49 individual martyrs' remains, 1 communal burial recovered at Ho Chi Minh City park

Major General Nguyen Thanh Trung, political commissar of the Ho Chi Minh City High Command and deputy head of the city's Steering Committee 515 on the search and identification of war martyrs, said one of the recovered remains is believed to be that of martyr Huynh Van Quen from Unit 962.

Earlier, a set of remains was found with identification bearing the name Huynh Van Quen.

Through historical verification and analysis, authorities determined that Unit 962 was Team 2 of the first battalion - Long An, which took part in the battle on Chu Y Bridge on January 19, 1968.

DNA samples from the remains believed to belong to Huynh Van Quen have been sent for testing. Results are expected in about three weeks, after which they will be compared with DNA samples provided by those who identified themselves as relatives of Quen in Vam Co Commune, Tay Ninh Province.

Fifty-eight years after they laid down their lives in Vietnam's struggle for national independence and reunification, the fallen soldiers are being brought home.

General Nguyen Trong Nghia, director of the General Department of Politics of the Vietnam People's Army, said at Le Thi Rieng Park on Saturday that the search for additional remains would remain challenging because the 1968 Tet General Offensive and Uprising, while glorious, was also one of the fiercest campaigns of the war, leaving many soldiers unaccounted for.

He urged search teams to carry out the mission with both soldiers' sense of responsibility and heartfelt devotion, honoring the trust and expectations of the Vietnamese people.

The search effort at Le Thi Rieng Park began after the Ho Chi Minh City High Command started locating witnesses on May 28 who appeared in a historic photograph taken during the burial of soldiers killed on February 12, 1968.

After witnesses came forward, the National Steering Committee 515 held a seminar on June 8 to verify information about a communal burial believed to have been located at the former Chi Hoa–Cho Quan Cemetery, now Le Thi Rieng Park .

Field surveys followed before the official recovery operation was launched on July 6.

Since then, recovery teams have found 49 individual sets of martyrs' remains, one communal burial, and numerous personal artifacts associated with the fallen soldiers.