The city’s only surviving soldier in the Gac Ma Island battle in the Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago on 14 March 1988, Mr Duong Van Dung, passed away at his home in Da Nang’s Cam Le District at 4.00pm on Sunday at the age of 51.

Mr Dung (centre)

Mr Dung was born in 1966 in Da Nang.  He was one of the city’s 10 soldiers onboard the boat HQ 604 who were responsible for building and protecting the nation’s sovereignty over the Gac Ma, Co Lin and Len Dao islands in March 1988. 

Nine of them laid down their lives in the Gac Ma Island battle on 14 March 1988, but Mr Dung survived.  He and another 8 soldiers from other localities were arrested and imprisoned for around 4 years by the Chinese military.  In 1991, Mr Dung was released and earned a living as a manual worker.

In 2015, he was diagnosed with a brain cancer.  In late November 2016, the city’s Liaison Committee for the Truong Sa archipelago’s ex-soldiers and war veterans held a get-together for ex-servicemen who had once been imprisoned and tortured by the Chinese army at the hospital where Mr Dung was receiving medical treatment.  This touching gathering was a spiritual medicine which helped Mr Dung in his fight against his life-threatening disease.