DistantNews
Support us
Finding one another in peacetime, Part 3: Leaning on one another
🇻🇳 Vietnam /Culture & Society

Finding one another in peacetime, Part 3: Leaning on one another

From Thanh Niên · () Vietnamese

Translated from Vietnamese and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • The narrator recalls serving in 1974 with close friends Thân Trọng Bình and Nguyễn Thanh Sinh, sharing music, martial arts and hopes for life after military service.
  • Bình later died after being diagnosed with severe diabetes and extensive lung damage, while Sinh died from burns sustained in a truck accident.
  • The narrator also describes the lasting grief of losing former comrades and searching for one another as a source of emotional support.

For the narrator, the friends he seeks are not only those who fell on the battlefield. Some survived the war, only to die during peacetime, leaving old comrades to lean on one another for emotional support.

In 1974, the narrator served alongside Thân Trọng Bình and Nguyễn Thanh Sinh after their unit left a training base in Long Đại, Quảng Bình. They travelled through staging posts, sometimes by ZIL-130 truck and sometimes on foot, before being stationed near Ma-ka-muổng waterfall in Cambodia’s Stung Treng area.

Bình had learned martial arts, guitar and mandolin from his father, who had moved north from Thừa Thiên and lived in Đồng Hới. The narrator and Sinh became his students. In the evenings, they practised martial arts and knife throwing by the Sê Kông River. The three also formed a vocal group and performed at military events. They once planned to study music after peace came, but the narrator and Sinh entered military schools, while Bình left the army first.

We look for one another so that we can lean on one another, at least spiritually.

— NarratorThe narrator explains why former comrades continue searching for each other after the war.

After returning to Huế, the narrator sought out Bình. Bình studied at the Huế School of Arts, stayed on there and later went to Hà Nội for a master’s degree in music theory, composition and conducting. The two continued training in judo together each Sunday. Then doctors found that Bình had severe diabetes and that much of his lungs had turned white. He died soon afterward, leaving two children. One later died by suicide after severe depression.

Sinh later joined an officers’ school. When his unit returned from the northern border, the truck carrying him caught fire in an accident. The narrator found him at Hospital 108, wrapped in bandages from head to toe, but he did not survive his burns. The narrator also remembers another comrade’s first love, a policewoman who remained haunted by the relationship for years. The war did not take these two friends, but peacetime did.

Among three people travelling together, there is bound to be one who is our teacher.

— NarratorThe narrator uses a traditional saying to describe how Bình taught his two friends music and martial arts.
About this summary

Originally published by Thanh Niên in Vietnamese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog