Dear Truong Sa - Part 1: Red flags and yellow stars fluttering all over Truong Sa

The Vietnamese national flag fluttered over Song Tu Tay Island like a flame against the backdrop of the deep blue sky and sea. The whole ship rushed onto the deck... Happiness exploded in me and dozens of reporters from many press agencies across the country - most of whom were visiting the Truong Sa archipelago for the first time on this voyage.

Standing tall between the sea and the sky

Our feet rushed to Song Tu Tay - the first island we visited, as happy as children going to school, the big school taught us once again about love for the Fatherland.

Is this the sacred archipelago – the flesh and blood of the Fatherland that I and millions of Vietnamese people always dream of visiting? How close and dear it is!

The ao dai printed with the red flag with yellow star of the girls stood out among the ranks of the island's soldiers and civilians welcoming us. Against the backdrop of the green trees of the island known as the "green park in the middle of the ocean", the color of the national flag was even more brilliant. Immersed in the brilliant colors, I joined the stream of cadres, soldiers, and island soldiers and civilians going to the pagoda, cheering on the soldiers playing volleyball and soccer, wrapping banh chung, decorating for Tet... Spring seemed to be blooming with the colors of flags and flowers, erasing the great distance between the mainland and the islands.

Dearly during our more than half-month voyage, the bright red national flag fluttered in the sun and wind of Sinh Ton, Song Tu Tay, Co Lin, Len Dao; on the tops of the towers of naval ships, fishing control ships, on the bows of the transport boats that shuttled between the ships and the islands. On the islands, the bright red national flag was on the flagpoles, sovereignty markers and even on the chests of the people living on the islands and visiting the archipelago... The red flags with yellow stars that I saw in the Truong Sa archipelago were all unusually beautiful, proud, majestic and bright red in the vast blue sky, in the middle of the vast sea, unlike any other place.

I was choked up when I witnessed soldiers and reporters using colored pens to color small, pretty national flags on white cranes in preparation for the Memorial Ceremony for the 64 martyrs who died in the Gac Ma sea area. "Gratitude", "Remembrance", "Gratitude"... were the words written on hundreds of cranes, carefully and gently released into the sea where the martyrs had fought and sacrificed their lives. Some people were so seasick that they had to lie on their stomachs to ease their fatigue, still trying to fold and color each crane; then personally offered incense, releasing the cranes carrying the national flag into the waves as a deep expression of gratitude...

“Despite my old age, being able to stand next to the sovereignty marker on the Truong Sa archipelago and watch the red flag with a yellow star fluttering in the sky of the Fatherland makes all the hardships and difficulties of the voyage disappear. I love my homeland and the islands of my Fatherland even more passionately,” confided photographer Nguyen Manh Hung, 72 years old, Head of the Ho Chi Minh City Senior Citizens Photography Association – the oldest member of the delegation.

Pass on a love

During this mission, we were fortunate to attend the sacred flag-raising ceremony right on the islands. The whole group, without anyone telling them, proudly wore their red shirts with yellow stars and solemnly attended.

When the national flag was slowly raised with the national anthem and the sound of the waves, hundreds of eyes looked up as if they had the same wish and thought about the sacred sea and islands. With tears in her eyes throughout the flag-raising ceremony at the beginning of the week on Sinh Ton Island, for Ms. Pham Hong Hanh, Head of the Propaganda Department of Tu Ky District Party Committee (Hai Duong), this was a special flag-raising ceremony in her life. "I have seen red flags with yellow stars flying in Ca Mau Cape, Mong Cai Headland... But being able to look up to the national flag in the middle of the vast ocean with the army and people on Truong Sa archipelago, I am even more grateful to the generations of ancestors who have built, protected and preserved the sovereignty of the sea and islands of my homeland", Ms. Hanh said emotionally. Bringing 10 national flags to give to the army and people of the island communes, Ms. Hanh was filled with regret for not being able to bring more.

The national flags hanging at the crest of the waves and the wind in the vast ocean inevitably fade and become frayed, but will be immediately replaced.

Receiving from Colonel Tran Van Hung, Political Commissar of Song Tu Tay Island, the flags that had faded due to the sun and wind, we all cried. These were old flags stamped with the island's seal, signed by officers and soldiers of the islands. In the luggage returning to the mainland, everyone tried to wrap up and cherish the souvenirs soaked in the sun and wind, imbued with love for the homeland's sea and islands.

The more we love the national flag, the more we remember and are grateful to the generations of people who sacrificed their lives for our homeland's sea and islands. That is Lieutenant Tran Van Phuong, Deputy Commander of Gac Ma Island, Hero of the People's Armed Forces, who in the naval battle 30 years ago bravely took back the national flag when the enemy invaded and robbed it. He sacrificed and left behind the immortal saying: "I would rather sacrifice than lose the island. Let my blood color the national flag...". That is Captain Vu Quang Chuong, Station Chief of DK1/6 Platform, in the moment of life and death in the early morning of December 13, 1998, before the platform collapsed due to a big storm, calmly commanded his brothers to leave the platform, arrange documents, roll up the red flag with a yellow star in his arms, then leave the platform last, peacefully walking into the sea...

I just realized that the national flags that were given and received today in Truong Sa are the transmission of a lasting love - the love of my Fatherland.

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Lesson 2: "Young shoots" on the island