After 5 years’ implementation of the campaign “Promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers - Naval soldiers,” the 4th Naval Region has gained significant results, which lays a solid foundation for improving its integrated quality and combat strength to successfully complete every assigned mission.

The 4th Naval Region is tasked with controlling and defending waters and islands of strategic importance to the Homeland. Its missions consist of training, readiness, and securing Cam Ranh Military Complex. It also acts as the key force in defending Vietnam’s sovereignty over the Spratly Islands and relevant waters; provides assistance for fishermen and makes them feel safe to sail the sea; and secures maritime economic activities within its area of responsibility. To accomplish its missions, the Naval Region’s Party Committee and Command have executed synchronous measures, in which the successful implementation of the campaign “Promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers – Naval soldiers” is the key solution.

Brigade 957’s military medic provides medical examination and treatment for the people of Cam Thinh Tay commune

After 5 years’ implementation, the campaign has directly created a huge moral driver, which contributes to bringing about a drastic transformation in understanding, ideology and actions of officers and soldiers, and provides a firm foundation for building pure, robust party organizations and comprehensively strong units. The campaign gives rise to many good training units and technical innovations in support of training and readiness. Amid the sea, there are a number of bright examples of officers and soldiers struggling resolutely, bravely, smartly, and flexibly and being ready to die for safeguarding the sacred sovereignty of the Homeland over waters and islands. The campaign is closely aligned with the movement “Joint effort to build new countryside,” “gratitude activity,” and assistance for people in terms of disaster prevention and relief, which serves to beautify the image of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers - Naval soldiers” in people’s hearts. Over the past 5 years, the region has conducted more than 400 search and rescue missions; given first aid and treated almost 1,000 fishermen suffering accidents and injuries at sea; rescued 147 vessels, etc. making vital contribution to reassuring fishermen and building an increasingly robust defence-security posture at sea. That outcome has contributed to protecting sovereignty and preserving security and safety in the waters, islands and continental shelves of the Homeland, and been recognized and rewarded by levels and industries. The naval region was awarded Order for Service to the Homeland 1st class by the President in 2015. Three years later, the region was awarded the Flag for spearheading the “Determination to Win” Emulation Movement by the Naval Command. Many organizations and individuals were given emulation titles and other noble rewards.

Currently, the East Sea still witnesses complex, unpredictable developments; the protection of sovereignty over seas, islands, and continental shelves within its area of responsibility is making enormous demands. Meanwhile, the hostile forces continue to increase their sabotage in all spheres through more sophisticated, cunning, public, and direct tricks, especially on political, ideological front; spur “self-evolution,” “self-transformation,” “depoliticization,” and “civilization” of the military, undermining and distorting soldiers’ combat goals and ideals. Moreover, the naval region is in the process of advancing straight to modernization both in human resources, staffing, organization and weapons as identified by the Navy.

Against such backdrop, the Naval Region’s Party Committee and Command continue to bring into play the leading role of party committees and commanders at all levels to make the campaign become soldiers’ regular and self-aware activity. It is a sheer reality that where there is increased, close, and dynamic leadership of party committees and leading cadres the higher outcome is achieved. Consequently, organizations and units put content of the campaign into resolutions of party committees and working plans of commissars and commanders; bring into play the role and responsibility of political organizations in giving advice on the development of plans and implementation. During execution, organizations and units interlace ideological, organizational work and policy; strengthen regulation on grassroots level democracy, establishment of solidarity and unity to generate high consensus; and bring into play the pioneering role and creativity of unions and mass organizations. They also consider results of the campaign as one of vital criteria for assessing the task performance and praise and reward collectives and individuals annually.

