurately identifying all martyrs' remains requires joint efforts and information from veterans, historical witnesses, and people with relevant information. In addition, the expanded review work is facing many difficulties because after more than half a century, the tomb map has been lost, the terrain has changed deeply due to agricultural cultivation activities, making it extremely difficult to accurately determine the number and initial burial boundaries...
According to the Military Command of Dong Nai city, the memory of those who lived, fought or directly participated in the burial of wounded soldiers, martyrs, and people in Minh Duc during the anti-American resistance war is the "key" to help accurately identify all martyrs' remains.
