In a punishing race against time and nature, these personnel have set aside their personal lives, bound by a resolve "higher than the mountains" to bring the remains of fallen heroes back to their final resting places.
Clinging to cliffs, drilling mountains to find fallen soldiers
At the break of dawn in mid-July, reporters from Sai Gon Giai Phong Newspaper joined a specialized recovery task force under the Tuyen Quang Provincial Military Command. Based in Thanh Thuy Commune, the team was embarking on a mission to search for and recover soldier remains at Hill 400 in Giang Nam Village, a fierce, highly strategic outpost during the Vi Xuyen border conflicts from 1984 to 1989 in the former part of Vi Xuyen District, Ha Giang Province. Beneath crumbling rock formations, steep precipices, dense jungle, and mountain streams, the remains of countless fallen soldiers still lie undiscovered.
As part of a nationwide "500-day-and-night campaign" aimed at accelerating the recovery and identification of fallen soldiers, dozens of officers and troops set out each morning at 5:45 a.m., splitting into small squads to trek through dense forests and scale mountains. Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Manh Tu, a combat engineer from Binh Son, Ninh Binh Province, who has dedicated years to search and recovery operations, noted that it has been nearly a month since he last visited home.
Yet for him, no duty is more sacred than bringing home the fallen elders and comrades who still lie forgotten deep within the vast, endless wilderness.
At Hill 400, nineteen officers and soldiers are constantly deployed, split into small teams to carry out the mission. The entire team was deeply moved when they recovered the first set of remains. That moment became their driving force to push through this campaign and return these fallen heroes to their families, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Manh Tu said.
Searching the terrain around Hill 400 is extraordinarily arduous, dominated by rugged limestone peaks and deep caverns. Heavy machinery cannot gain access. Officers and troops must rely on primitive hand tools, such as crowbars, trowels, machetes, and pickaxes, to break through solid rock and excavate traces of the past.
During the war, Vi Xuyen was a brutal front line where artillery and mortar fire rained down incessantly. When soldiers fell, they were often laid to rest hastily in rock crevices or under tree roots, said Senior Lieutenant Colonel Bui Phu Vinh, Political Officer of the search team. Compounded by decades of environmental shifts and changing terrain, pinpointing the exact resting places of our fallen soldiers has become exceptionally difficult, he added.
Not far away lies Hill 685, one of the most violent battlegrounds of the northern border defense campaign between 1984 and 1989. Tens of thousands of enemy artillery shells rained down, leveling trenches and burying countless officers and troops. The relentless bombardment ground the mountainside into a pale, chalky dust, leading Vietnamese soldiers to name Hill 685 the "Century Lime Kiln."
The terrain is dominated by jagged cat-ear limestone and sheer cliffs, with ropes and wooden ladders installed along the ascents and descents. Witnessing the search for fallen soldiers at this height firsthand reveals the extraordinary resolve of the recovery team's officers and personnel.
Since the campaign launched, 15 to 20 personnel have been permanently deployed at Hill 685, working in small squads of four or five. The workload is daunting: clearing pathways through dense brush, squeezing into deep caverns, and scaling towering cliffs to probe every rocky crevice in search of vital traces. Beneath these rock formations, searchers painstakingly lift each slab, gently scoop through layers of soil, and preserve every fragment of history they uncover.
These may be coils of communication wire, military-issued steel bowls, fragments of decayed rubber sandal soles, or weathered and crumbling plastic sheets. Yet each item may still hold valuable clues about the soldiers who once fought there.
According to veterans who fought on this hilltop, enemy artillery once brought down several caves that had served as field kitchens and makeshift shelters for wounded soldiers. Each cave typically accommodated between 30 and 50 troops. Today, however, the area has become a massive collapsed rock face, with decades of weathering erasing much of the original battlefield evidence.
Over the past several months, the search team has focused on drilling through and clearing away the rock in an effort to reopen access to the caves. After days of painstaking drilling and excavation, they recovered numerous personal belongings believed to have belonged to the fallen soldiers.
Pausing briefly to rest after operating the drill, Major Vu Van Dong, who has been a member of the search team since 2018, said that every day, regardless of the hour, the team begins drilling as soon as they reach the site.
"Everyone hopes to find the remains of the fallen. There is no greater motivation than bringing our comrades home to their families and hometowns. That is why the search team keeps working day after day without pause," Major Vu Van Dong said.
The unceasing journey of the K Teams
Taking advantage of a rare break at the site where the remains of fallen soldiers are being searched for and recovered at Le Thi Rieng Park in Ho Chi Minh City, reporters from Sai Gon Giai Phong Newspaper had the opportunity to speak with Lieutenant Colonel Tran Van Cuong, Political Commissar of Team K73 under the Tay Ninh Provincial Military Command. He and fellow soldiers from Teams K70, K71, K72 and K73 were deployed by the Military Region 7 Command to reinforce the recovery mission at the site.
Lieutenant Colonel Tran Van Cuong and his comrades have spent many years carrying out this sacred mission in neighboring Cambodia, where they operated across four provinces. Their most recent search mission lasted three months. Upon completing the operation, they returned to Vietnam without delay to take up their new assignment at Le Thi Rieng Park.
According to Lieutenant Colonel Tran Van Cuong, once soldiers commit themselves to this sacred mission, members of the K Teams maintain an unwavering sense of urgency, knowing that the remains of their fallen soldiers still lie beneath the cold earth, waiting to be brought home.
Working conditions in Ho Chi Minh City are far more favorable than the grueling months the teams spent enduring the elements in the dense forests of Cambodia. Yet, according to Lieutenant Colonel Tran Van Cuong, what has never changed is the unwavering dedication, resilience and sense of duty displayed by the officers and soldiers assigned to the mission.
The moment the first personal belongings emerged from beneath the layers of earth at Le Thi Rieng Park, the entire team fell silent with emotion.
They were only shirt buttons, fragments of ponchos and hammocks, and other timeworn keepsakes left behind by young men who made the ultimate sacrifice in the prime of their lives.
"Whenever we uncover the remains of fallen soldiers, along with their personal belongings or unfinished letters, the emotion is beyond words. We constantly remind one another to remove the soil with the utmost care, slowly, cautiously and meticulously. We want to handle them as gently as possible so that our comrades do not have to endure any more pain," Lieutenant Colonel Tran Van Cuong said.
As twilight gently settles over Le Thi Rieng Park, the city lights begin to glitter. Besides the excavation site, Lieutenant Colonel Tran Van Cuong and the troops of Team K work untiringly on their sacred mission. They remain uncertain of when they will finally return home; beyond Le Thi Rieng Park, new search operations for fallen soldiers already await them.
According to data from the recovery team under the Tuyen Quang Provincial Military Command, since the campaign’s launch, the unit has received 49 leads regarding fallen soldiers and burial sites. Following rigors screening and verification, 41 leads were investigated on the ground, seven of which have been confirmed accurate.
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