2nd tour to FSB Russell with families of deceased NVA sappers

Before doing the tour, we had met the night earlier at a local restaurant in Dong Ha city for getting to know each other.

mr Tru and I had time for a photo pose together. We had been communicating for a long time before being able to materialize this tour. The initial tour was planned several months before (23rd October) but it was delayed because of a big typhoon hit central Vietnam. Thus, we had to reschedule this tour until the first days of the new year (2nd Jan 2021).

Another photo pose with mr Phan Van Que who was an NVA scout doing reconnaissance of Fire Support Base Russell in 1969.

From left to right: Mr Lam, me, Mr Tru.

Mr Lam is a news reporter who works for Quang Tri Radio and Television (QRTV) for a long time. Mr Lam and I were co-workers for a few years when I was working for QRTV back in 2008-2010.

Mr Lam reporter is taking photos of the Bru village nearby where we stop for start hiking up Fire Support Base Russell. Luckily, the road to the village of Bru ethnic people in the western district of Dakrong of Quang Tri province has been improved recently so that our minivans could penetrate closer to Firebase Russell.

In this picture you can see 2 typical stilt houses of the Bru people living in western Quang Tri province. These 2 still houses have a very unique traditional architecture design which is to avoid forest/jungle animals like tigers, snakes, ... and also to keep the floor warm, dry during the wet and cold monsoon winter season. Usually, the Bru - Van Kieu stilt houses would be sitting on the mountain side in order to taking advantage of the mountain range to block the adverse wind. In the last century, the Bru people used to be lumberjacks for their house but recently because of the government strict law on logging/cutting down trees, their houses now are being built more of cement, reinforced concrete especially the house pillars than timber/woods.