Artillery Brigade 454 (Military Region 3) is tasked with training, combat readiness, natural disaster response, search and rescue, and other contingency missions. When performing its tasks, alongside advantages, the Brigade has been faced with various difficulties; it is stationed in a large area; its cadres and soldiers basically work and live in one-storey dormitories which have been in use for ages; its budget for facility repair is limited; weather conditions are complex. Those elements have greatly impacted on its barrack management and building as well as on troops’ living and working conditions. Against that backdrop, over the years, in addition to raising the quality of training and combat readiness, building an “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively Brigade, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have promoted internal strength, self-reliance, and self-strengthening, overcoming difficulties, stepping up the building of “regular, bright, green, clean, beautiful” barracks as an important foundation for cadres and soldiers to readily undertake and accomplish all their assigned tasks.

Troops of the Brigade taking care of a flower garden

First of all, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have focused their leadership and direction on construction planning and barrack management in a regular, modern, economical manner. Under higher echelons’ directives, resolutions, and guidance on barrack work, particularly Directive 109/CT-BTL, dated 14 January 2021, by Military Region 3’s Commander on stepping up the emulation movement of “building and managing regular, bright, green, clean, beautiful barracks”, the Brigade Party Committee has developed a specialised resolution, with a focus on clarifying the movement’s content, identifying central points and phases of construction, and devising measures relevant to the Brigade’s budget, task particularities, and cantonment. To realise that resolution, the Brigade has established and assigned its Steering Board for Barrack Construction to collaborate with competent offices and consultancies in surveying each affiliate’s location, compiling and categorising barrack models as the basis for proposing a master plan for barrack layout and design templates to the Military Region, from the Brigade’s Headquarters, offices, units, combat training constructions, and public facilities. A noticeable point in the Brigade’s planning work is that it has taken advantage of natural elements, i.e. forest, hill, orchard, and fish pond in conjunction with functional zones, thereby creating a green, clean, airy, healthy space for every construction. Notably, the Brigade has divided its crop/animal husbandry zone into inter-connected subzones to make use of their functions, including a battalion-level subzone mainly for planting vegetables as direct supplies for troops’ meals and a brigade-level subzone for animal husbandry to ensure tidiness and cleanliness, facilitate utilities, and avoid any effects on the environment.

A part from planning work, in the construction process, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have promoted the role of the Project Management Board and Supervision Team in building, supervising, and accepting constructions under the procedures and regulations set by the State and the Ministry of National Defence on capital construction, closely carrying out investment capital management, payment, and settlement, handing over and putting constructions into use on schedule with good quality; project dossiers have been preserved and archived under relevant regulations. Besides, the Brigade has aligned construction with environmental improvement towards the “greening” of its barracks. Adhering to its master plan and criteria for building regular, bright, green, clean, beautiful barracks, it has closely combined site clearance and infrastructural development with tree planting. It has selected and planted fruit trees, shade trees, timber trees, and perennial trees appropriate to the soil conditions to ensure a harmony of its landscape and economic value. Up to now, it has planted over 250,000 timber trees, 5,000 fruit trees, and thousands of shade trees; it has also planted and improved lawns and flower gardens with a total area of 214,857 square metres, creating a green space and bringing economic benefits to troops’ life.

In order to raise the quality and effectiveness of constructions, it is vital to focus on management and maintenance work. Hence, the Brigade has directed its Logistics - Technical Department to cooperate with other offices and units to regularly inspect, review, and categorise barrack constructions according to their quality, condition, and lifetime. Grounded on those inspections and reviews, the Logistics - Technical Department has given advice to the Brigade Command on mobilising resources and making forecasts for maintenance and medium-term, long-term construction in a feasible way. At the same time, due attention has been paid to strictly maintaining statistical work for barrack assets under higher echelons’ guidance and regulations. Moreover, the Brigade has concentrated on managing and using electricity, water, and barrack equipment effectively, safely, and economically. Great value has been attached to maintenance, anti-leakage, anti-collapse, fire prevention, and lightning protection for constructions as a routine, important task aimed at improving their quality, extending their lifespan, and ensuring the absolute safety of personnel, weapons, and equipment. Various measures have been adopted to save electricity and water. While conducting propagation and education to raise its troops’ responsibility for using water and electricity safely, economically within offices and units, the Brigade has directed the Logistics - Technical Department to install electricity and water meters for the sake of close monitoring and efficient management. The Brigade has invested in upgrading its electricity transmission system, replacing bare overhead wires with insulated, underground ones, employing energy-saving bulb system, setting up on/off regulations for public lighting devices, regularly cleaning and reinforcing drilled wells, water pipes, and water tanks to prevent water overflow and leakage, ensure safe, sufficient supply, and minimise wastefulness. In order to improve the effectiveness of managing and using barrack equipment for troops’ life, the Brigade has decentralised management work to each office and unit, while aligning responsibilities of individuals and heads of its affiliates with the management and use of barrack materials. It has given uniform management records to its affiliates, well conducting the work of asset inventory and management, frequently arranging and improving barrack equipment in a regular, scientific fashion. Thanks to its drastic, creative approaches, the Brigade has always ensured sufficient electricity, water, and materials for its troops’ work and life.

To guarantee a clean environment with fresh air, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have regularly exercised their leadership and direction over hygienic work. Based on its master plan, the Brigade has developed landscape architecture including flower gardens and lawns in harmony with its constructions. Its sanitary facilities and animal husbandry areas have been located far away from its accommodation and messes. Animal husbandry has been carried out under a closed model, with limited chemicals being used to avoid negative effects on the environment. Its barracks have been cleaned on a daily, weekly basis. It has provided its offices and units with sufficient, standardised waste containers and baskets, identifying areas for collecting and categorising wastes (non-organic, organic, recyclable ones), facilitating the waste treatment process. It has directed its affiliates to develop and implement plastic waste recycling models, while regularly launching disinfection, sterilisation, and drainage campaigns to maintain a clean environment and fresh air.

Building regular, bright, green, clean, beautiful barracks is a routine, long-term process requiring huge investments and manpower. Therefore, in addition to managing and using the budget allocated by its higher echelons effectively, the Brigade has brought into play internal strength and tapped all other available resources. To that end, offices and units of the Brigade have promoted the youth’s vanguard role in building and managing regular, bright, green, clean, beautiful barracks. As a result, many creative models have been developed by the youth, such as “VND 100 house”, “youth flower garden”, and “youth tree road”. Doing so has helped attract the participation of cadres and soldiers, with many working days being spent on repairing and reinforcing barracks, landscape architecture, and water and electricity systems for their own daily life. Besides, the Brigade has collaborated with its twinned units and local authorities in its stationed area to take part in improving its landscape architecture in diverse forms and via both material and spiritual resources. Thanks to those approaches, it has diversified resources for construction, bolstered military - civilian unity, and raised the quality of its mass mobilisation work.

Those above-mentioned results in the building of “regular, bright, green, clean, beautiful” barracks make a significant mark on the Brigade Party Congress for 2025 - 2030 tenure, providing prerequisites for Artillery Brigade 454 to keep building an “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong Brigade capable of all assigned missions.

Sr. Col. LE VAN DANG

Political Commissar of the Brigade