‘Square almond’ trees surround the island and create a fresh and cool atmosphere during blazing days. Both soldiers and residents in the island love to sit under almond trees for relax.

(VOVworld) – During a recent voyage to Truong Sa also called the Spratly Archipelago, a VoV reporter was lucky to meet up with Lieutenant-colonel Le Van Tan, former commander of Truong Sa Lon from 1978 to 1987. He had stayed on the island for 10 years and was the first person to grow Barringtonia asiatica there. Today, we’ll tell you about this man.

In 1970, Le Van Tan, from the central province of Thanh Hoa, enlisted in the army at the age of 20. After completing his training, in 1971, he was moved to battlefields in the Central Highlands. Tan said when he heard on Radio the Voice of Vietnam that Sai Gon had been liberated and the country was re-unified, he and his comrades embraced each other and burst into tears. Although the country was at peace, in early 1976, Tan set off to do the mission of a soldier of Uncle Ho in Sin Ton Island, part of the Truong Sa Archipelago.

In the early days, he and the other soldiers began to develop the island’s facilities, at that time, there was no electricity, fresh water, or vegetables. The only food was in cans brought from the mainland and fish caught from the sea. Tan recalls the difficult times of he and his comrades went through ‘Both the spiritual and material lives of the soldiers on the island was so hard in the beginning. We had to ask for help from the mainland while making the best of what there was and build somewhere for the soldiers to stay’.

When life on Sinh Ton Island started to get better, Le Van Tan was transferred to Truong Sa Lon. The night before he left, his comrades played the guitar and sang songs to cheer him up. They said nothing but he understood that they loved him. This was comradeship and brotherhood.

Tan almost started to cry when he returned to Spratly Archipelago 25 years later. Being the only person from the visiting party to have been to the island before, Tan immediately goes to the tree he planted in the island’s compound. The old tree now has big branches that rise up to the sun. Tan recalls ‘We went through such a difficult period. Sometimes, there wasn’t even a working radio on the island. Ours was broken and been taken to the mainland for repair. The island’s commander managed to rig up something to tune in the radio to welcome in the New Year 1978 for all the soldiers and staff on the island’.

Tan remembered how he grew the tree. Once when  on patrol at sea, he came across a kind of fruit with 4 sides which was unusual. He planted the seed but didn’t think it would grow into a large tree. He says ‘Planted 25 years ago, it is now quite an old tree. This tree supplied the seeds to grow trees on the islands. We used to use its leaves to wrap up Chung cakes. Its acrid taste and green color made us think of almond trees on the mainland, so we called it the ‘Square almond’.

On the Spratly archipelago, the Square almond trees are loved the most by the soldiers. Its fruit is a precious gift, they present to their relatives from the mainland. Major Nguyen Van Hien is Deputy Head of the Truong Sa Lon ‘

Tan helped greatly with the development and protection of the nation’s seas and islands. We are following in his footsteps and promise to protect the country’s maritime sovereignty forever’.