Military medical officers of Hong Van Border Gate Guard Station gave medical examination and treatment to Agent Orange victims at home. Photo: QA

Local people’s relatives

In the blazing sun, Major Le Khac Tan and Senior Lieutenant Ho Minh Phu (Nham Border Guard Station) from the working group (located in Quang Nham Commune) rode motorbikes through the steep hills strewn with gravel to the production area of ​​Mr. Quynh Nhat, an Agent Orange victim, tucked away behind KaLeng Abung Hamlet. At the end of the gravel road, they had to leave your motorbike behind, went through the hills of wild trees; sometimes reeds cut our hands.

While we felt breathless, Major Le Khac Tan and Senior Lieutenant Ho Minh Phu smiled "comfortably", saying that they were used to trips across streams and slopes to the farthest places of the mountain village, even in adverse weather. Working shoulder to shoulder, fully understanding to share, giving timely support to the aged, the lonely, the ill, and the people in the Fatherland’s borderland to eradicate hunger, alleviate poverty, and develop economy are one of the tasks of the border guards, especially the border guards posted in mountainous village.

For 20 years in the local working group, Major Le Khac Tan's "footprints" have been very familiar to the people. When standing amid Mr. Ho Vien Mung's orchard (KaLeng Abung Hamlet, Quang Nham Commune) with hundreds of ramblers, longans, litchis flourishing over the seasons, we could grasp the people’s sentiment in the hamlet when they said that Mr. Tan was like a relative.

20 years ago, together with his comrades, he meticulously turned up soil, manured, planted each root of longan, lychee, etc., instructed Mr. Mung in care techniques. Major Le Khac Tan and his comrades designed the garden with the wish that the success of this model would be the driving force for the local people to follow and develop the economy.

A Dot Border Gate Guard Station helps the people with production. Photo: QA

Now, not only Mr. Mung's orchard has flourished over the years, providing a prosperous life, but also many other orchards in the hamlet and commune like the households of Ms. Ho Thi Toi, Mr. Ho Van Tieu...have borne fruit.

In Aka Hamlet, A Roang Commune, there is a special "orchard" - the life of Mr. Quynh Tit's mother and son - " looked after” by a border guard; Major Nguyen Duy Tu (at that time working at Huong Nguyen Border Guard Post) sowed the sweet fruit of love.

At that time, Major Nguyen Duy Tu was Deputy Secretary strengthening A Roang Commune, in the local working group. Shoulder to shoulder with the people here, from the bottom of his heart, Mr. Tu sympathized with the family plight of Mr. Quynh Tit's mother and daughter.

Mr. Tit's mother died early, and Tit's father remarried. Then the father also got sick and passed away. Quynh Tit is over forty years old, blind from birth, relying on his elderly stepmother.

Major Nguyen Duy Tu shared 20kg of rice a month with Mr. Tit’s mother and son for nearly 10 years. During the Lunar New Year holidays, that border guard presented cakes, shirts, blankets so that the unfortunate lives could be warm.

Major Nguyen Duy Tu confided that his family is in the North, every year he only reunites with his relatives within a dozen days of leave. He and his comrades attached most of their lives to the land, the place of work for performing the sacred duty of the border guards, protecting peace and offering a better life to the borderland people.

A Luoi still has many difficulties, but the people here are simple-minded and extremely emotional. Like many comrades, Major Tu has become “the mountain village’s son". With a border guard’s responsibility, the closeness, sympathy, and understanding got him to consider Mr. Quynh Tit's mother and son as relatives.

We and Major Nguyen Duy Tu visited Mr. Quynh Tit's mother and son. Although poorly furnished, their small house overflowed warmth. The face of the man born blind was radiant with the light of confidence and love.

Peace protected

That the border guards were posted in the mountain village cannot be calculated by the number of months or years, but by their great affection and dedication to the land and people here.

Lieutenant Colonel Le Anh Tuan (Nham Border Guard Post) was dispatched from the sea area to the mountain village to receive the task of Deputy Secretary for strengthening Hong Thuong Commune in 2019 and "encountered" a big storm in 2020. At that time, A Den and A Sap hamlets, which were the resettled hamlets of A Luoi hydropower plant, were in the storm track and hard hit.

Before the storm, the border guards coordinated with the local authorities to call for and help the people to move people and livestock to the safe place. Even so, Lieutenant Colonel Le Anh Tuan was desperate with worry because the local people were impoverished; each piece of property damaged was an additional disadvantage to the people's life.

Shortly after the storm weakened, despite the darkness, heavy rain, road to the two hamlets in some places flooded up to 1.5 meters, Lieutenant Colonel Le Anh Tuan organized his forces to reach the damaged households.

Faced with the scene where dozens of makeshift houses were knocked over,the corrugated iron sheets were blown off, and even the roofs of many households were blown away, Mr. Tuan was heartbroken.

To translate compassion into action, Lieutenant Colonel Le Anh Tuan volunteered to assist a 4th grader, who is fatherless and belongs to poor household, with 500 thousand VND per month. Lieutenant Colonel Tuan said he promised himself that if he still worked here, he would continue to assist until the child finished 12th grade.

While working at Lang Co Border Guard Station (in Phu Loc District), during a big storm and flood, in the face of a life-threatening situation, Lieutenant Colonel Tuan and his comrades were determined to rope themselves to swim amid the 2 meter-high floodwater to save the people. That time, Tuan was struck by waves and almost swept out to sea, but fortunately his comrades pulled him back.

Mr. A Viet Son (Ca Va Hamlet, Dong Son Commune), who was paralyzed in both legs, abandoned by his wife, raising a small child, emotionally talked about the border guards’ concern and help for the difficult circumstances like him and his son to confidently move forward. For the border guards, the love and trust of the people are a valuable support and motivation.

When A Dot Border Gate Guard Station set up an anti-COVID-19 checkpoint (Lieutenant Tai was the first head of checkpoint), the local people agreed on and supported it. “For trust and love for border guards, the people have become the informants and extension arms so that the border guards can promptly detect and prevent criminals from illegally encroaching on forest products, rare animals to protect peace in the borderland," shared senior lieutenant-colonel Dang Ngoc Hieu, Political Director, Provincial Border Guard Command.

By QUYNH ANH