Therefore, each unidentified martyr remains an unfilled void in the hearts of families who have waited for years. With gratitude and responsibility, the entire country is racing against time to accelerate the “500-day-and-night Campaign to boost searching, gathering, and identifying martyrs’ remains.” In Điện Biên, a land once steeped in the blood and bones of ancestors, that journey is unfolding with devotion, caution, and profound reverence.

Part 1: Beneath every soil layer lies hope

Điện Biên - a land recording the illustrious feats of the Vietnamese nation - is also where countless elite sons bravely fought and sacrificed for the independence and freedom of the Fatherland, their bodies merging into mountains and rivers. Across martyrs’ cemeteries in the province, straight rows of graves quietly remind of those heroic sons. Among them, many graves remain unidentified, leaving an unending ache, yet even as time covers each layer of soil, the hope of rediscovering their names has never faded.

Cherishing every layer of soil

To obtain a biological sample of martyrs’ remains to serve DNA testing, officers and soldiers undergo an extremely cautious excavation process. Seemingly as simple as opening headstones, exhuming remains for sampling, and restoring grave sites, beneath each grave lie difficulties differing from initial projections of the provincial Steering Board 515 and grave excavation teams, demanding meticulousness, patience, and accuracy in every action.

For over a month, Điện Biên weather has fluctuated erratically - scorching at times, pouring relentlessly at others with rain lasting for hours. Nevertheless, beneath makeshift tarpaulin roofs erected amid Độc Lập Martyrs’ Cemetery, work continues uninterrupted. This is the resting place of martyrs from the anti-French colonial resistance, mostly fallen in the 1954 Điện Biên Phủ Campaign and gathered since the late 1950s. Undergoing multiple renovations, grave structures transformed, making excavation and accessing remains for sampling far more complex than initial calculations.

Beneath thin tarpaulins, each headstone is lifted cautiously, revealing brick graves underneath reaching down to coffin locations at depths averaging 1.5 meters, with some reaching up to 2 meters. Inside a space barely fitting one standing person, a young soldier stoops to peel away each soil layer, encountering concrete slabs every few dozen centimeters that require dismantling before digging deeper. Certain graves are flooded by rain, while others feature coffins shifted from the grave center, forcing operational forces to widen excavation perimeters to identify exact remains locations without missing anything.

Major Lê Phúc Hòa from the Logistics - Technical Division under the Provincial Military Command, who directly joined the excavation and sampling team, stated that the excavation process faces numerous difficulties, requiring soldiers to dig tunnels inside graves to retrieve samples, yet with determination overcoming harsh weather, the entire team adheres strictly to guiding directives to fulfill assigned tasks excellently.

Holding 2,432 graves - including 2,042 unidentified graves - Độc Lập Martyrs’ Cemetery represents the location with the largest workload in this sampling drive. Due to grave structure characteristics, excavation time here lasts 1.5 times longer than at many other cemeteries. Despite arduous work, participating in the campaign remains a special honor for every officer and soldier, as young soldier Nguyễn Bảo Lâm shared that he feels very proud to join this gratitude campaign, striving with high determination and perseverance through intense sun or continuous drizzle to contribute his small effort so the martyrs can be called by their correct names.

Not limited to Độc Lập Martyrs’ Cemetery, every cemetery presents specific difficulties. Particularly, resistance-era martyrs’ cemeteries built decades ago underwent multiple restorations, altering grave structures, which prompts the Provincial Military Command to survey geological characteristics, construction periods, and building materials to select appropriate excavation options prior to deployment. From practical tasks, numerous initiatives were researched and applied - such as pulley systems supporting headstone lifting and stone-mortising machines serving grave restoration - contributing to reducing labor, shortening construction time, and guaranteeing safety for participating forces.

The initial puzzle pieces

Once martyrs’ remains are exhumed, each biological sample is selected cautiously to guarantee quality, cleaned, boxed, and labeled under strict workflows prior to handover to the Military Forensic Institute for DNA testing. Every action is executed meticulously because these represent the initial puzzle pieces on the journey rediscovering names for heroic martyrs, with efforts enabling Điện Biên to excavate and sample an average of roughly 50 martyrs’ remains daily.

Decades having passed, martyrs’ remains suffered impacts from time, soil, and climate, making the selection of eligible biological samples for comparison far from easy. Nguyễn Đỗ Chuẩn, a medical cadre from the Provincial Traditional Medicine and Rehabilitation Hospital directly joining the campaign, shared that certain bone samples decayed after decades and prove difficult to select, while others remain relatively sturdy with good quality, adding that cadres consistently strive to choose the best biological parts to elevate DNA testing feasibility, as every sample preserved today carries hope of correctly naming a soldier one day.

Through close, cautious coordination among forces, to date Điện Biên province has executed excavation and sampling across 6 martyrs’ cemeteries, completing Tuần Giáo commune, Tủa Chùa commune, Him Lam, and Tông Khao Martyrs’ Cemeteries, while currently deploying at Độc Lập and A1 Martyrs’ Cemeteries. As of the end of August 10, the entire province excavated 2,856 graves, with 2,670 remains eligible for sampling and DNA testing (reaching nearly 93.5%), handing over 1,822 samples to the Military Forensic Institute and 848 samples to the Provincial Forensic Center.

The 500-day-and-night Campaign deployed in Điện Biên since June 6 mobilized over 130 officers, soldiers, and forces to excavate and collect biological samples from 4,594 graves across 7 martyrs’ cemeteries. The workload is massive with high professional demands, yet for participating forces, this represents not merely a duty but a command of the heart. Senior Colonel Dương Quốc Long, Deputy Political Commissar of the provincial Military Command, stated that for cadres and soldiers, this serves as an exceptionally sacred duty and an occasion to repay the gratitude of ancestor generations who sacrificed for the Fatherland, noting that despite massive workloads, weather conditions, and operational difficulties, close attention and direction from the Military Region 2 Steering Board and the provincial Steering Board 515 drive determination to fulfill tasks prior to September 30, 2026, guaranteeing progress and sample quality for DNA testing.

Each biological sample preserved today represents a hope on the journey identifying martyrs, a journey that does not end at cemetery graves. In Điện Biên, ungathered soldiers still lie in deep forests and remote mountains, ensuring that alongside excavation and sampling at martyrs’ cemeteries, searches continue day and night, silent yet persistent and never ceasing.