
Mother Nguyen Thi Suot

Mother Nguyen Thi Suot (1906 - 1968), was a labor heroine in the Vietnam War, a 60-year-old woman, who risked her life doggedly ferrying Vietnamese soldiers and artillery in a small wooden-boat to the other side of the river bank of Nhat Le river during the years 1964 - 1967.

This is the story of a humble heroine – Me Suot ( The mother named Suot).


                                                                  Mother Nguyen Thi Suot

She was born in 1906 in My Canh hamlet, Bao Ninh commune of Dong Hoi, Quang Binh Province. She was born in a poor fishing family, grew up and worded for a landowner for 18 years.

Me Suot married a fisherman, with whom she had five children. Before the war escalated in the northMe Suot plied the same trade, boating people across the river in the 1960s. Often she was paid in rice, but in small quantities because rice was a precious commodity then. Other times she was paid with yam or cassava.

When the US bombed the wharf and surrounding areas, all the other ferrymen left. Only Me Suot bravely stayed to help the soldiers across the river.
The US planes rained down bombs at the two wharves in hope of eliminating this transportation artery. But in between attacks Me Suot continued to cross regardless.

Her name became known throughout the country. She was officially deemed a heroine of Vietnam and asked to travel to the country’s Congress of Heroes and Congress of Emulative Soldiers in Hanoi.

On October 11, 1968, Me Suot was killed in the attack by two steel-pellet bombs of the U.S jet. It’s said that a few days after the attack,two US planes and one vessel were destroyed by villagers and guerrillas.

Nowadays, the Me Suot statue stays on a small bar by the Nhat Le River, a short distance away, the newly-built Nhat Le Bridge, spanning Dong Hoi town with Bao Ninh commune, straddles both sides of the river, casting its lights along the silver water.