Doctor Nguyen Van Xang, his teammates and Cambodian soldiers presented gifts to commemorate the trip to burn incense for martyrs on July 21, 2025 in Udor Meanchey.
The story was interrupted by continuous phone calls from comrades from Pleiku, Duc Co, from Da Nang , and even from a soldier from Stung Treng calling Nguyen Van Xang - the wounded soldier who had become a doctor to help life and his comrades.
At 3am tomorrow morning, the brothers here will board the vehicles and march to the Le Thanh border gate (Duc Co) to carry out the sacred annual mission for their comrades, the heroic martyrs who have remained in the cemeteries along the border...
Write an application for military service
At the end of his senior year of high school (1978), Nguyen Van Xang turned 18 years old. News of the war to protect the southwestern border of the Fatherland echoed back. With youthful enthusiasm, Xang wrote a volunteer application to join the army and was immediately accepted.
On September 30, 1978, he and his unit marched to Gia Lai , straight to the border and set foot on K land. His unit belonged to the 93rd Regiment, Division 2 (E93 F2) of Military Region 5, advancing in the direction of Duc Co - Stung Treng.
Bloody battles followed the soldiers' footsteps throughout the mountainous regions and villages of the land of pagodas. While marching, fighting, and training, new recruits like Xang matured quickly. He joined the guard platoon of the 93rd regiment. The guard's mission was to closely follow and protect the regimental commanders who went on reconnaissance and research before the battle.
And one fateful afternoon called Xang's name. During a fierce clash with the Pol Pot army, a DKZ-82 shell hit Xang in the unit's battle formation. He only remembered a bright flash of fire that surrounded him. And when he woke up, he found himself lying in the division's forward infirmary!
Doctor Nguyen Van Xang and General Seng Sareu (Cambodia) at the foot of the Vietnam Volunteer Soldiers Monument in Udor Meanchey province.
From war invalid to doctor
During the months he was in the field hospital and then transferred to the base hospital, Xang witnessed firsthand the hardships and devotion and love of the nurses and doctors for the wounded.
They did not hesitate to take care of the seriously wounded soldiers, feeding them spoonfuls of porridge, reminding them to take their medicine, and changing their clothes. They would receive, care for, and treat them at any time, without a word of complaint... Once, Xang witnessed a captain - a doctor from Nghe Tinh, after a 4-5 hour surgery, when he walked out of the operating room, he was exhausted and collapsed.
When he was still in school, Xang dreamed of studying geology to explore the country's resources. However, after spending months in the hospital, he admired the military doctors and changed his dream: he would definitely take the medical school entrance exam, study to become a doctor to save his comrades and help others.
At the end of 1980, after treatment, Xang was discharged from the army with a ¾ disabled card, losing 41% of his strength. With all his determination, like the will of a soldier on the battlefield, he tried hard to study and passed the entrance exam to Hue University of Medicine. Notably, he was the valedictorian of biology with 7.5 points.
And with the will of a soldier, Xang overcame his school years when the country was still very difficult. With the standard of a student, 12kg of food/month, hunger was almost constant. "We went to school hungry, slept hungry, but our generation was probably used to hunger so we still exercised every day, optimistic about the future. I was on the hardship allowance, had a scholarship because of my poor family and war invalids, so I shared some necessities with my roommates.
An unforgettable memory during the flood season in the Central region in 1983, my special shoes for disabled soldiers with short and long legs were lost in the flood. I had to travel to Da Nang, stay for two days to remake a pair of disabled soldiers' shoes with a 5cm difference in soles to wear to school..." - Mr. Xang confided.
At the end of 1986, when he graduated, the school wanted to keep him as a lecturer, but he insisted on working at Khanh Hoa General Hospital - his second hometown. Xang was born in Phu Vang (Hue), in 1968, due to the increasingly fierce war, his parents moved to Nha Trang.
Help life, help teammates
A doctor who had just graduated and was also a severely wounded veteran, he had to seek out and learn more expertise to pursue his career and keep up with his colleagues. With his constant efforts, he was entrusted with many positions such as deputy head of the medical department, head of the general planning department, then promoted to deputy director, and in 2014 he was appointed director of Khanh Hoa General Hospital until his retirement in 2020.
Regardless of his position, the war invalid - doctor Nguyen Van Xang always completes the tasks assigned by the organization. In addition to his expertise, he actively participates in social activities.
As the chairman of the provincial General Hospital Veterans Association, he has implemented many practical programs to support the provincial Veterans Association, such as providing medical examinations and periodic screenings for veterans and war invalids in difficult circumstances. He also mobilized funds to buy hearing aids, wheelchairs, and crutches to give to war invalids in especially difficult circumstances...
In the last days of July, Xang and Nguyen Kinh, also a 2/4 wounded soldier who had fought with the platoon, organized a group to return to the old battlefield to burn incense for the souls of the martyrs. The group gathered in Duc Co with some veterans from Quang Ngai, Dak Lak, Da Nang... to go to cemeteries to burn incense for their comrades.
Doctor Xang confided: "After retirement, I am busier than when I was still working because I am rarely at home. I usually go on trips to find comrades still living in the provinces and cities, and to find the remains of friends who are buried somewhere in the national cemeteries...".
With more than 30 years of active contributions to the medical industry, in 2008, Dr. Nguyen Van Xang was awarded the title of Meritorious Physician by the State. In 2018, he was awarded the Third Class Labor Medal by the President. Dr. Xang was also awarded the noble title of People's Physician by the President in 2020.
Comradeship
Doctor Xang visits his comrade Bang at Dien Khanh Mental Hospital - Photo: NVCC
Doctor Xang has many fond memories of comradeship: "One day I met Mr. Men, a soldier in the same unit E93 as me. Men told him that there was a comrade named Bang who was mentally ill and wandering somewhere, and that we had to find him and help him get treatment and make a living! Bang's wife was selling lottery tickets, and one of his children had mild mental illness, and one had no job, so he had to work as a "handyman" doing whatever job anyone hired him to do.
I heard and felt heartbroken, I immediately went to find out that he was Dinh Van Bang, a soldier from Phu Khanh who joined the army in 1976. When we fought in the K battlefield, we were in the same unit E93-F2. Soldiers fought continuously, ate and slept day and night in the forest, so many people were knocked down by malignant malaria. Bang was the same, after many bouts of fever while in the army, when he returned home he was physically weak, his illness relapsed and he became mentally ill.
We met Bang, but he himself no longer knew who he was. We had to make a "battle plan" like a battle. At G-hour, the veterans came to his house to advise him and "escort" Bang to the mental hospital in Dien Khanh for treatment. Every two weeks, we contributed money to visit him.
In addition to medicine, each time we went up, we brought guitars, dry food, and snacks to eat and sing with Bang like when he was a soldier on the battlefield. Hopefully, the heroic memories would help him gradually regain consciousness...
So Bang recovered and returned home. At the end of that year, his comrades came to visit and brought year-end gifts to Bang's family. Seeing him standing in front of the altar burning incense for his ancestors, we all felt like crying."
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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nguoi-thuong-binh-thanh-bac-si-giup-doi-20250727075350053.htm
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