Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Liberation of the South and National Reunification (April 30, 1975 - April 30, 2025): Hanoi Capital - The Great Rear with Full of Loyalty and Love Part 5: The "Truong Son Stick" Movement

The homeland of the "Truong Son Stick" - Hoa Xa commune (now Thai Hoa commune, Ung Hoa district) has always shone with revolutionary spirit, continuing the heroic tradition of our ancestors to steadily move forward.

Own initiative

The “Truong Son Stick” movement was launched widely in the North, contributing to motivating and creating more strength for generations of young people to cross Truong Son to the South to fight the Americans. Photo: VNA

Implementing the Project on rearranging commune-level administrative units in the period of 2023-2025, the communes of Hoa Xa, Van Thai, and Hoa Nam were merged and renamed Thai Hoa commune.

With the tradition of the heroic revolutionary lowland region and the story of the “Truong Son Stick”, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Thai Hoa Commune, Do Van Tuyen, proudly said that in the old Hoa Xa Commune, the Party organization had existed since early 1943. Located in the cradle of resistance, Hoa Xa has always been at the forefront of revolutionary movements. In building forces and selecting young people to fight the Americans, Hoa Xa emerged as an outstanding example with the initiative to build a reserve unit.

This initiative was replicated in many communes in the district, the province and the North at that time. More specifically, this initiative is also associated with the story of the homeland movement "The Truong Son Stick" - the pride of generations today and tomorrow.

As a son of Hoa Xa who has worked directly in the locality for many years, Mr. Phung Van Manh, former Chairman of the Veterans Association of Hoa Xa commune, still retains many precious memories of his homeland. Even though he has been retired for a long time, the historical days are still intact in his memory, especially the context of the birth of the "legendary" Truong Son stick.

Mr. Phung Van Manh said: In the years 1965-1966, when he was in secondary school, the anti-American movement to save the country spread widely and vigorously throughout the country and Hoa Xa was also seething with the spirit of anti-American to save the country. The movement to join the army to support the battlefield in the South was high and was the top priority. At that time, Hoa Xa only had about 2,500 to 2,700 people, but there were years when more than 100 young men joined the army. Many young men were only 17, 18 years old, weighing less than 40 kg, but they were still enthusiastic about volunteering to go to war.

As a locality with an early revolutionary movement, in the work of recruiting soldiers, Hoa Xa had its own initiative, especially effective to be ready to send soldiers in all situations. Along with the slogans of the whole country such as: "All for the front line", "All to defeat the American invaders", "Splitting Truong Son to save the country"..., Hoa Xa proposed the slogan: "The front line needs one, Hoa Xa has two", "Hoa Xa youth who have gone are victorious"...

Hoa Xa also built a reserve unit to gather all young men aged 16 and 17 for military training twice a week. During training, these young men also had to go through hard work like real soldiers: Carrying heavy backpacks and marching continuously in different terrains, practicing formation, swimming across rivers, practicing shooting, throwing grenades... The reserve unit was in charge and commanded by two party members who were demobilized soldiers. In each training session, women and mothers served water to the young men; the elderly chopped bamboo, cut trees to make sticks, wove baskets to hold bricks and heavy stones instead of backpacks... to provide for the reserve unit for training. With this military training method, when entering the army, Hoa Xa youth quickly integrated, grasped the work and performed their tasks well.

The Hoa Xa movement was quite prominent, attracting many places to study and sign emulation agreements. Many writers and poets also used the setting of Hoa Xa to compose poems and literature to promote the movement. Among those artists and writers, musician Pham Tuyen stood out. He returned to the locality for about a week and stayed in the old house of the commune committee headquarters. The scene of the young people practicing enthusiastically in the evenings became the inspiration for musician Pham Tuyen to compose the song "The Truong Son Stick". The song entered the battlefield, became a song by heart of the generation of young people fighting against the US and was the pride of the people of Hoa Xa commune in particular, Ung Hoa district in general...

Also related to the Truong Son stick, the story of 3 sons of the homeland: Do Tit, Luu Long and Phung Quan, on the way to the Southern battlefield, left 3 sticks for their fellow countrymen to bring back to their hometown to inform their relatives that they had arrived at the battlefield safe and sound... This touching story further spread the vitality of the Truong Son stick throughout the country...

In addition to the military training initiative, Hoa Xa also made a number of small flags embroidered with stars with the words "Hoa Xa presents, leaving is victory" to give to young men joining the army. "Those who leave for military service elect a representative to write in the tradition book and everyone signs their names on a large flag before leaving. The day I joined the army, the locality also gave me that small flag. At that time, we were young and did not fully understand the meaning of these actions. But later on, the more we understood, the more we absorbed, the more we saw the sacred value. That was a great source of strength that helped the locality always meet and exceed the target of recruiting troops to support the southern battlefield during the years when the whole country went to war" - Mr. Phung Van Manh recalled.

New momentum for the homeland

Carrying the pride of his fathers' generation, Deputy Secretary of Thai Hoa Commune Youth Union Luu Manh Hung shared more: Hoa Xa is not only famous for the "Truong Son stick" movement but also steadfastly committed to the movement of giving "loyalty rings" or strongly responding to the task of producing 8 million meters of mosquito nets for the front line... Those unique initiatives have helped Hoa Xa always be at the forefront of many movements; for many years it has been the "flag bearer" of the district, the province, and the military region. There was a period of 15-20 years when the commune was continuously a decisive unit...

In the book "Ung Hoa 70 years of development and aspirations to rise (1954-2024), it is recorded that: During the years of the resistance war against the US, to save the country, Hoa Xa was one of the leading communes in the movement to join the army to fight the enemy and build a strong militia and guerrilla force. Hoa Xa had 680 young people go to war, of which 91 people heroically sacrificed on the battlefields. The whole commune had 6 families with 4 children joining the resistance war; 11 families with 3 children going to the front; 61 families with 2 children going to the army. With great contributions in the resistance war against the US, to save the country, in 1973, the people of Hoa Xa were honored to be awarded the title of Hero of the People's Armed Forces by the Party and State...

Talking about the new momentum for the locality, Do Van Tuyen, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Thai Hoa Commune, emphasized that the homeland of "The Truong Son Stick" today has new strength and new scale thanks to the merger of the three communes of Van Thai, Hoa Xa and Hoa Nam. The number of enterprises and production households in the industrial and handicraft sectors is increasing. Enterprises such as Maxcore Company Limited and 2-9 Hanoi Company Limited attract a large number of workers. The traditional weaving craft village of Hoa Xa is maintained with 35 curtain weaving households and 60 weaving machines, aiming to improve product quality and expand the consumption market.

Time has passed, but the enthusiasm of the “Truong Son Stick” movement still contributes to building national solidarity. In all common tasks, people always join forces, unite, contribute labor and money, build roads, donate land for roads, build new rural areas... Some businesses and businessmen are children of the homeland and have contributed a lot to the locality, but they always humbly accompany the development of this land...

Standing Deputy Secretary of the District Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Council of Ung Hoa District Nguyen Chi Vien affirmed: The revolutionary tradition of the homeland "Truong Son stick" has always been preserved and passed down by Party committees at all levels, authorities and people, which is a great source of endogenous strength for Thai Hoa to develop more and more steadily.

(To be continued)

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/ky-niem-50-nam-ngay-giai-phong-mien-nam-thong-nhat-dat-nuoc-30-4-1975-30-4-2025-thu-do-ha-noi-hau-phuong-lon-tron-nghia-ven-tinh-bai-5-phong-trao-chiec-gay-truong-son-niem-tu-hao-cua-lop-lop-the-he-699880.html