Colonel Pham Van Hoa (left cover) with the author

The incident happened nearly 55 years ago. For him, the image of that young soldier still lives on. Colonel Pham Van Hoa recalls:

At that time, I was a cadre of the C15 Special Forces Company. Our unit was ordered to cross the 17th parallel, across the Ben Hai River to the B5 front to coordinate with the 33rd Special Forces Battalion to attack the American-puppet forces stationed along the entire southern line of the 17th parallel, from the bases of Khe Sanh, Dau Mau, Dong Lam, Cu Lo base, Con Tien, Doc Mieu, Hill 31 to the base of village 8, Cua Viet military port...

In early February 1969, our unit was ordered to join the C270 Special Forces Company (under the old Vinh Linh Military Region) to destroy "village 8". The unit I was in charge of was tasked with "secret attacks": From the sea, secretly sneaking through the protective fences to attack bunkers, destroying enemy tanks in the southeast and other targets, to coordinate with the remaining 3 units. When our unit penetrated about 30m from "village 8", we heard explosions and flashes of lightning from the base. I was startled: Why were the other units opening fire before G-hour? Or were the other 3 units exposed and had already attacked while we had not yet entered? I decided to let the formation stay, called the 2 team leaders to discuss and decided to switch to plan 2, which was to attack with "intense attacks" (because the "secret attack" factor had been exposed).

Accordingly, some comrades clung tightly to the fence as a support, the rest jumped on their backs and shoulders, crossed the layers of fence to capture the assigned targets. But when approaching the fence, we discovered that it was the flash of the enemy tank turret cannon firing towards the north and northwest, not the flash of explosives. Perhaps the other two directions were exposed, so the enemy concentrated their firepower on that direction. As for my direction, although I had penetrated quite deep into the back of the base, I had not been exposed yet, so I could still secretly turn back to attack according to plan 1, which was to attack in a "secret attack" to create surprise.

But when we returned, a comrade accidentally touched a flash mine. Immediately, a flash of lightning appeared, the mine exploded, illuminating a corner of the sky, clearly showing every tree root and blade of grass. A "white" area appeared under the ghostly green light of the flash mines. Almost immediately, the enemy turned their firepower towards us like a hail of bullets. Next, they called in artillery from Cua Viet beach to fire continuously, in the sky, planes circled and dropped bombs like rain into the middle of the formation. Many comrades and I were wounded. I encouraged the brothers to try to help each other bandage their wounds, when the bombing stopped, we would cross the "white field" together. I looked at my watch: it was past 3 o'clock, almost dawn. We couldn't hesitate any longer. If we were stuck here, when dawn came, the whole team would be sacrificed. I ordered the brothers to quickly cross under the enemy's fire. The whole formation quickly moved to cross the "white field", fortunately no one was injured. But when we reached the poplar field, a UH13 plane suddenly flew over our heads. I only had time to shout: "Everyone lie down!", then suddenly I was pushed very hard and someone pressed on me, at the same time a series of rockets from the plane were launched right in the middle of the formation. My ears were ringing, the smell of bomb powder was pungent, but I still recognized the person pressing on me was Quyet, the unit's nurse, from Cu Nam commune, Bo Trach, Quang Binh , the youngest person in the team.

When he used his body to cover me, Quyet was hit by many rocket fragments and was seriously injured. Quyet whispered: "Chief and the brothers, withdraw from here immediately, leave me here. If the sky doesn't light up, everyone will die!". Seeing me hesitate, he said: "Chief and everyone leave immediately. I give you orders!". I thought: "Don't leave your comrades here, at all costs, get Quyet out of here". Because the wound was too severe, we didn't have enough strength to hold on to the shoulder of the person carrying us, so we had to use camouflage scarves to tie Quyet's hands together and put them around his neck to take turns carrying Quyet and crawling under the rain of bombs and bullets. And Quyet breathed his last on my shoulder when he was not yet 19 years old.

When we got out of the fence, it was just dawn. In the sky, enemy L19 planes began to circle the island looking for the Viet Cong. Unable to continue, we had to temporarily hide Quyet under an old poplar tree and find artillery bunkers to hide in, waiting for dark to bring Quyet out. That day, we went hungry all day, drinking water from bomb craters that still smelled of gunpowder to quench our thirst. At night, we went back to look for Quyet, but the terrain had changed due to the previous day's bombing and the early-month fog was too thick, so we groped all night but still could not find Quyet. Near dawn, we had to retreat to the old bunker to avoid enemy planes and go hungry for another day. The next afternoon, I decided to leave before dark, following the uprooted poplar trees, scorched by bombs and bullets to find and bring Quyet to the north bank and, together with the people of Vinh Tan commune, Vinh Linh district, Quang Tri province, held a memorial service and buried Quyet on the banks of the historic Hien Luong river...

(Recorded according to Colonel Pham Van Hoa's story)

Nguyen Van Hung