Lighting Traditional Fire in “Future Teachers”

As a continuation of the exchange meetings between the Army Institute and university students in Da Lat, the “Souvenirs of Those Who Went to B” program was held at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education on December 14, 2005.

As a continuation of the exchange meetings between the Army Institute and university students in Da Lat, the “Souvenirs of Those Who Went to B” program was held at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education on December 14, 2005.

Lighting Traditional Fire in “Future Teachers” ảnh 1
Writer Tran Van Tuan (in black) Lieutenant General Nguyen Thoi Bung (in middle) and Dr. Pham Xuan Hau (in right) in the meeting

Teachers, staff, who are veterans, and over 500 students of the university joined an exchange meeting with veterans who “went to B”, including Lieutenant General Nguyen Thoi Bung, the Former Vice Minister of the National Defense Ministry, Writer Tran Van Tuan, Deputy Chief-In-Editor of the Saigon Giai Phong Newspaper, Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Xuan Hau, Head of the Educational Science Institution of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, Ta Quang Lam M.A., Header of the Veteran Club of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, Composer The Hai, from the Sai Gon Giai Phong Newspaper.
 

The “Souvenirs of Those Who Went to B” program of the Saigon Giai Phong Newspaper has been quickly spread to several of universities in Ho Chi Minh City during the past month. In the University of Education, the news about this program was announced two months ago.

At the beginning of the exchange meeting, after introducing the meaning and purpose of the program, writer Tran Van Tuan, Deputy Editor of the Saigon Giai Phong Newspaper stressed in his statement, “The “Souvenirs of Those Who Went to B” program will not end up like an ordinary social one.

From this program, those of today, especially young people will continue coming to “those who went to B” in order to discover the history and culture of “to B” during the Great War that freed the South of Vietnam and united the whole country”.

Together with the board of the program, Dr. Bach Van Hop, Vice Rector of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education appreciated the meaningful work of the Saigon Giai Phong Newspaper in organizing this program.

He hoped that the live reminiscences of those who went to B, especially those of the generals, would be precious knowledge for students – the would-be teacher. On behalf of the leaders of the university, he also wished his own students to try harder in their study so that they could follow the previous generations in building and protecting the country.

At the beginning of the exchange meeting, Lieutenant General Nguyen Thoi Bung proved to be so touched when saying the words “went to B”. He said that this is a sacred call of the Homeland.

And this phrase was not reserved for anyone. He said that in those days, everyone eagerly went to B. He also told touching stories. Writer Tran Van Tuan added stories about the lives of the soldiers who went to B in the war time. All those stories attracted young students so much.

Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Xuan Hau went to B in Jun, 1967, after graduating from high school. Like other young people then, he refused to study abroad and volunteered to go to B. Starting from Thanh Hoa in the North, he had to walk twenty kilometers per night to the South.

Ta Quang Lam, M.A., also told many exciting stories through his poems made during the time in B. Composer The Hai sang with the audience without a microphone in order to help revive the image in which musical performers went out to the battlefield to inspire soldiers fighting in B.

Especially, two singers, Nhat Sinh and Quoc Dinh had canceled their show and came to the meeting under the rain to donate their songs to the meeting. The “Souvenirs of those who went to B” program was welcomed and supported by a large number of people.

In order to help making a fund to support veterans who are very poor and have a lot of difficulties in their lives, the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education donated twenty million VND.