MEMORABILIA OF QUANG TRI CITADEL IN 1972
Mr. Le Xuan Tuong was a soldier fighting on the Quang Tri front in the fiercest years of war. He always remembers the old battlefield. For student soldiers like him at the time, the years of self-sacrifice at a young age would live on forever.
He is an alumnus and soldier of Quang Tri Citadel 1972 Le Xuan Tuong. He was born and raised in Hanoi. He said "For us, the student soldiers, Quang Tri Citadel was a tragic prelude to the epic of revolutionary heroism. I remember my friends lying on the battlefield of Quang Tri with their bodies not in coffins but wrapped in cold hammocks and hastily buried under bombs. I remember my fallen comrades whose bodies were not intact due to B52 bombs, bullets, and all sorts of enemy artillery... Memories always flow within us, and there are more sacred, nobler things that go above and beyond to become immortal songs." Those are the feelings that Mr. Tuong shared in his memoir "Back to the Memories".
Although the war was far away, his battlefield memories and memorabilia are still preserved. "I will show you the backpack with holes punctured by the cannon and what I have kept so far like the mess box, pitcher, belt, dagger..., and the later ones. But the most precious is the backpack I had used since I enlisted on May 27th, 1972". The backpack that has been attached to him throughout his time living and fighting on the Quang Tri front. It has been very carefully preserved. There are some holes punctured by enemy bullets and his name written on the lid that is faded over time. Holding the backpack in his hand, part of his memories of the time of bombs, smoke and flames came back, and he told us that when he was wounded and treated at the forward operating station of the Eastern Front, his backpack was reused by his comrades because in those days they often took the belongings of the hospitalists to use. When coming back "I saw my backpack in the corner of the tunnel. Mr. Trinh was using it... I hoped my pick-up books were still there but nothing but a backpack with my name on the lid. In exchange of the backpack I brought in from North, I took back my old one, with which I felt everything from enlistment".
Mr. Dang Minh Ve - Deputy Director of the Hanoi Museum and officials at the home of Mr. Le Xuan Tuong
Le Xuan Tuong's backpack donated to Hanoi Museum
He decided to donate all the memorabilia on the battlefield to Hanoi Museum, and his story would be also be shared in the exhibition so that the younger generation can imagine that "with the desire to one day of triumph back to continue what is unfinished. That thought gave us more optimism to win it all. And that is the pride of a whole generation of students and soldiers in the heroic years of the nation".
Phạm Ngọc Quyên