Photos from US veteran suggest location of Vietnamese soldiers' mass grave in Kon Tum

Clues unearthed nearly 60 years after the 1968 Tet Offensive are offering new hope for locating a mass grave of Vietnamese soldiers in Kon Tum province. Crucial evidence, including two photographs provided by a former US soldier, Bob Connor, who served in the area in early 1968, has emerged.

Connor's photographs depict the burial of soldiers along a roadside drainage ditch, believed to be in the vicinity of present-day Truong Chinh street. One image shows the overall landscape of the former Biệt khu 24, with a drainage ditch marked by a blue pen, identified as a potential collective burial site. Research by a joint Vietnamese-US team suggests that approximately 70 to 90 soldiers from Battalion 4, Regiment 24A, who died on February 2, 1968, were buried in these ditches by US forces.

Authorities have been meticulously verifying this information since November 2025, cross-referencing military maps, satellite imagery from 1967-1968, battle diagrams, and historical accounts from both Vietnamese and US archives. The findings indicate a strong correlation between the identified burial locations and existing field evidence, as well as historical documentation. Furthermore, local accounts from Kon Tum province support these findings, with previous discoveries of soldiers' remains in the Truong Chinh street area, including eight bodies found in 2001 during utility work and 22 more in 2008 during home construction, further reinforcing the likelihood of a mass grave.

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The position of the drainage ditch, marked with a blue pen, is believed to be the collective burial site of the fallen soldiers.