They did not return from battle, but the Fatherland has never ceased searching with the desire to return their names to them. That hope continues to kindle as the whole country deploys the 500-Day-and-Night Campaign to search for, gather, and identify martyrs’ remains using scientific methods through DNA testing.

The journey to reclaim names for martyrs cannot achieve desired results without connection and gratitude to the heroic martyrs who sacrificed for the Fatherland. That journey is being carried out with responsibility, gratitude, and appreciation for those who fell for national independence and unification, enabling today’s generation to live in peace and freedom. For the Vietnamese nation, which has endured numerous resistance wars, the sacrifices of soldiers are never forgotten.

Deployed nationwide from March 15, 2026, to July 27, 2027, the 500-Day-and-Night Campaign focuses on three main task groups: reviewing and standardizing data, stepping up search and collection, and accelerating DNA testing. The campaign strives to search for and gather approximately 7,000 martyrs’ remains, collect and store DNA samples for 230,000 to 250,000 graves with unidentified information, and perform DNA testing on about 18,000 samples of martyrs’ remains to verify identity.

From DNA test results, functional agencies cross-reference them with biological samples from martyrs’ relatives to confirm identities, contributing to returning names to heroic martyrs who courageously sacrificed for national liberation, construction, and defense, while fulfilling noble international duties to meet the aspirations of martyrs’ families. With deep humanistic significance, the campaign stands as an “order from the heart,” reflecting the nation’s tradition of “When drinking water, remember its source,” helping return names to martyrs and bringing them home to their native land and families.

For a land that experienced the Điện Biên Phủ Campaign over 72 years ago, searching for, exhuming, and identifying martyrs’ remains in Điện Biên is by no means easy. Driven by responsibility and gratitude, officers and soldiers participating in the 500-day-and-night campaign could not help but feel moved and choked up before the sacrifices of previous generations who still remain unidentified and have not returned to their hometowns and families. Under the spirit of “gratitude requires dedicated effort,” functional forces overcame hardships with determination to bring them back to beloved mother earth.

Điện Biên deployed the 500-day-and-night campaign starting June 6, 2026, striving to complete it by December 22, 2026. The Steering Committee for Searching and Identifying Martyrs’ Information of Điện Biên province aims to collect samples from 4,594 unidentified graves across seven martyrs’ cemeteries in the province. Deploying the campaign right in the rainy season poses numerous difficulties and obstacles for sampling work. Many graves must be dug deep, making off-center alignment easy. Bone decay over the years leaves many graves unqualified for sample extraction to cross-match, with some graves containing only a handful of brown soil.

Overcoming obstacles, by July 15, Điện Biên province exhumed 1,940 graves across four martyrs’ cemeteries: Tuần Giáo, Tủa Chùa, Him Lam, and Tông Khao. Functional forces searching for, gathering, and identifying martyrs’ remains in Điện Biên province extracted 1,822 samples to hand over to the Military Institute of Forensic Medicine, while 118 remains were unqualified for sampling. In the coming time, the provincial steering committee will continue coordinating closely with specialized agencies to accelerate sampling progress at Độc Lập and A1 martyrs’ cemeteries, while collecting DNA samples from martyrs’ relatives to fulfill campaign goals on schedule.

After 118 days of deploying the 500-day-and-night campaign, by July 10, the entire country searched for and gathered 1,317 martyrs’ remains (293 domestically, 174 in Laos, and 850 in Cambodia), alongside five collective martyrs’ graves in Tuyên Quang and one collective martyrs’ grave area at Lê Thị Riêng Park in Hồ Chí Minh City. The entire political system engaged with 32 search and collection teams, including 13 domestic teams and 19 overseas teams (8 in Laos and 11 in Cambodia). Concurrently with extracting samples from martyrs’ remains, sampling from martyrs’ relatives is conducted for analysis and cross-matching to verify identities.

Difficulties remain substantial because the country endured multiple wars, time has gradually elapsed, and spatial distances separate them, yet the 500-day-and-night campaign has strongly awakened the spirit of “When drinking water, remember its source” and educated generations today on the blood sacrifices of heroic martyrs for a peaceful, independent nation. DNA testing technology kindles hope to return names to heroic martyrs without relying solely on witness memories.

The 500-day-and-night campaign serves not only as an important political task, but also as an order from the heart and a sacred responsibility of the entire political system and citizens nationwide on the journey to bring heroic martyrs back to mother earth. The nation, the people, and families constantly await to welcome them back to beloved mother earth.