Major General Nguyen Thanh Trung first elaborated on preparations for the memorial, tribute, and burial ceremony for martyrs’ remains recently discovered at Le Thi Rieng Park. Functional agencies determined every single task must be meticulously prepared with profound gratitude. The core requirement is conducting the ceremony following solemn rituals, fully honoring the profound emotional debt.
The HCMC Command has taken the lead, proactively coordinating with various units to expedite preparatory work. They’ve crafted operational scripts and organized rigorous rehearsals for ceremonial staff, honor guards, and the transportation fleet conveying remains. Rehearsals were executed perfectly on schedule, showcasing absolute uniformity. Simultaneously, respective government agencies were assigned highly specific tasks ranging from burial plot preparation to guaranteeing traffic safety and medical support.
At the cemetery, graves are carefully numbered to match urn sequences and skeletal sample identification codes, aiming to facilitate crucial DNA testing. This specific phase is being carried out with pinpoint accuracy.
According to the itinerary, memorial ceremonies will kick off at 8:00 a.m. on October 14 at Le Thi Rieng Park. By 10:00 a.m. on the same day, the martyrs’ remains will be smoothly transported to the HCMC Martyrs’ Cemetery in Long Binh Ward for their final burial. Prior to this, a special artistic program named “Night of Gratitude” took place at the park at 7:00 p.m. on October 13.
Major General Nguyen Thanh Trung discussed invaluable lessons gleaned from exhumation efforts at Le Thi Rieng Park, aiming to significantly enhance future operations locating martyrs’ remains. Between June 23 and October 12, 2026, task forces successfully exhumed 731 sets of remains, with 307 containing personal artifacts. While 698 sets were uncovered individually, 33 sets were clustered within eight specific mass graves.
Alongside the skeletal remains, task forces unearthed crucial artifacts for research and verification, such as dog tags, rubber sandals, hammocks, plus ammunition magazines. Certain forensic traces and physical postures upon discovery require further intense scrutiny to help elucidate the precise circumstances surrounding these ultimate sacrifices.
The main lesson is that with unwavering determination and appropriate methodologies, it’s possible to locate the fallen heroes’ resting places, even after nearly six decades have elapsed. Strategically combining historical archives with cutting-edge science, eyewitness accounts, plus rigorous field surveys has yielded a highly effective search model.
Consequently, this provides a critical piece of field experience; lacking immediate search results doesn’t definitively mean a site is completely empty. The forces will persistently utilize blended documentary evidence, eyewitness testimonies, as well as novel technologies to conduct further forensic research.
Ever since initiating the mission at Le Thi Rieng Park, the Major General met countless eyewitnesses and listened to harrowing tales leaving him deeply tormented. Some veterans know their comrades lie buried nearby, yet they've been unable to pinpoint precise locations for years, causing lingering anguish. A vast number of remains were tragically found piled together, with several cases showing stark evidence of being bound.
Holding those personal artifacts, he can’t help but reflect upon the lost youth of these martyrs who willingly sacrificed families and personal dreams for the Fatherland. These sobering realities compel his team to operate with much greater urgency, capitalizing on every single minute to overcome logistical hurdles.
However, increased urgency demands meticulous caution across every facet of the work. Their guiding mantra remains clear: as long as there’s information, they’ll keep searching, vigorously verifying every shred of possibility to promptly bring fallen soldiers home.
Major General Nguyen Thanh Trung stated the most formidable obstacle when rolling out the “500-day-and-night Campaign” is essentially a frantic race against the clock. The war receded into the past over half a century ago; eyewitnesses are growing increasingly older, and many have tragically passed away. The topography has drastically altered, and critical documents remain scattered across myriad domestic and international locations.
If task forces don’t act decisively right now, a wealth of information won’t stand a chance of being verified in just a few short years. Therefore, the campaign strongly embodies the political resolve to mobilize total forces for the arduous task of searching, identifying, and ultimately bringing the fallen heroes back.
Behind every set of remains lies a human being and a family anxiously waiting for decades. Locating these remains, carefully verifying their identities, and bringing the martyrs back to their hometowns undeniably remains the ultimate mission and highest outcome of this campaign.
Finally, the Major General detailed HCMC’s subsequent tasks following the solemn burial ceremony. The municipality will persistently comb through areas suspected of containing graves, particularly focusing on mass burial sites.
Authorities will expand the collection of overseas records, heavily exploiting US archival documents alongside active eyewitness accounts. Any information utilized must be accurately cross-referenced and mutually corroborative before any on-site deployment occurs.
In tandem with search efforts, the city is continuously building a comprehensive DNA database of the martyrs’ relatives. Forensically examining skeletal samples and cross-matching them with familial DNA profiles allows investigators to accurately establish identities.
Major General Nguyen Thanh Trung earnestly urged all veterans and citizens holding even a tiny sliver of memory to step forward. His team will rigorously verify every piece of information, relentlessly searching as long as there’s hope and missing martyrs haven’t returned home.
“As long as there’s information, we’ll keep searching; as long as there’s even a shred of possibility, we must verify it. The relatives of these martyrs have waited for nearly 60 years, and we simply can’t force them to wait any longer just because we haven’t fulfilled our duties to the absolute fullest.”
Major General NGUYEN THANH TRUNG, Political Commissar of the HCMC Command
