This is an invaluable asset for the ongoing 500‑day campaign to search for, recover, and identify the remains of fallen soldiers.
The information was furnished by Ho Van Vang, born in 1943, and his son Ho Van Sinh, who live in May Hamlet, Sepon District, Savannakhet Province, Laos. According to them, one martyr’s grave on their family’s hillside land remains unrepatriated, and there is also a probable bunker site that potentially houses the remains of three to five Vietnamese officers and soldiers.
The family has safeguarded several relics unearthed at the location, including a water bottle, an aluminium pot lid with decorative engravings, and a memorial stone bearing the names of seven martyrs. A CKC rifle discovered at the same time was transferred to local authorities in 2008.
According to Ho Van Vang, there were once eight martyr graves in the area. In 2009, he personally guided a remains recovery team, during which seven sets were recovered and identified by name. Due to local customs, the remaining grave is still intact at the site, buried at a an approximate depth of one metre.
After receiving the information, Huong Phung Border Station directed local residents to capture video footage of the site, take photographs, and determine the coordinates of the locations, while also notifying functional agencies to inspect the site and formulate an operational plan to locate and exhume the martyrs’ remains.
