What a Soldier can do for his Comrades in the Name of the Living

Maj. Aurél Dylski and Capt. Csaba Cziboly had not volunteered for the task  they had been chosen for the mission. They went to Vietnam as peacekeepers to supervise compliance with the terms of the ceasefire according to the treaty signed in Paris, to investigate possible violations, and to supervise the exchange of prisoners and the disarmament process. They started out on January 26, 1973, but their mission  conducted with their eight comrades (a 3-man American crew of the aircraft, 2 Vietnamese officers, a Canadian and an Indonesian officer and an interpreter)  ended very soon. The tragedy did not crush the determination of the Hungarians  it strengthened their cohesion and spirit of camaraderie, so the performance of the 636-strong contingent was exemplary: their professionalism, their willingness to make sacrifices and individual capabilities earned recognition for our country and improved its image.

Hungary suffered its first loss in a mission on March 10, 1897, when (Navy) Lieutenant Ferenc Martinek, one of our peacekeepers deployed to Crete, lost his life. The heroes of Vietnam were to be the next, and the number of troops killed in action has reached 13 by today.

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We are paying our tribute to our role models, but we are decreasing in number. We honor our traditions, so we cannot forget these heroes. Their grave has become the venue of an annual pilgrimage, where we come to commemorate them together with their fellow passengers and co-workers, as well as those who witnessed the horrors together with them, and with the representatives of other peacekeeper’s and veteran associations. We do what a solider can do for his comrades in the name of the living. We keep their memory alive in our heart to make it more lasting than marble  Col. Gyula Nagy emphasized in his memorial speech.

At the grave of the fallen heroes wreaths were laid by the MoD Office of Public Affairs and War Grave Care, the MoD Office of International Cooperation and Arms Control, the HDF Eastern Hungarian Augmentation/Recruitment Command, the Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and representatives of the ‘International Commission of Control and Supervision’ Branch. Floral tributes were laid by Sgt. Imre Endre Kálmán, who was in Vietnam at the time and turned 20 on the day of the event, the members of the border guard branch of retired Ministry of the Interior employees and Aurél Dylski’s widow.

Photo: László Tóth