Soldiers risk lives clearing mines on Vietnam's Vi Xuyen battlefield

The dangerous work is a crucial first step in ensuring the safety of teams searching for the remains of fallen soldiers and protecting local residents from deadly wartime explosives.

Facing death every day

More than 200 officers and workers from Mine and Explosive Ordnance Clearance Company 319, under Corporation 319 of Vietnam's Ministry of National Defense, spend their days soaked in sweat inside heavy protective gear while meticulously examining every patch of ground.

On the former Vi Xuyen battlefield, unexploded ordnance remains buried in multiple layers beneath the surface.

The first team digs small footholds and clears vegetation. Behind them, soldiers wearing protective suits weighing more than 10 kilograms patiently insert metal probes, little thicker than incense sticks, into the ground.

Whenever the probe stops against a rock, a tree root, or another hard object, they calmly mark the location with a red flag before further inspection.

The buried objects can be live grenades, mortar shells, artillery fragments, or, most commonly, Type 652A anti-personnel mines. These plastic-cased mines contain only a small metal detonator, making them extremely difficult to detect with conventional mine detectors.

The Type 652A is considered especially dangerous because it was widely scattered on the ground as a defensive weapon.

It can detonate under pressure of only about 2.5 kilograms and has continued to claim lives and cause severe injuries long after the war ended.

In a single morning, the clearance team recovered more than a dozen landmines and grenades, removed their detonators, and carefully placed them in sand-filled wooden boxes.

Clearing way for search for fallen soldiers

Before teams can search for and recover the remains of fallen soldiers, mine clearance must be completed.

More than 20 units are currently carrying out mine clearance missions across Tuyen Quang.

Since 2015, Mine and Explosive Ordnance Clearance Company 319, together with engineering units from Division 316 under Military Region 2 and the former Ha Giang Provincial Military Command, has cleared explosives along the former Ha Giang border area.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Trieu, the field commander, has spent 37 years clearing landmines and unexploded ordnance, from Mong Cai in Quang Ninh Province to Vi Xuyen and other sections of the former Ha Giang border.

Although he has worked in many former war zones, Trieu said he has never encountered a battlefield with as many layers of buried explosives as Vi Xuyen.

"This is an extremely dangerous job, but we understand that the more explosives we remove, the safer it will be for teams searching for the remains of fallen soldiers and for local people," he said.

Under Vietnam's ongoing 500-day campaign to search for, recover, and identify fallen soldiers, mine clearance is being prioritized at former battlefields where many soldiers are believed to remain.

Mine and Explosive Ordnance Clearance Company 319 has expanded its workforce from 60 to 242 personnel for the campaign. Equipped with modern technology and extensive experience, the unit has been assigned to clear areas with the highest concentration of unexploded ordnance.

Tuyen Quang still has about 70,000 hectares of land contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance, most of it along the northern border.

During the 500-day campaign, authorities aim to clear 4,000 hectares in priority areas to support the search and recovery of fallen soldiers.

Trieu said his unit is responsible for clearing 500 hectares under a post-war mine and unexploded ordnance clearance project running from 2025 to 2027.

The project includes 230 hectares requiring clearance to a depth of one meter, 200 hectares requiring clearance to three meters, and another 70 hectares with extremely dense mine contamination.

"So far, we have completed 250 hectares, or 50 percent of the assigned area. We aim to finish the entire project by the end of 2026 to provide safe ground for the search and recovery of fallen soldiers' remains," he said.