Red pen engraved with the name ‘Ngo Hoc’ found in unidentified martyr’s grave

A red pen engraved with the name “Ngo Hoc” has given Vietnamese officials a possible lead in identifying the remains of a fallen soldier buried in an unidentified grave.

The pen was found in grave No. 4, row 1, plot 8, at Kon Tum Martyrs’ Cemetery in Đăk Cấm ward, Quang Ngai province. Personnel from Sample Collection Team No. 1 and the Đăk Cấm Military Command discovered it while exhuming unidentified martyr graves for DNA testing.

Colonel Trịnh Công Sơn, deputy political commissar of the Quang Ngai Military Command, said the inscription would be compared with DNA results and other relevant records. Officials hope the evidence will establish the soldier’s identity and help return the remains to his family and homeland.

The exhumations form part of a 500-day campaign to accelerate the search, recovery and identification of fallen soldiers’ remains. The work is presented as an expression of Vietnam’s tradition of remembering past generations and honoring those who died.

As of Sept. 6, authorities in Quang Ngai had recovered 21 martyr remains: four in Đăk Cấm ward, 10 in Đăk Pék commune, one in Trà Câu ward, one in Đăk Tờ Kan commune and five in Nghĩa Giang commune. Officials have exhumed 11,939 graves to collect samples for DNA testing. Of those, 8,033 biological samples met testing requirements, while 3,906 did not. A total of 3,349 samples had been handed to the Military Forensic Institute under the Ministry of National Defence.