In addition to higher mission requirements, diffuse stationed areas, disruptive traffic, and its affiliates’ independent operation of higher echelons’ direct governance and control have been amongst contributing factors to maintenance of communications by Signal Brigade 604 (hereinafter the Brigade) under the 2nd Military Region. Therefore, improving the overall quality and combativeness are a matter of the utmost importance to the maintenance of the “blood vessel” of communications.

A meeting of the Brigade’s Party Executive Committee

Fully aware of that, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Commandants have attached great value to the work of political and ideological education whereby all the soldiers have strong political willpower, show their determination and higher sense of responsibility to willingly undertake and accomplish the assigned tasks. The Brigade has focused on briefing and educating its cadres and soldiers on its mission particularities as well as advantages and disadvantages in guaranteeing communications under the motto “timely, precise, secret, and safe” whilst directing its affiliates to reform contents, forms, and methods of education appropriate to every object; and to enhance the dissemination of tradition and legal knowledge for soldiers. In particular, whenever a critical mission arises, the Brigade regularly dispatches mobile teams to its far-flung affiliates; opportunely propagating higher echelons’ resolutions and directions and delivering crucial content of training and maneuvers, etc. At present, the dark side of market mechanism has impacted greatly on cadres and soldiers’ ideological developments, sentiment, and awareness. Against this backdrop, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Commandants have actively grasped and managed ideological developments; strictly maintained operational principles of party and mass organizations; stringently implemented democratic regulations at grassroots level; and promoted model role-setting responsibility among a contingent of cadres and party members, etc. As a result, party committees and commandants at all levels regularly grasp, manage, and opportunely handle arising ideological incidents, and all the cadres and soldiers show their single-minded devotion to duty and willingly undertake and accomplish all set tasks.

In parallel with the proper implementation of the work of political and ideological education, the Brigade has attached special importance to fostering the quality of training work, which acts as a determinant to the maintenance of communications. The Brigade sets a target of training soldiers to exploit and make full use of materials and equipment, especially cutting-edge ones; master signal tactics and techniques; improve the capability of guaranteeing mobile communications under any circumstances; and to be adept at camouflaging and diversionary tactics. To this end, the Brigade has instructed its party committees and commandants at various levels to focus their leadership and directions on training work; to proactively make elaborate preparations ranging from training plans and curricula and cadre training to training facilities and equipment with a focus on cadre and technical staff training. Accordingly, the Brigade regularly executes training plans for every object, especially for company-and-platoon-level cadres, and cadres with few practical experiences on a weekly and monthly basis. The content of training chiefly involves new and supplemented training methods; organizational method of technical training; combined combat maneuvers, etc. For technical staff, the Brigade has concentrated on training them to exploit and master technical equipment and facilities, ensuring smooth communications.

Following the Party and State’s guideline on modernizing the Signal Corps, in recent years, the Brigade has been equipped with state-of-the-art materiel such as satellite VSAT vehicle, trunked radio system, etc. However, since there are no training textbooks available for almost all of those materiel, the Brigade has actively sent its capable cadres and technical staff to refresher courses run by higher echelons; proactively done extensive research and updated itself on technical knowledge in order to compile a set of synchronous training textbooks; and cultivated a contingent of competent cadres with high expertise and formed a group of instructors in charge of training missions. In addition, the Brigade has drastically directed cadres and technical workers with high expertise and skills to directly mentor younger ones; actively seconded engineers fresh from college to grassroots units in an effort to familiarize them with practical working environment, and consequently providing supplementary technical knowledge for a pool of technical staff in their units. Against the backdrop of not only training numerous objects and various technical equipment, but maintaining regular communications and a majority of signal stations and teams positioned in mountainous, remote, isolated and border areas, the Brigade closely combines basic training with specialist training; and collective training with hands-on training whilst proactively dispatching capable cadres with high expertise to directly train soldiers; and attaching great value to intensive training in order that one cadre with high expertise is capable of doing two to three different jobs. Thanks to feasible measures, organizational skills and practical capability have been remarkably improved amongst technical staff. In 2017, the Brigade’s testing result of specialist training was rated exellent in which 100% of training cadres was rated good with 85,3% exellent; 2 radio operators won the top prize in the Army-wide radio operating competition. The Ministry of Defence also conferred an honour upon the Brigade in recognition of its excellence in training mission in 5 consecutive years (2012-2016).

Presently, in addition to owning the latest technical materiel with complex technical specifications, the Brigade also manages and exploits a huge number of used signal materiel with fragile compatibility and potential damage and scarce spare parts. Against this backdrop, for the sake of firm, stable and improved communications system, the Brigade has always paid due attention to well implementing the work of maintaining technical materiel. Over the past years, the Brigade has taken appropriate measures to streamline and cultivate a qualitative and quantitative contingent of technical staff while promoting investment in upgrading maintenance stations, streamlining mobile maintenance teams and ensuring technical backup supplies at all levels. Moreover, the Brigade has directed its affiliates to stimulate the implementation of the Campaign entitled “ managing and exploiting technical weapons and equipment durably, safely, economically, and traffic safety”; adopted proactive solutions to assure safety for signal stations; regularly maintained technical materiel; and actively promoted technical initiatives. Since 2012, the Brigade has had hundreds of initiatives, many of which have been put into practice effectively, namely “protection box of AC source”, which was rated exellent in National and Army-wide Competition for creative young Technicians; “Training model of digital switchboard”, which won the second prize in Ministry of Defence-level Competition for initiatives and innovations of training facilities and equipment.

In parallel with those afore-mentioned solutions, the Brigade has strictly and constantly maintained combat readiness and enhanced discipline maintenance. Sticking to higher echelons’ regulations, the Brigade has regularly reviewed and streamlined its affiliates’ organizations with priority given to signal units and mobile signal teams. Over the past years, the Brigade has adopted appropriate organizational measures for independent signal stations and mobile signal teams under the motto “seasoned, synchronous, multi-functional”. In recent years, unpredictable and complex weather conditions, especially flooding and stormy conditions in the 2nd Military Region’s stationed areas have had direct and potential impacts on the safety and quality of the Brigade’s signal networks. Against this backdrop, the Brigade has directed its affiliates to constantly streamline a system of communications documents for natural disaster prevention and search and rescue activities and regularly drill combat plans while stringently implementing on-call time for guaranteeing communications. Furthermore, the Brigade has instructed its affiliates to attach great weight to maintain their daily routine activities and combat readiness; to actively and tightly manage soldiers and technical materiel; and to actively spread best practices such as “model on-duty shift”, “self-controlled cables”, “5-goods signal stations”, etc., thereby strengthening mobile capability for ensuring regular and urgent communications in accord with higher echelons’ directions and schedules.  

With practical and synchoronous solutions, over the past five years, the Brigade has always maintained smooth communications. Notably, in 2017, the Brigade accomplished the task of guaranteeing smooth communications in MB-17 and KH-17 Exercises, which earned it a Certificate of Merit from the Military Region Commander.

In the time to come, promoting recorded results, the Brigade will pay continued attention to building cadres and soldiers with strong political will and well-rounded competence, contributing to building revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern Signal Force, satisfying the requirements for constructing and defending the Homeland in the new situation.

Senior Colonel Le Hong Son, Commander of the Brigade