Part 3: Keeping full promise to the fallen

This is not merely an effort to return the fallen to their families and homelands, but also an ironclad pledge to safeguard peace, build an increasingly prosperous and strong homeland and country, worthy of the sacrifices that heroic martyrs left behind for posterity.

Racing against time

Dusk falls across the martyrs’ cemeteries in Điện Biên. After a day of urgent work, forces tasked with DNA sampling quickly pack up tools and meticulously restore each grave, returning tranquility and solemnity to the rows of white tombstones. Behind that serenity, a mission continues with pressing urgency.

Throughout the “500-day-and-night Campaign”, functional forces have raced against time, urgently exhuming and collecting biological specimens while maintaining absolute precision in every step. As time passes, vestiges fade and living witnesses dwindle, while behind each DNA sample lies the longing of a family that has waited for decades.

Lieutenant Colonel Đào Xuân Trường from the Political Division of the provincial Military Command shared that what weighs most heavily on him and his comrades is the enduring wait of martyrs’ relatives. Many elderly family members travel hundreds or thousands of kilometers to Điện Biên, carrying scant information and the hope of finding answers after multiple decades. “Looking at them, we recognize our responsibility even more clearly. Every grave and every DNA sample is tied to the deep longing of a family,” Lieutenant Colonel Đào Xuân Trường shared.

Time may dim physical traces, but it cannot fade the promise to bring back those who dedicated and sacrificed their lives for the independence and freedom of the Fatherland. Therefore, alongside ensuring schedule milestones, forces have been reinforced with personnel and equipment to accelerate search and repatriation operations. Recently, the Border Guard Command reinforced 22 officers and soldiers to the Martyr Remains Search and Repatriation Team. Simultaneously, local authorities, youth union members, agencies, and units have actively supported operational forces in carrying out duties.

Since the beginning of the campaign, the province has mobilized 133 personnel for martyr remains searches, 182 personnel for demining operations, and 181 personnel for exhumations. To assist forces in fulfilling their tasks, leaders of the province and Military Region 2 have regularly inspected, encouraged, and untied difficulties regarding manpower and logistics. This accompaniment provides renewed momentum for officers and soldiers to stay close to the terrain, tracing every remnant, grave, and biological sample to return martyrs to their names and homelands.

The “500-day-and-night Campaign” is therefore not merely a technical mission with scheduled milestones and specific workloads. Behind every task is a life devoted to the nation and a family that has waited across generations. Senior Colonel Lê Đình Hải, Deputy Commander of the provincial Military Command, noted that as time stretches on and traces fade, searching becomes increasingly difficult. Consequently, officers and soldiers strive to utilize every single day, proactively resolving bottlenecks and coordinating closely among forces to enhance search, repatriation, and identification efficiency.

According to the original plan, exhumation and DNA sample collection for martyr identification across the province were scheduled for completion before December 31, 2026. However, with resolve to expedite identification opportunities, the province concentrated personnel and equipment to execute tasks continuously, striving to finish all tasks before September 2, 2026 - four months ahead of the initial target. Behind this determination lies not only schedule compliance, but profound responsibility toward the fallen and the expectations of martyrs’ relatives nationwide.

This resolve represents more than a race against a calendar deadline. It is a race against fading wartime traces and the advancing age of witnesses and relatives. Each day completed early offers an added opportunity for specimens to be analyzed, data to be matched, and a family to draw closer to the answers they have sought for a lifetime.

When work subsides each evening, the journey does not end. Tomorrow, working teams will resume at ongoing graves; biological samples will be transferred for analysis and matching; and martyr records will continue to be cross-checked. The ultimate destination is not merely completing the plan ahead of time, but the day the fallen are addressed by their true names, and families no longer carry unresolved questions. That is how today’s generation continues the oath of national defense - through responsibility toward those who fell.

Gratitude through responsibility toward the Fatherland

If searching, repatriating, and identifying martyrs is the way to honor those who sacrificed, building and defending the Fatherland is the practical way to carry forward those sacrifices. In Điện Biên today, most officers and soldiers participating in the “500-day-and-night Campaign” were born during peacetime. Though they never lived through war, each time they bow beside a martyr’s grave, they grasp more deeply the value of peace and the duty of their generation.

For soldier Quàng Văn Việt of Regiment 741 of the provincial Military Command, taking part in the campaign is an opportunity to comprehend peace and civic responsibility more profoundly. “Born in peacetime, we only knew war through books. But witnessing martyrs’ relatives diligently searching for their loved ones, we understand the immense sacrifices of earlier generations even more deeply, reminding ourselves to live with greater responsibility toward the Fatherland,” soldier Quàng Văn Việt shared.

These reflections illustrate a seamless continuity between generations. Soldiers of the past left their youth on battlefields so the country could have peace. Today, young soldiers continue searching and repatriating to return them to their names and native lands. Separated by decades, they share a unified duty: serving and defending the Fatherland.

The “500-day-and-night Campaign” will eventually conclude, but the journey of searching, gathering, and identifying martyrs will not cease as long as fallen soldiers remain unnamed and have not returned fully to their families and homelands. This is both the mission of today’s generations and the commitment of the entire nation toward those who dedicated their youth to the independence and freedom of the Fatherland.

The promise to heroic martyrs goes beyond search, repatriation, or name restoration. Higher still, it is the duty to safeguard values that earlier generations defended with blood and bone: peace, independence, and the right to live in a free, developing nation.

In his letter to compatriots and soldiers nationwide on the 79th anniversary of Wounded Soldiers and Martyrs Day (July 27, 2026), Party General Secretary and State President Tô Lâm affirmed that the sacrifices of heroic martyrs constitute the foundation for the Vietnamese nation to attain its current stature, potential, standing, and international prestige. Therefore, the present generation carries the responsibility to preserve revolutionary achievements and build a peaceful, strong, prosperous, and happy nation.

Thus, gratitude is not expressed solely through incense offerings, but through concrete actions to build the homeland, protect the Fatherland, and safeguard peaceful lives for the people. Within this framework, searching, repatriating, and identifying martyrs is a sacred duty that returns the fallen to their names, native soil, and families. Across the white tombstones in Điện Biên, more soldiers will be identified with their true names and native lands, fulfilling the long-held hopes of families and expressing the gratitude of today’s generation.

That gratitude will not stop with restoring names. It will be carried forward through responsibility, affection, and the aspiration to build a peaceful, powerful, prosperous, and civilized Việt Nam advancing toward socialism. That is the ironclad promise of today’s generation to those who fell for the Fatherland.