Families of the dead were invited to the headquarters of Hoang Hoa District People's Committee to take blood samples on August 16.
A mother of a pioneer who died in Tam Co Cave came for DNA testing in Thanh Hoa Province on August 16.
A day earlier, samples of the remains were taken at Tho Loc War Cemetery in Quang Binh Province.Talking with families of the martyrs, Hoang Hoa District Deputy Party Committee Secretary, Truong Tuan An, expressed his happiness when the long wish by the local party, people and especially the families to identify the remains is going to be realised.
According to a document from the Military Zone 4 Museum, eight young pioneers of the Vietnam People’s Army starved to death in 1972 in a cave in the central province of Quang Binh while hiding from US raids.
US bombs caused an immense rock to fall over the only exit of the cave on August 14, 1972 where eight pioneers who hailed from the northern central province of Thanh Hoa to repair roads in the area were hiding. Great efforts to rescue the eight young pioneers, four men and four women aged between 18 and 20, were in vain due to lack of proper equipment and continuous bombard by the US.
Soldiers stationed nearby recalled that they heard cries for help resounding from within the cave. The voices were steadily weaker day after day and stopped after the ninth day.
Pioneers of the Vietnam People’s Army repaired roads damaged by bombards by the US in Quang Binh Province in 1967. Photo by the Military Zone 4 Museum.
Tourists at Tam Co Cave.
