Locals trek 10 hours through forest to return Vietnamese martyr's grave marker to family after 60 years
Four local residents trekked through 10 hours of dense jungle in central Vietnam to retrieve a fallen soldier's stone grave marker, returning it to his family nearly 60 years after his death and 33 years after his remains were brought home.
Nguyen Van Dat, chairman of the Huong Hiep Commune administration in Quang Tri, said on Saturday that authorities had helped the family of fallen soldier Tran Dinh Hoe, from Nghe An Province, retrieve the marker.
The marker was discovered in late June by local resident Ho Vinh while he was searching for his younger brother, who had gotten lost in the Khe Hien Ma forest in the commune, according to the family and local residents involved in the search.
Vinh found a stone slab lying upside down beneath a large tree and, after clearing away the dirt, realized that it was a grave marker bearing the name Tran Dinh Hoe.
The marker, about 50 centimeters high and 30 centimeters wide and weighing 12-15kg, remained in relatively good condition, with its inscriptions still clearly visible.
The information on the marker states that Hoe was born in 1945 in Nam Tan, Nam Dan, Nghe An, and died on September 24, 1966.
The stone grave marker bearing the name of Vietnamese war martyr Tran Dinh Hoe is placed in front of his grave after being returned to his family in Nghe An Province, central Vietnam. Photo: Quynh Thanh / Tuoi Tre
After finding the marker, Vinh posted photos of it on Facebook in the hope of finding Hoe's relatives, while preschool teacher Dao Quynh Thanh, 40, and others shared the post in social media groups in Nghe An, according to people involved in the search.
Hoe's family happened to see the post around July 27, Vietnam's War Invalids and Martyrs Day, and contacted Thanh, after which the information was verified and local authorities were contacted.
Hoe's relatives traveled from Nghe An to Huong Hiep on August 20 to receive the marker, according to his nephew, Tran Dinh Quy, 42.
Quy said the family had traveled to the Khe Hien Ma forest in 1993 to search for Hoe's remains and bring them back to Nghe An for burial, but they did not know at the time that his grave marker was still in the forest.
The marker was located deep in rugged forest terrain, where a round trip on foot could take about two days, Quy added.
To help the family retrieve the marker, four residents in Huong Hiep voluntarily trekked through the forest and streams for more than 10 hours to bring it to the edge of the forest.
Two residents in Huong Hiep Commune, Quang Tri Province, hold the stone grave marker bearing the name of war martyr Tran Dinh Hoe after finding it in a local forest. Photo: Quynh Thanh / Tuoi Tre
After nearly six decades in the forest, the marker has become a special keepsake for the family, reconnecting them with memories of their fallen relative.
'The family is very happy and moved that 33 years after we brought his remains home, we have found our uncle's grave marker,' Quy said.
The family then took the marker back to Nghe An and placed it in front of Hoe's grave.
The case in Huong Hiep is similar to that of fallen soldier La Phuc Chau, whose family located his grave at Trieu Nguyen Martyrs Cemetery in Quang Tri in mid-August, 53 years after his death.
In both cases, information shared on Facebook helped families locate war-related graves and grave markers after decades.
These cases come as Vietnam is carrying out a nationwide 500-day campaign launched on March 15, 2026, to accelerate the search for, recovery and identification of fallen soldiers' remains.
The campaign will run through July 27, 2027, when Vietnam will mark the 80th anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs' Day.
As of August 20, the campaign had recovered 1,825 sets of martyrs' remains and detected 13 collective martyrs' graves, Nhan Dan (People) newspaper reported, citing the National Steering Committee for the Search for, Recovery and Identification of Martyrs' Remains.
Vinh Tho - Hoang Tao / Tuoi Tre News