An amphibious exercise

Going forward, the entire Naval Region will strengthen education and propaganda to improve the awareness of cadres, party members, and the masses of the significance, importance, and tenets of the campaign, thus enabling every organization and individual to clearly understand that this is the concretization of the Politburo’s Directive No.05-CT/TW on stepping up studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, morality, and style; a major policy of the Central Military Commission’s Standing Committee which not only satisfies short-term demands but make direct contribution to building a revolutionary, regular, elite, and modernized region in the long term. Based on such direction, organizations and units actively renew forms and methods to conduct propaganda and education; closely marry regular political education with education of special topics and tradition in accordance with each subject. At the same time, it is imperative to make the most of cultural institutions and media organizations of branches and levels; attach importance to propaganda through practical activities, including visiting tradition sites, seminars and interactions with witnesses of history, returning to the source, young officers’ forums, competitions on the propaganda of the campaign, and so on. Enhancing propaganda on waters, islands and the movement “The whole nation acts in the interests of the Spratly Islands, the Spratly Islands acts in the interests of the whole nation” and effectively realizing the model “One event every week, one prominent example every month” will help to disseminate and honour “good people, good deeds,” arouse pride, sentiment and responsibility, cultivate will and resolution to overcome difficulty, and continue to preserve and bring into play the tradition “Uncle Ho’s soldiers – Naval soldiers” in the new situation.

Additionally, the Naval Region’s Party Committee instructs organizations and units to closely align the campaign with other campaigns, the “Determination to Win” Emulation Movement, and periods of peak emulation at levels and industries, creating major breakthroughs in addressing shortcomings, weaknesses, difficult, and unexpected missions and putting the campaign into practical life and work of the region. Accordingly, party committees and commanders at various levels interlace the campaign and implementation of Directive No.05-CT-TW, Resolution of the 4^th Plenum of the Party Central Committee (12th tenure) on Party building, Regulation No.08-Qđi/TW of the Party Central Committee (12th tenure) on the responsibility to set examples of cadres and party members. Organizations and units focus on giving instructions on timely resolving entanglements of thought of cadres and soldiers; proactively overcome manifestations of individualism, degradation in political ideology, morality and lifestyle, “self-evolution,” and “self-transformation” within the Party, which may exert negative impacts on tradition and dignity of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers”; and promote leadership capacity and management efficiency of commanders according to their assigned tasks. The corps of cadres, particularly the leading ones, must be true pioneering examples in the execution of the campaign while continuing to speed up the “Determination to Win” Emulation Movement, well fulfill “Three breakthroughs,” and strive to build “Units with three typicalities,” and a military cultural environment, which is human, healthy, and copious, creating favourable conditions for cadres and soldiers to train and mature.

Organizations and units continue to concretize the goals and content of the campaign according to their assigned functions and missions and emerging issues of building the region. As for units equipped with modernized weapons, they have to strengthen education, self-reliance and resilience to master and employ new weapons and equipment; step up the emulation movement “High responsibility, intensive expertise, proficiency in foreign languages”; and establish high profession, eliteness, and special discipline to ensure absolute safety in training and readiness. For units charged with defending islands, they must realize a set of criteria on “Model islands” to try their best; give prominence to the spirit “Islands are home, seas are native land” to make islands in the Spratlys constantly “strong on defence, good at lifestyle, beautiful about environment, and a paragon of military-civil solidarity.” As far as logistic units are concerned, they should accelerate the movement “The military logistics follows Uncle Ho’s teaching” and the campaign “Managing and employing weapons and technical equipment well, durably, safely, and economically and traffic safety”; concentrate on making breakthroughs in “promoting good order and discipline in technical work and mastering weapons and technical equipment”; and focus on improving quality of support for all missions, especially training, readiness, catering for soldiers on remote islands, and technical and logistic support for vessels operating farther offshore. As for combat training and readiness, breakthroughs are to be made under the motto of “Basics, mastery, specialization, and implementation of safety regulation,” taking the firm defence of sovereignty over seas and islands as a goal. Emulation movements need to concentrate on improving the quality of combat training and readiness, including “Good training, strict discipline, high readiness”; “vanguard, creativity, mastery, safety, determination to win”; “correct targeting, good firing” and so forth. At the same time, it is imperative to actively perform mass mobilization in waters and islands, which contributes to canvassing fishermen for good execution of the Party’s guidelines and State’s policies and law; wholeheartedly protect and assist people in economic development, aquaculture, fishing, hunger eradication and poverty alleviation, disaster prevention and relief, emergency response, and search and rescue.

On the basis of the aforementioned outcomes, the Naval Region continues to speed up the campaign to create drivers for enabling cadres and soldiers to keep their minds on their work, to be ready to take on and successfully accomplish every assigned task, and to deserve tradition “fight with fortitude, overcome difficulty, unite and coordinate, control the seas” and belief of the Party, State and people.

Rear Admiral Nguyen Duc Vuong, Commissar of the 4th Naval Region