CAM LO, Vietnam Guided by a map drawn by a former U.S. marine, Vietnamese soldiers have unearthed remains of comrades killed more than 32 years ago in some of the most bitter fighting of the Vietnam War.
Excavation began two weeks ago in a Jackfruit orchard in Cam Lo, just off central Vietnam's Highway Nine, after U.S. veteran Geoffrey Steiner visited in June and said the area could hide remains of as many as 600 north Vietnamese army soldiers.
The excavation is the latest to result from a reconciliation initiative launched in 1995 by Vietnam Veterans of America Inc to help Vietnam locate some of its estimated 300,000 war missing.
Steiner, a former marine rifleman from cushing, Minnesota, told Reuters by telephone the Vietnamese soldiers, who included members of the NVA's 325c Division, were killed at the start of the communist's tet offensive in January 1968.
"We were told by a prisoner they came out of college and were told to fight in Tet and then they'd be able to return to college." Steiner, himself only 18 at the time, said many of the Vietnamese he saw lay dead in foxholes they had dug, most killed in airstrikes called in by the marines.
"I believe a lot were napalmed there were jet strikes for days and that's what I think the majority were killed by.
"They (marines) took a tank and they pushed dirt over the small spider holes with the bodies in. I saw the guys laying in there.
I can still see them in my mind." Remains Include Leg Bones and Teeth Lieutenant-Colonel Nguyen Van Phuong said his team of young soldiers had unearthed remains at Cam Lo, including leg bones and teeth, but could not estimate how many men they represented.
Also dug up, testifying both to the battles and the hazards of the work, were several pieces of ordnance, including unexploded mortar bombs and a grenade.
Local officials questioned Steiner's estimate of 600 dead, given the relatively small number of bones so far discovered.
But U.S. experts who have spent years searching for American war missing in Vietnam say the high acidity of the soil and fragmentation of bones by explosions meant many would have disintegrated over the years.
The Vietnamese searchers said the only clothing found so far was the sole of a Chinese pattern plimsol worn by communist soldiers in the war. Steiner said after the battle the marines filled two trucks with weapons and uniforms of the dead.
The human remains recovered from the orchard, wrapped in four blue plastic bags tied with white string, were placed upon a makeshift shrine beneath a green tarpaulin.
Hundreds of Unknown in War Cemeteries They will eventually be interred in a nearby war cemetery containing the remains of more than 9,600 communist war dead.
They will join the 5,000 resting beneath the simple inscription: "liet sy, chua biet ten" or "fallen martyr, name unknown".
Vietnam veterans of America vice president Tom Corey told Reuters that Vietnamese authorities had said they discovered 800 sets of remains based on information from U.S. veterans.
He said another U.S. veteran had provided details of another site near Cam Lo that could contain another 600 dead.
U.S. veterans wanted to repay Vietnam for its help recovering remains of 555 U.S. soldiers who went missing in action in Vietnam, Corey said.
"This is a commitment we've made soldier-to-soldier, veteran-to-veteran.
The Vietnamese don't have all the information and that's what we're trying to provide. We're getting more and more former soldiers coming forward to help." Corey, a former squad leader with the U.S. army's first air cavalry fought near Cam Lo. he was shot in the neck at Dong Ha, about 10 km (six miles) east, on the second day of the Tet offensive and remains paralyzed from the shoulders down.
Vietnamese veterans said they were grateful for the U.S. veterans' initiative and were hoping for more information.
"We welcome all the information we can get from them," said Truong Hong Tan, a former communist guerrilla who heads Quang Tri province's overseas friendship organization. "We helped them find their missing and now they're helping us find ours." "We Can't Just Leave Them There" He said there was little hope of identifying the remains, but at least they could be given a proper burial.
"We can't just leave them there. We who enjoy happiness today have to remember those who fell for us," he said.
Many passing locals, including old soldiers, have stopped to burn incense in respect at the grave site. They included former north vietnamese soldier Nguyen Viet Hoan.
"Many friends who joined the army when I did are still missing.
All we want is to give them a proper burial." Steiner said he would like to return to Vietnam next year to arrange medical help for hilltribe children in Khe Sanh, a former marine base some 45 km (28 miles) west of Cam Lo that was the site of one of the most famous battles of the war.
He became a chaplain after the war and founded the veterans' national living memorial project, for which he planted one tree for each of the U.S. war missing confirmed dead.
"It took me 20 years," he said, adding that he planted another tree in Cam Lo in June.
"I wanted to honor the Vietnamese," he said. "I would like their mothers to know where their loved ones died." (Reuter)