Afternoon in Truong Son, light a stick of incense…

We returned to Truong Son via Quang Binh (now Quang Tri), where the Truong Son road split into two branches, East and West, and where the American invaders bombarded day and night during the years of war. Quang Binh was previously considered the direct rear of the southern battlefield, the meeting place of thousands of young men and women in their eighteens and twenties who said goodbye to their homeland, teachers, and friends to set off. And many of them stayed in Truong Son forever...

In July, thousands of people returned to Truong Son, including many veterans, to remember their 20 years of battle and to remember their comrades who still lie somewhere in the sacred red addresses in Truong Son: Khe Ve bridge, La Trong, A-shaped tunnel, Xuan Son ferry, Tam Co cave, Len Ha cave, Dong Tien, Tra Ang, Ca Roong, Cha La, ATP with A-shaped tunnel, Ta Le tunnel, Pu-La-Nhich pass...

Lighting incense at the Truong Son Martyrs' Memorial Temple in Ca Roong - ATP (now in Thuong Trach commune, Quang Tri province), many people were moved. This is the place where the souls of martyrs at the Ca Roong - ATP key point gather, where revolutionary traditions are educated for the younger generation; a place where people from all over the country have the opportunity to travel on the historic Truong Son road to visit and light incense to commemorate the soldiers who fell for the cause of protecting the independence and freedom of the Fatherland.

Female youth volunteer liaison and Truong Son soldiers during the war years. - Documentary photo

In many diaries and memoirs of those who once fought in the war, there are pages full of nostalgia about the Truong Son roads: “The first night on the Truong Son road, hearing the terrifying sound of bombs and bullets, we could not sleep. The first time away from home, fighting the Americans, partly because we missed home, missed our close friends, partly because the sound of bombs and bullets echoed through the mountains and forests. Many people think that the day to return to visit their homeland may come, may not. So we are restless, tears flowing down…”. Wandering on the Truong Son road today, we truly bow in admiration; with only their hands, shoulder poles, rakes, and shovels, generations of soldiers and youth volunteers (TNXP) have created the Truong Son road, thousands of kilometers long, winding through the jungle under the bombs and bullets of war.

In 1959 (when the Ho Chi Minh Trail was newly formed), with the main method of carrying on foot, Group 559 could only transport 32 tons of weapons to Zone 5. By the time of preparing for the General Offensive and Uprising in Spring 1975, the amount of goods delivered to the battlefields was more than 410,000 tons. The Truong Son troops, from a small unit at first, had grown rapidly, including all forces: engineering, transportation (automobiles, waterways, pipelines), air defense - air force, infantry, liaison, information, chemistry, Youth Volunteers, frontline workers... truly becoming a comprehensive battlefield, coordinating military operations on a large scale, meeting the requirements of the mission of supporting the battlefields. With the spirit of "Living on the road, dying steadfastly and bravely", "Blood can be shed, the road cannot be blocked", the Truong Son troops and frontline workers ensured smooth traffic in all situations.

“Splitting Truong Son to save the country”, the land of ancient Quang Binh (now Quang Tri) is a place that left many tragic memories for soldiers, the Youth Volunteers on the way to battle. The sacrifice of the Youth Volunteers martyrs in Tam Co cave can be said to be one of the most tragic events of the Youth Volunteers force during the years of fighting the Americans. On November 14, 1972, a female Youth Volunteers team was building Road 20 Quyet Thang (a road in Truong Son) for vehicles to enter the front line when American planes came and dropped bombs. The female Youth Volunteers of Company C217, Construction Department 67, Group 559 had to run into a cave to avoid the bombs. Suddenly, a bomb fell down, causing the rocks to collapse and block the cave entrance. After the enemy's bombardment, their comrades went to find and heard the cries for help of the Youth Volunteers in the cave, but did not know how to rescue them from the cave. Many soldiers used bamboo tubes to penetrate the cave and pour thin porridge and milk into their comrades... After nearly 9 days like that, the cries for help in the cave gradually weakened and became less frequent, and finally, their comrades could only hear the heartbreaking call of "mother", and then everything fell silent in the middle of the Truong Son forest. 8 female Youth Volunteers sacrificed their lives, the oldest was only 37 years old at that time, the rest were all between 18 and 20 years old. It was not until 1996, when a road was built here, that the remains of the martyrs were found and taken out of the cave to be brought back to the Motherland.

Local officials and people offer flowers and incense at the Memorial Temple of Truong Son Martyrs.

And here, Len Ha cave is still a red address reminding generations of gratitude for the heroic sacrifice of 13 information soldiers on a sunny summer afternoon in 1971. Len Ha cave, where the A69 base station is located, is located in the old forest in the middle of the Truong Son range. Len Ha is about 150 m high, halfway up the mountain there is a stone cave about 420 m² wide that was converted by the soldiers of the station into a place to place telephone equipment, under the mountain is a dense forest that is easy to camouflage, where a resting and living area for the officers and soldiers of the A69 base station was built. The enemy bombed day and night, but the young men and women remained brave and calm, creating a seamless information network from the rear to the front line. On July 2, 1972, while the soldiers of the A69 base station were on duty, enemy planes suddenly arrived and fired smoke cannons into the station's dining room to provide guidance; Less than 5 minutes later, 2 B-52 planes came to drop bombs and destroy the area, the whole station was on fire. Bombs and bullets took away the youth of 13 soldiers at the station, including 10 female soldiers and most of them were very young, some had just turned 16 or 17...

We went to Len Ha cave, lit an incense stick and watched the smoke drift in the afternoon of spirituality and nostalgia. 13 incense bowls lay next to each other, the smoke drifted in the distant afternoon, my hand fondling each name of the 13 soldiers who sacrificed here, I thought of the soldiers, the Youth Volunteers who sacrificed in Tam Co cave, Truong Bon, Dong Loc intersection and many other places... The immortal deaths of you guys, the girls on the legendary Truong Son make the sacred air of Vietnam's land and sky last forever.

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/xa-hoi/202507/chieu-truong-son-thap-nen-tam-huong-5360c8d/