On July 12, Tan Ninh commune, Thanh Hoa province organized a ceremony to receive, commemorate and bury the remains of martyr Le Dong Coi - who sacrificed himself in the Southern battlefield more than 50 years ago.
Attending the memorial service were representatives of local leaders, the Liaison Committee of Veterans of Regiment 1, Military Region 9, comrades, relatives of martyrs and a large number of local people.
Martyr Le Dong Coi was born in 1952, from Tan Ninh commune, Trieu Son district, Thanh Hoa province, now Tan Ninh commune, Thanh Hoa province. In December 1970, he volunteered to enlist in the army.
On July 20, 1973, in a fierce battle in the Southern battlefield, martyr Le Dong Coi heroically sacrificed himself. After that, the martyr's remains were buried at Nga Bay - Phung Hiep Martyrs' Cemetery, now belonging to Dai Thanh ward, Can Tho city.
For more than half a century, the family and relatives of the martyr have always made efforts to search, hoping to identify the grave to bring his remains back to his homeland.
Recently, through the program of collecting DNA samples from relatives of unidentified martyrs, with the support of the Liaison Committee of Veterans of Regiment 1, Military Region 9 and functional agencies, the identity of martyr Le Dong Coi's remains has been accurately identified.
Martyr Le Dong Coi is one of 8 martyrs from Thanh Hoa who have been identified by DNA testing up to the present time.
According to Thanh Hoa Provincial Police, to date, the whole province has completed the collection of 37,808 DNA samples of relatives of martyrs. Thanh Hoa is currently the locality with the largest number of DNA samples of relatives of martyrs collected in the country.
