Martyr Vu Dinh Doan, born in 1934, joined the army in 1960 and died in 1966 in Quang Ngai battlefield. In the morning of September 21, the above keepsakes handed over to the martyr’s family, in Hai Duong province. The person who kept these things for the past 46 years is Mr. Ira Robert Frazure - a veteran who participated in the Vietnam War.

On March 28, 1966, Bravo Team (Battalion 1, Regiment 7) of the U.S. Marines fought in the battle of Quang Ngai in the Indiana campaign. A U.S. marine named Ira Robert Frazure in the Charlie General, while cleaning up the battlefield, picked up a small notebook on the chest of a Vietnamese soldier who died. The notebook was addressed to Vu Dinh Doan. Inside the notebook were a photo featuring two young girls, a few old banknotes and an ID card. After demobilization in November of the same year, the American soldier brought these mementos to America.

The diary with frayed corners is tattered but the words are still readable.



The photograph of two young women – To Thi Yen and Tran Thi Nhat, close friends of martyr Doan. When Doan joined the army, the two girls carried loads of rice and walked for more than 40 km to see him out.

Vu Dinh Son, the third son of martyr Vu Dinh Doan cried when he received his father's mementos from Colonel Nguyen Xuan Nang, director of the Vietnam Military History Museum. These souvenirs had been handed over by U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to the Vietnamese Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh during his visit to Vietnam this June.

Martyr Doan has four children, but the eldest son and the youngest son died. Ms. Vu Thi Tuyen, his daughter (rightmost) also cried when she saw her father's keepsakes. On the day he left home to the battlefield, she was only 5 year old.

Hundreds of relatives, friends, neighbors and local officials attended the ceremony.



Mrs. Yen (left) and Nhat, bot 70, now, was also present at the ceremony.

Mr. Vu Dinh Son and Ms. Vu Thi Tuyen burned incense at the cemetery and told their father that his mementos had returned to the family. After three journeys to Quang Ngai to find the remains of their father, in 2008, they found the site where he sacrificed and took his remains to his hometown.

Source: vietnamnet.vn