Many wartime stories are being shared by Vietnamese war veterans as the country is marking the 50th anniversary of the Dong Loc victory (1968-2018). 

War heroine La Thi Tam speaks at a recent ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Dong Loc victory (1968-2018) in Ha Tinh Province

While the number of war veterans who took part in the American War diminishes with time, their stories about the historic period have never become less attractive to young generations.

Addressing a recent ceremony held in Ha Tinh Province to mark the event, war heroine La Thi Tam who is now among a few a living witnesses at the fierce Dong Loc T-junction front, won the admiration of all the audience when sharing about her work with the US bombs during the war. 

Dong Loc T-junction in the central province of Ha Tinh was the most important transport hub on the Ho Chi Minh trail and was used as a route for trucks carrying soldiers, food, arms and munitions from the north to the south.

According to statistics, from 1965 to 1968, the US army dropped nearly 50,000 bombs, artillery and rocket attacks to disable the transport route to the southern front. More than 16,000 Vietnamese people and soldiers kept traffic flowing at the crucial logistics point. Hundreds of people died, including 10 young female volunteers who were buried alive while levelling bomb craters.

In 1967, at the age of 18, La Thi Tam joined the army and was stationed at Dong Loc. She was assigned to take charge of counting bombs. Every day, she stood on a high hill on the left of Dong Loc T-junction counting bombs dropped in the vicinity and then came to mark their locations for other teams to arrive to disable the bombs and level the craters. 

The war veteran, now 69, said that many times she was buried by the bombs explosions while marking their places.

"I counted and marked a total of 1,205 bombs during some 200 days and nights working at the T-junction from December 1967 to August 1968," she revealed. 

"My health was greatly affected at that time," she said. "Many times I returned home from the work exhausted and couldn't eat anything. But the images of my comrades at the front urged me to continue."

La Thi Tam in a photo by photographer Van Bao which was taken in 1968

When talking about the honour to receive the title of Hero of People's Armed Forces in December 1969 at the age of 20, Tam said that she was just lucky to be chosen.

"All of my comrades there deserved that title and I was just selected to represent them," she said. 

The heroine also said that she was lucky to get into the snapshot of photographer Van Bao during his trip to Dong Loc in 1968. Some photos of La Thi Tam had appeared on the front pages of many Vietnamese and foreign newspapers. The young girl was also a prototype of the song Girl by the La River (Nguoi Con Gai Song La) by musician Doan Nho which was very popular at that time. 

"There were many young women like me working at that battle at that time," Tam said. "I always miss them a lot, especially the 10 who were buried alive there. I was so lucky to survive that fierce war."

Dtinews