Telling the story of heroic My Thuy

1. Nearly half a century has passed, but I, then a ten-year-old child, still cannot forget that afternoon, when several hamlets in my hometown Da Le Thuong village, including Ray hamlet, Chua hamlet, Cho hamlet and even Thuong Lam hamlet, were shaken by the sounds of gunfire. That was an event that was later recorded in local history. On March 14, 1975, comrade Vu Thang, member of the Regional Party Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, along with comrade Nguyen Thanh Giai, a leading cadre of the province and other local leaders, unexpectedly came to stay at the secret bunker of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Gai's house to directly command the fight against the enemy. Because they were discovered, the enemy entered the village and surrounded Mrs. Gai's house. To rescue them, Commune Team Leader Nguyen Van Chu bravely jumped onto the roof beam of Mr. Khuon's house next door, threw a grenade and killed the commander and some soldiers, and heroically sacrificed himself. Thanks to the protection of the people, comrade Vu Thang was rescued and returned to base safely. As for comrade Chu, the enemy brought his body to Highway 1A.

For decades, the image of the body of a local communist soldier left exposed by the enemy for several days in the cold and rainy weather of the first days of 1975 is still vividly imprinted in my mind. Mr. Chu fell when there were only 10 days left before the liberation of his homeland and was one of the 7 heroes of my hometown Thuy Phuong commune, also known as My Thuy. Coming out of the war with the proud name My Thuy, Thuy Phuong commune (now a ward of Huong Thuy town) was one of the first communes in Thua Thien Hue province to be awarded the title of Hero of the Armed Forces (December 20, 1969). Through 2 resistance wars, this land had 514 martyrs, 215 wounded soldiers and 1,765 families with contributions to the revolution - impressive and proud numbers!

2. In the 1945 general uprising to seize power, Thuy Phuong was known as a place with a seething revolutionary movement and a revolutionary government was soon established. After the August Revolution of 1945, two communes, Da Le Thuy and Lam Thuy, were born here and these two communes performed well in their local revolutionary tasks. The French colonialists returned to invade, due to the need to concentrate forces to have unified leadership, the two communes of Da Le Thuy and Lam Thuy were merged into My Thuy commune. It was not until 10 years later that the name Thuy Phuong appeared (given by the old government) and exists until today.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to access a research work called “Fighting Village” by an American author, who was a soldier in the US Air Cavalry Division, once stationed in Ap Nam. In the view of this researcher, My Thuy is understood as a village and explained in a word-splitting way, that “My” means beautiful and “Thuy” means water, is river. My Thuy has not only one but two beautiful rivers, in the east there is Loi Nong river flowing out and in the south there is Vuc river, adjacent to Thuy Chau ward. Although there is still a bit of a one-sided view, reading the book still exudes the author’s surprise about the endurance, bravery and heroic spirit of the people in the countryside named after this beautiful river in the resistance war against the American invaders.

The time when the American author was in My Thuy was also the time when, before the victory of the local revolutionary movement, the enemy concentrated forces and means to plow the villages, forced people to establish hamlets in order to break our "fighting village" formation. The title of heroic My Thuy guerrillas was associated with many participating forces and many creative fighting methods. A typical example was the battle on June 15, 1966, taking place in broad daylight, on the road from Da Le intersection to Ap Nam, the guerrilla team led by Hero of the Armed Forces Nguyen Viet Phong suddenly attacked an enemy squad that was organizing a patrol, causing a great resonance. At one time, My Thuy - Thuy Phuong was both the front line and the rear. The front line was directly fighting the Americans, and the rear was the resting place for revolutionary forces to travel back and forth, from the western mountains and forests to the plains and vice versa.

3. Right after the liberation day, as a memorial to the heroic martyr, Thuy Phuong commune had a kindergarten named Nguyen Viet Phong. The road from Da Le intersection to Ap Nam, once glorious, is now named Da Le, with many schools and socio -economic service facilities, still being the traffic artery, connecting the center with the western land, where there is a very developed industrial and handicraft cluster of the locality. Right in the area where the battle took place close to the victory day of the past, from a small, narrow and winding village road, it has been upgraded to be spacious, airy and named after the heroic Commune Captain Nguyen Van Chu as a tribute.

In 2010, Huong Thuy town was established. From a commune, Thuy Phuong advanced to a ward with not only an expanded urban space but also an increasingly developed economic and social life and the land constantly changing. No longer on paper documents, but in the memories of the people here and in the stories of the soldiers of the past who are now "Nhan sinh 70, co lai hy", the name My Thuy is still mentioned as a nostalgia and a heroic memory, especially these historic April days when 48 years ago, the homeland was liberated and the country was intact.

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