Vietnam intensifies search for war martyrs' remains as 500-day campaign gains momentum

The renewed push is centered on a 500-day nationwide campaign launched on March 15, 2026, and running through July 27, 2027, when Vietnam will mark the 80th anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs' Day (July 27, 1947–2027), according to the Ministry of National Defense.

The campaign is meant to accelerate efforts to locate missing martyrs' remains and identify unnamed graves.

It targets the recovery of about 7,000 sets of martyrs' remains, the collection of biological samples from around 230,000 unidentified graves, and DNA analysis of about 18,000 sets of remains, the ministry said.

Long-running postwar humanitarian mission

More than 50 years after the war, Vietnam continues to grapple with one of its most enduring legacies: thousands of fallen soldiers remain missing, while hundreds of thousands of recovered sets of remains have yet to be identified.

According to the National Steering Committee for the Search for, Recovery and Identification of Martyrs' Remains (515 Steering Committee), Vietnam has recovered more than one million sets of martyrs' remains over the past decades.

Even so, about 175,000 martyrs are still unaccounted for, while nearly 300,000 graves in cemeteries across the country remain unidentified, underscoring the immense scale of the task ahead.

As Prime Minister Le Minh Hung noted at the launch of the search operation at Le Thi Rieng Park in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday, for many families of martyrs, the war has not truly receded into the past as they continue waiting for news of their loved ones.

The effort has become one of Vietnam's longest-running postwar humanitarian missions.

According to the defense ministry, military search teams continue operating across former battlefields in Vietnam as well as neighboring Laos and Cambodia, where many Vietnamese soldiers lost their lives in wartime.

Authorities are also reviewing wartime archives, military records, and information provided by veterans and local residents to identify new search locations.

The work has become increasingly difficult as former battlefields have been transformed by urban development, agricultural activities, and natural changes, while wartime records are often incomplete and surviving witnesses continue to decline.

Search efforts expand with DNA, radar technology

Since its launch on March 15, 2026, the 500-day campaign has accelerated nationwide efforts to recover missing martyrs’ remains and identify previously unnamed martyrs through expanded field operations and DNA-based analysis.

The campaign has so far recovered 1,306 sets of martyrs' remains, while 24 search and recovery teams continue operating in Vietnam as well as neighboring Laos and Cambodia, according to the 515 Steering Committee.

In parallel with field operations, authorities have accelerated DNA-based identification efforts.

More than 32,000 martyrs' graves have been sampled, including over 22,000 graves that met requirements for biological sampling, with more than 9,300 samples transferred to DNA testing units for analysis.

Across the country, local authorities and military units have combined field surveys, archival reviews, information provided by veterans and local residents, and scientific methods to locate missing remains and identify unnamed martyrs.

In Quang Tri Province, located in the north-central region, one of Vietnam's most heavily contested wartime areas, search teams have continued surveys and excavations by combining historical records, witness accounts, and ground-penetrating radar to locate suspected burial sites.

Recovered remains are also undergoing DNA testing to help establish their identities.

In Khanh Hoa Province in the south-central region, authorities have begun collecting 2,648 DNA samples from the relatives of unidentified martyrs.

Meanwhile, authorities in Dong Thap Province in the Mekong Delta have begun collecting DNA samples from unidentified martyrs' remains, with 442 graves at Chau Thanh Martyrs' Cemetery selected for a pilot program before the effort is expanded throughout the province, Lao Dong (Labor) newspaper reported.

In Ho Chi Minh City, authorities have launched large-scale search and recovery operations at Le Thi Rieng Park, where 11 sets of martyrs' remains have been recovered as of Tuesday.

The operation combines ground-penetrating radar with historical records, wartime maps, archival documents, witness accounts, and DNA analysis to help locate and identify remains.

Following the initial search at Le Thi Rieng Park, the 515 Steering Committee has directed relevant agencies to consider expanding the search to the northern area of Tan Son Nhat International Airport and other sites believed to contain collective martyrs' graves.

The campaign is also preparing for a nationwide effort to collect DNA samples from about 250,000 relatives of martyrs and establish a genetic database to support the identification of unnamed remains.

The database will allow biological samples from recovered remains to be matched with those collected from relatives, significantly accelerating the identification process.

Sustained efforts to bring the fallen home

Behind the figures of recovered remains and DNA samples are the people who keep the search alive — soldiers working in former battlefields, families waiting for answers, and communities helping preserve wartime memories.

For search teams, the mission often begins with incomplete information and requires years of investigation, field surveys, and repeated excavations in difficult terrain.

In Gia Lai Province in the Central Highlands, members of the Army Corps 34's search and recovery team spent more than five years tracing clues in the Chu Pa mountain area, a former battlefield where many soldiers were believed to have fallen.

Through years of surveys and excavations, the team recovered the remains of 64 martyrs, helping provide closure to families who had waited for decades.

The work often relies on fragments of information left behind by the war, including wartime documents, veterans' memories, and accounts from local residents.

Those clues are combined with field operations and modern technology to identify possible burial sites in areas that have changed significantly over time.

At Le Thi Rieng Park, authorities have continued searching for wartime remains while collecting DNA samples from recovered remains and relatives of possible martyrs to support identification efforts.

The operation reflects a broader shift in Vietnam's efforts to recover and identify missing martyrs, combining traditional field investigations with ground-penetrating radar and DNA technology to restore names and identities to previously unidentified remains.

Speaking at the launch of the Le Thi Rieng Park search operation on Monday, PM Hung called for all-round efforts to search for, recover, and identify the remains of fallen soldiers, according to the Vietnam Government Portal.

He also called on people across Vietnam, members of the armed forces, overseas Vietnamese, and foreign veterans who served in Vietnam to provide information that could help locate the remains of the nation's fallen soldiers.

He stressed that the mission will continue until the remains of all missing martyrs have been recovered.

“At all costs, we must make every effort, with the greatest determination, to find our fallen heroes and return them to their families and hometowns,” the prime minister said.