The wounded soldier with pages about war

In August 1966, when he was just 18 years old, Dang Sy Ngoc, a young man from Vu Quang commune, Ha Tinh province (currently residing in Truong Vinh ward, Nghe An province) wrote an application to join the army. After three months of training, he was assigned to the Cuu Long Regiment, Division 324, and fought with his unit on the Quang Tri battlefield.

War invalid Dang Sy Ngoc (left).

He was wounded a total of seven times, the most serious of which was on February 20, 1972, when attacking Quang Tri Citadel . Along with an 81% disability, he was completely deaf.

As a 1/4-class disabled veteran, he received monthly subsidies from the State, but seeing his wife and children struggling, he actively participated in labor. The job of a motorbike taxi driver brought him a certain income. At the end of each day, he gave part of the money he earned to his wife and kept a small amount to put in a savings tube. He split the tube twice a year, and used all the money he earned to help people less fortunate than himself; buying books and clothes for poor families in Nghe An province (where he lives) and occasionally sending it back to his hometown of Vu Quang ( Ha Tinh ).

In early 2000, with his savings, he set out to find his comrades’ graves. His legs were limping, and he had to use crutches when the weather changed, but he still traveled to many places from north to south. After more than 20 years, Mr. Ngoc has now found a total of six comrades’ graves and brought them back to their families.

During his days on the battlefield, whenever he put down his gun, Mr. Ngoc would pick up a pen and write a diary, recording everything that was happening around him. After leaving the battlefield, he wrote 19 volumes of diaries. Those diary pages were compiled and published into the book “Blue Sky Without Borders” (over 300 pages), published in 2006, in the bookshelf “Forever 20”.

Since then, he has been a regular contributor to Nghe An newspaper, Military Zone 4 newspaper and several other newspapers. After that, Dang Sy Ngoc continued to publish several more books such as: Raising children in the subsidy period, A time of fire and flowers, Soldier's heart, With comrades and homeland...

On the occasion of the 78th anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs Day, Dang Sy Ngoc "introduced" the book "The Fatherland in the Heart of Soldiers". With a capacity of more than 200 pages, a simple writing style, stories about comrades, about doctors and nurses who have been with the author through the rain of bombs and bullets are told truthfully. Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Quoc Toan, Head of the forum "The Heart of Soldiers" commented: "Dang Sy Ngoc wrote with all his heart. Through each page of the book, readers see the years of hardship, bloodshed, sacrifice but also full of optimism of the previous generation".

Mr. Ngoc said that for the past 10 years, he has not only used his savings to return to the old battlefield, visit his comrades, help his family in difficulty, but also saved money to publish books.

THANH DUNG

Source: https://nhandan.vn/nguoi-thuong-binh-voi-nhung-trang-viet-ve-chien-tranh-post893508.html