July is called the Month of Tribute in the war-torn central province of Quang Tri as tens of thousands of people nationwide visit and offer incense to fallen soldiers who are resting in peace at local cemeteries.

Since the beginning of this month, a series of activities have been held in Quang Tri in commemoration of martyrs at 72 cemeteries, including two national ones, namely Truong Son and Road 9.

Opening the Month of Tribute was a grand requiem, which was held on the bank of Thach Han river to commemorate fallen combatants, who laid their lives in a fierce battlefield at the ancient citadel of Quang Tri in 1972. Five hundred of war veterans, who fought during the 81-day battle, attended the ceremony.

Prominent among the veterans are four Heroes of the People’s Armed Forces who used to be officers and soldiers of the Thach Han Regiment – deputy head of the regime Tran Minh Van, head of company Bui Trung Thanh and Vu Trung Thuong and Mai Ngoc Thoang.

At the Truong Son National Martyrs’ Cemetery, since the beginning of July, tens of delegations have come to offer incenses and flowers in tribute to the martyrs each day, said Ho Tat Ai, head of the cemetery management board, adding that the cemetery received even over 100 delegations a day.

The Truong Son Martyrs’ Cemetery, the largest of its kind in Vietnam , buried more than 10,300 sets of remains collected from the battlefields along the Truong Son mountain range, commonly known as Ho Chi Minh trail.

At the Road 9 National Martyrs Cemetery, hundreds of delegations have come to pay tribute to the soldiers. The cemetery is the resting place for over 10,000 soldiers who were killed at the Road 9 battlefield and in Laos during the resistance war against the US imperialists.

The facility, built in 1995, was named after a road that was a strategic transport artery connecting the Vietnam-Laos borderline with Dong Ha, in Quang Tri province, during the war./.