In the early days of the year, Mr. Nguyen Tien Minh, 93, from Bac Gianh ward, Quang Tri province, along with his relatives, visited the symbolic grave of fallen soldier Nguyen Quoc Hoi at the ward cemetery, nearly one kilometer from his home, to light incense.

Mr. Nguyen Tien Minh, older brother of fallen soldier Nguyen Quoc Hoi. Photo: Dac Thanh

His family is completing procedures to bring his younger brother's remains home for burial, replacing the symbolic grave established years ago. "He will return to rest in his homeland, concluding a search spanning over half a century. I can close my eyes in peace," Mr. Minh said.

Fallen soldier Nguyen Quoc Hoi was born in 1949, the sixth of 11 siblings. In January 1971, while working as a primary school teacher, Hoi enlisted in the army under a general mobilization order. The 22-year-old trained in Thanh Hoa before marching with his unit to the southern battlefield.

During the march, when his unit stopped by the Gianh River, the young soldier asked permission to visit home. After hours of walking, he arrived home at midnight. His parents quickly prepared a meal for him before he returned to his unit.

The next morning, Mr. Minh cycled his brother to the assembly point. "Before we parted ways, Hoi told me to keep the bicycle carefully so he could use it for teaching after the war. I returned home, disassembled each part, and stored them in a cabinet exactly as he instructed," he recounted.

The symbolic grave of fallen soldier Nguyen Quoc Hoi was established at Bac Giang ward cemetery. Photo: Dac Thanh

In May 1973, the family received a death notification, stating that soldier Nguyen Quoc Hoi sacrificed his life on 25/5/1972, serving with unit V104, KB, Southern Front, at just 23 years old. The personal effects sent back were limited to a backpack containing a notebook, a hat, bicycle handlebars, and a few sets of clothes. "Upon hearing the news, my father covered himself with a blanket and cried. My mother fainted," Mr. Minh recalled.

After the country's reunification, Mr. Minh and his siblings tirelessly searched cemeteries from Quang Tri, the Central Highlands, to TP HCM. Dozens of trips yielded no results. Their elderly mother waited until she was over 100 years old but never found her son's remains. The family even sought spiritual guidance, receiving many leads, but none matched.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Quy Diem with a portrait of fallen soldier Nguyen Quoc Hoi. Photo: Dac Thanh

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Quy Diem, wife of the late Mr. Nguyen Thanh Dong (fallen soldier Hoi's younger brother), currently maintains the ancestral altar for fallen soldier Hoi. She recounted that since becoming a daughter-in-law in 1977, the entire family had longed for Uncle Hoi. Her husband had often visited cemeteries, sent letters everywhere, and contacted former comrades to inquire, but could not determine the place of sacrifice.

Just when it seemed the search had concluded, at the end of May 2025, the Quang Binh Provincial Police (now Quang Tri Provincial Police), in coordination with the Police Department for Administrative Management of Social Order (Ministry of Public Security) and GeneStory Joint Stock Company, organized the collection of DNA samples from relatives of unidentified fallen soldiers.

Mr. Nguyen Tien Minh and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Lan, the fallen soldier's younger sister, who live in Hue, had their samples taken for testing. After more than one month, the results showed that Mrs. Lan's DNA sample matched the remains with code NCC4603, interred at Duc Co District Fallen Soldiers Cemetery, Gia Lai province.

Relatives write the name of fallen soldier Nguyen Quoc Hoi after identification through DNA. Photo: Family provided

On 25/7/2025, the Ministry of Public Security, in coordination with the Ministry of Home Affairs, completed the recognition of identity for 16 fallen soldiers, including Nguyen Quoc Hoi. Grave number 47, row 6, lot 6, zone 1, at Duc Co District Fallen Soldiers Cemetery, previously unidentified, now bears the name of fallen soldier Nguyen Quoc Hoi. Coincidentally, this was also a place Mr. Dong had searched years ago.

"The family was overwhelmed with emotion upon receiving the news. Our parents in the afterlife must also be at peace. We are currently completing procedures to exhume and rebury him at the hometown cemetery," Mrs. Nguyen Thi Quy Diem said.

Dac Thanh