VietNamNet Bridge – More than 11,000 keepsakes given to the Military History Museum are over 11,000 touching stories about Vietnamese soldiers.

The flag of Binh Ca Battalion.

The most impressive keepsake is a painting diary belonging to soldier and painter Le Duc Tuan, which was lost for more than three decades.

The diary is a book of sketches about the hard and magnanimous life of soldiers in the battles in the Central Highlands in 1967-1968.

American Major Robert B.Simpson, who found the diary during a raid in 1968, returned the diary to painter Tuan.

Simpson said that the diary consisted of over 100 sketches. He selected the three best to send to his wife and handed over the diary to his superior. His wife sent the three paintings to a local newspaper, which was used in an article entitled “Stories from sketches by a kill-in-battle North Vietnam soldier” by Charles Black.

In late 2009, the daughter of Simpson’s superior gave the notebook back to Vietnam through the Vietnamese Ministry of Defense. Simpson also found the three other sketches to return them to the Vietnamese painter.

The triumph flag of Binh Ca Battalion is another special keepsake. Lieutenant General Pham Hong Cu, former Vice Chair of the General Department of Politics, said that the battalion was a part of the Hanoi suicide troops, which was named Battalion 42.

In October 1947, the battalion took orders from General Vo Nguyen Giap to defend Binh Ca – Thai Nguyen road. The Battalion 42 was called Binh Ca Battalion since then. The battalion overcame hunger and disease to fight off the French troops and defend the area.

The letter that soldier Vu Quang Bich, 23, showed to Do Thi Thu Nga, 21, had only 30 words. It ended with the “please tear after you read it” but Ngan didn’t tear up the letter. They fell in love with each other through simple letters and got married in the season of chestnut.

Mr. Bich and Mrs. Ngan will never forget their wedding party, with chestnuts as the only food and songs performed by their comrades as wedding gifts.

The couple now has many grandchildren. They planed to celebrate their 60^th anniversary next year. They presented the Military History Museum their special letter, wedding invitation and old pictures. Ngan said she and her husband would go to the museum to see their keepsakes again.

The last keepsake that sub-lieutenant Hoang Kim Giao left for his family was his death notice. His younger sister, Hoang Lien Thai, a teacher, told her students the story about her brother. She read Giao’s letters, in which he wrote: “Responsibility is a kind of happiness”, which moved many students.

The above keepsakes are among over 11,000 war keepsakes collected for the campaign to collect and introduce war keepsakes that was launched by the General Department of Politics of the Vietnam People’s Army, the Vietnam Military History Museum and the Ho Chi Minh Youth Union on the occasion of the 66^th anniversary of the Vietnam People’s Army.

PV