NationStates Jolt Archive


Vietnam War veterans dead in bus crash!

Iztatepopotla
21-04-2005, 15:50
Sad, eh? Some of them were quite old.

Source (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/04/21/vietnam.crash.ap/index.html)

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Thirty-one Vietnamese war veterans and a driver were killed in a bus crash Thursday while en route to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, police said.

The crash occurred at about 7:30 a.m. on the old Ho Chi Minh trail -- which has been converted into a highway -- in Kon Tum province about 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of Danang when the bus rounded a curve and plummeted about 70 meters off a mountain into a valley, said A Tri, district police chief.

Only two of the 33 people aboard survived and all of the bodies have been recovered, he said.

The veterans, including 14 women, were aged 60-70 and had fought for Vietnam's independence against the French and the Americans, he said. They were all from one neighborhood in Hanoi.

Tri said 29 people died on the spot, while two others died on the way to a hospital.

The veterans left Hanoi on Monday as part of a tour to visit old battlefields with plans to arrive in the former South Vietnam capital of Saigon to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the end of the war on April 30, said a local official from Hanoi who gave his name only as Lien.
Drunk commies reborn
21-04-2005, 15:55
They lived through a major war and died in a common traffic accident. Well, at least they lived into their 60s and 70s.
Greedy Pig
21-04-2005, 15:56
Thats sad.
Iztatepopotla
21-04-2005, 16:55
They lived through a major war and died in a common traffic accident. Well, at least they lived into their 60s and 70s.
I think that's part of what makes it sad. It works on severa levels.

Plus it kind of reminded me that wars are not fought by people like Ho-Chi Min or Nixon, but by kids from the suburb or the inner city, or peasant farmers and villagers.