On the afternoon of July 9, the Steering Committee for searching, repatriating and identifying martyrs' remains in Ho Chi Minh City (Steering Committee 515 of Ho Chi Minh City) received many dossiers, war memorabilia and valuable documents from the research group of the Project Initiative for Searching for Vietnamese People Missing in War (VWAI) of Texas Tech University (USA).
This handover includes dossiers of 3 martyr memorabilia, dossiers indicating the burial diagram of 21 martyrs at K76A Hospital and dossiers decoding the code name of unit 962 - related to artifacts discovered at Le Thi Rieng Park.
All documents are collected, summarized and researched by the VWAI research group to supplement data sources for comparison of records, verification of witnesses, field surveys and step-by-step identification of burial locations of martyrs with missing information.
Associate Professor, Dr. Alex Vo Dinh Thai - Co-director of the VWAI Project in Vietnam - said that Texas Tech University is currently storing more than 2.7 million pages of documents collected from the battlefield and continues to exploit about 30 million pages of documents from the US National Archives Center and many other sources.
A team of about 40 experts is working in Vietnam to research, analyze and build products to serve the search work.
Mr. Alex Vo Dinh Thai said that the process of searching for missing people in the war includes four main stages: historical research, on-site search, repatriation of remains and identification by DNA combined with historical documents.
According to Mr. Thai, Texas Tech has strengths in two stages: historical research and identification, while Vietnamese agencies effectively undertake field surveys and repatriation of remains. The two sides will continue to cooperate in the long term to improve the search efficiency.
Meanwhile, Lawyer Ta Thu Phong - representative of the VWAI Project in Vietnam - said that the group is focusing on studying documents related to the Tan Son Nhat airport area.
To date, the project has collected more than 10 photos and 4 video clips of the US military recording images of soldier bodies gathered in an area, and also has a diagram of the airport structure at the time of the war. These are considered important data with high feasibility for zoning and deploying searches in the near future.
Speaking at the reception, Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong - Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee - emphasized that each page of documents, each photo or artifact, even the smallest, is a priceless "material" for the journey to find martyrs.
Mr. Cuong said that information about K76A Hospital, unit 962, Battalion 1 Long An and dossiers of martyrs will contribute to clarifying and consolidating the results of the search and repatriation process.
According to Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong, the Ho Chi Minh City Command will receive, manage and effectively exploit the donated documents to serve the work of identifying and repatriating martyrs' remains.
In the coming time, Ho Chi Minh City will focus on researching and decoding information at key locations such as Tan Son Nhat airport, Co May intersection, Bong Trang - Nha Do and many other areas, with the expectation of gradually clarifying unfinished historical records and bringing martyrs back to their families.
In recent days, functional forces have found 11 sets of martyrs' remains at Le Thi Rieng Park. From July 9, the search and repatriation scope has continued to be expanded.
At the same time, the Ho Chi Minh City Command called on witnesses and relatives of martyrs to provide information about the two mass graves of soldiers who sacrificed in the Tan Son Nhat airport battle during Tet Mau Than 1968, serving the search and repatriation of remains.
