They are three unyielding former soldiers of Truong Son forests, having spent most of their youth in the war. It ended over thirty years ago, but their love and comradeship between them remains, despite time and social change.
Thirty-five years ago, 16- year old Trinh Thi Sen was an eleventh grader in Hai Hau District, Thanh Hoa Province. One day, without her parents’ permission, Sen applied for military service. Her application was rejected because she was not old enough and too thin.
The rejection did not discourage her. Two months later, Sen decided to register in a different name. With a few years added to her real age and some pebbles in her pockets, Sen sailed through the health check.
After training to become a nurse, Sen was sent to the medical station for 668 Regiment, garrisoned bordering the mountainous village of Savannakhet Province in Laos. The center was one of many set up along Truong Son (more commonly known in the West as the ‘Ho Chi Minh Trail’) to give treatment to soldiers injured in battlefields taking place in the forests.
One day, a young wounded soldier was brought to the station. His name was Le Huu Tuynh, a resident of Thach Thanh District, Thanh Hoa Province. Tuynh was a driver transporting weapons and military equipment from the North to South to supply to soldiers.
Sen gave special care to the wounded solider because she was impressed by his courage. Despite the severe wound on his shoulder and chest, Tuynh was resilient and faced the pain without moans and cries.
Three weeks later, Tuynh was better and began to fall in love with the young nurse who had tender looking, gentle hands. One peaceful night without the sound of gunshots in the air, Sen led Tuynh by the hand outdoors to enjoy fresh air and the moonlight; he expressed his love and asked for her hand.
Tuynh’s proposal suprised Sen. It was wartime and soldiers like them her had to make quick decisions as no one knew how much longer he or she would live, but Sen’ heart was telling her that Tuynh might not be the right man for her, so she told him to give her a few months to think about his proposal cautiously.
Shortly afterward, Tuynh fully recovered and had to resume his duties. When he was about to leave, another wounded soldier was brought in. His name was Nguyen Van Minh, a resident of Hau Loc District of Thanh Hoa, who was a close friend of Tuynh.
Tuynh stayed on for a few minutes. Holding the hand of his friend, who was in a coma, Tuynh told Sen to tend Minh as well as she did him, then left.
Five months later, Tuynh came back and found Sen and Minh were a happily engaged couple. Without any jealousy in his heart, Tuynh gave them his best wishes for a happy married life, said goodbye and left for the battlefield again.
Since 1975
The war ended on April 30, 1975. Minh and Sen got married in 1978 and moved to Vung Tau to start a new life. They did exhausting work to earn their living at first. Their lives began to become better only after they saved enough money to invest in a long-distant coach, running from North to South.
Years rolled by but Minh and Sen always thought of Tuynh. The time Minh said goodbye to them at the medical station in the small, mountainous village in Laos was also the last time they saw each other. They wondered if he survived the war.
One day in 1994, while traveling on a coach to the North, Minh overheard a conversation between two passengers. One of them telling about a man whose name was Tuynh.
Minh jumped out of his skin when the name reached his ears. Was the guy mentioned in the conversation between the two strangers Tuynh? Minh wondered. It could be, Minh told himself, because Tuynh was not a common name for Vietnamese men. Perhaps, no one other than Tuynh throughout the country had such a strange name.
Following the passenger’s direction, Minh sought the way to a remote mountainous village in Thanh Hoa.
He found his old friend there. They recognized each other instantly, welcoming each other by tightly embracing. They held at each other while tears rolled down their faces. It was over thirty years from the day they last met.
Tuynh had a wife and three children. Since Tuynh’s family were very poor, Minh decided to take them to Vung Tau so that he and Sen could help them strive for a better life.
At that point of time, Minh and Sen already owned some buses, they decided to offer Tuynh the job as a driver for one of the vehicles.
After passing the driving test, Tuynh, former wartime driver, became a driver of a long-distant coach. Tuynh and his family began to live a more prosperous life.
Time goes by, things change and the three veterans now have grandchildren, but they said that the comradeship between them remains unchanged.
