Mother lives 108 years old and still can't wait for the day you return
Talking to a reporter from Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Do Dinh Ninh (85 years old, residing on Hai Ba Trung street, Sam Son ward, Thanh Hoa province) said that his family is very happy when the National Steering Committee launched the "Operation 500 days and nights to promote the search, repatriation and identification of martyrs' remains".
For his family, this campaign ignites new hope in the journey to find the graves of loved ones who sacrificed more than half a century ago.
According to Mr. Ninh, his younger brother is martyr Do Dinh Binh (born in 1951, from Xuan Truong commune, former Tho Xuan district, now Tho Xuan commune, Thanh Hoa province).
Martyr Do Dinh Binh enlisted on September 11, 1969, belonging to unit D1-K9, participating in combat on the Southern front.
In 1973, the family received a death certificate with information that martyr Do Dinh Binh died on February 19, 1972, while on his way to participate in combat.
“The day we received the death certificate, the whole family was very sad. My mother cried for many days because she missed her son. However, at that time the war was still fierce, the family had to suppress their grief and wait for the day of peace to go find the grave” - Mr. Ninh recalled.
After the country was unified, Mr. Ninh's family began the journey of inquiring and searching for information about the grave of martyr Do Dinh Binh. However, all clues gradually fell into deadlock. The family could not determine where the martyr was buried and which cemetery he belonged to.
After many decades of waiting, in 2014, hope was once again ignited when Mr. Le Ba Duong, from hamlet 1, Nga Thanh commune, former Nga Son district, Thanh Hoa province, wrote a letter to the People's Committee of former Xuan Truong commune, providing some information related to the process of martyr Binh participating in combat and sacrifice.
According to Mr. Le Ba Duong, in early 1972, he was a member of a mobile station stationed in Stung Treng province, Cambodia. At that time, a Vietnamese special forces unit marched through and sent back 3 soldiers who were seriously ill.
Among these 3 soldiers, one person was about 20 years old, very seriously ill, with high fever, coma. After 2 days of treatment without recovery, before taking his last breath, when asked what his name was, the young soldier only replied a short sentence: "Binh Xuan Truong".
After the soldier sacrificed himself, the mobile station unit carefully buried him in the cemetery area of the station. In 1975, when the mobile station was moved back to the country, the unit exhumed 7 sets of remains of martyrs, including martyr Binh, and then handed them over to unit 65, buried at a cemetery in Quang Tri province.
According to Mr. Ninh, although information has been provided by people directly involved in the burial and exhumation of his younger brother's remains, searching for many years is still extremely difficult. The reason is that the family cannot accurately determine the cemetery where the repatriation is held.
Information on the tombstone may no longer be complete. Before his sacrifice, his younger brother only had time to say one sentence "Binh Xuan Truong", so recording and storing information at that time was very difficult to be accurate.
During my lifetime, my parents always hoped that one day they would find their son's grave, take him back to his hometown, to his motherland to satisfy their wishes before they would close their eyes. But that did not come true. In 1979, my father passed away. My mother lived for more than a century to wait for her son, but could not wait either. My mother passed away in 2025, when she turned 108 years old" - Mr. Ninh said emotionally.
Hope from DNA sampling
According to Mr. Ninh, his family has a total of 3 martyrs who bravely sacrificed themselves. In addition to martyr Do Dinh Binh, his younger brother, his wife's side, Mrs. Do Thi Oanh, also has 2 younger brothers, martyr Do Viet Hung (born in 1950) and martyr Do Viet Loc (born in 1958). Both are from Xuan Truong commune, former Tho Xuan district, now Tho Xuan commune, Thanh Hoa province.
Currently, the grave of martyr Do Viet Loc has been found, and the grave of martyr Do Viet Hung is still unknown where.
Up to now, both husband and wife are old and weak, unable to travel far many times. However, the family's burning desire is that one day we can find the graves of the children, bring them back to be buried in our hometown for family and children to offer incense and express gratitude. That is also the wish of our parents when they were alive" - Mr. Ninh shared.
Also according to Mr. Ninh, after many search journeys without results, the State and functional agencies' deployment of searching and identifying martyrs' remains using DNA testing has opened up more hope for martyrs' families.
As soon as the program was implemented, the couple went to the local headquarters for functional agencies to take samples and put them into the Gene Database of relatives of unidentified martyrs, serving the work of comparing and identifying martyrs' remains later.
I hope that, with the determination and responsibility of functional agencies in the large-scale search, one day the family will receive good news, find the martyr's grave to bring the children back to their motherland, so that relatives can be expressed gratitude and burn incense regularly" - Mr. Ninh said.
