While in Vietnam (for real, not google earth) I took a picture. One of many. It turned out to be the statue at the entrance of the Vietnamese equivalent of Arlington National Cemetery.

Back in April of 2007 I wrote a article on the cemetery over at Blogster. It is copied below. At the end of the article you will find a video embedded about the Cemetery. The man who made it served in Vietnam also, and now lives in Thailand as an English teacher. His video work is well done using Google Earth.

The Wandering Statue
April 27, 2007 / by Saito56

"He" has often appeared in this area at midnight since 1967. Many times he was just wandering about on the village roads for nothing and disappeared at a wink when somebody approached. He sometimes stopped by lonely homes straggling on the flat land beside the Saigon-Bien Hoa Highway. He has never scared people, only asked for water, especially during dry season when the climate usually reached above 90 degrees Fahrenheit and higher."

"He wore field dress with jungle boots, a rifle and bandoleers on his shoulders, a helmet in one hand and an empty canteen in the other. He looks exactly like the statue 'The Mourning Soldier.'"

That story has been spread far and wide, and many people who live in and outside the villages surrounding the National Military Cemetery confirmed the appearances of the Mourning Soldier.

Such a mystic tale is easily accepted by people in any country, particularly in Vietnam in war. After decades of armed conflict with death by their sides every day, people have to rely on something, however superstitious it might be, to ease themselves from horrors of war.

The story is associated with the National Military Cemetery, located at a gently sloping hill of more than 500 acres, midway between Saigon and Bien Hoa and close to the highway. Constructing a national cemetery had been intended under the administration of President Ngo Dinh Diem, who died in a coup on November 2, 1963. The idea was translated into reality in 1965 and inaugurated on November 1, 1966 by President Nguyen Van Thieu.

On the corner where the road leading into the cemetery links with the highway, was a large statue of a soldier. He sat on a rock, his M-1 rifle laid on his lap, his helmet pushed a little up above his forehead. His sorrowful countenance expressed his feeling that was described as "mourning his fallen fighting fellows ." It was a famous work of the sculptor Nguyen Thanh Thu, now resettled in South California.

In 1965, Mr Thu was given the task of carving a statue memorizing the dead heroes. It took him many weeks before he caught a sight from which he drew an inspiration. In a rural shop near the old military cemetery, he found an airborne corporal who was drinking beer with his invisible fighting fellow to whom he had just said farewell at the funeral.

The sorrowful look and posture of the airborne corporal helped Mr Thu's ideas materialize. Upon Thu's request, Corporal Vo Van Hai became the model for Thu's work. It was made of concrete first and unveiled on November 1, 1966, at the same time with the inauguration of the memorial temple in the cemetery. In late 1969, it was moved to Saigon to be cast in bronze and returned to its place in 1971.

The statue was named "Thuong Tiec," that could be translated as Lamentation, or Mourning, or Sorrow. (VQ Home Page uses "The Mourning Soldier" ).

Hours after Saigon was taken over on April 30, 1975, the Communists pulled down the art work and destroyed it.

Now the video,,,