On September 2nd, 1965, in the War Zone Đ (in the province of Dong Nai), the Central Office for South Vietnam and the Command of the Liberation Army of South Vietnam announced the decision to establish the Division 9 (the Work Site No.9 as its code name) - the first main division on the Southeastern Front. Right after its foundation, cadres and soldiers of the Division devoted efforts to both construction and combat, achieved resounding feats of arms associated with the country’s historic sites, such as Dat Cuoc, Bau Bang, Dau Tieng, and Nha Do, defeated the Operation Junction City by tens of thousands of US troops, and won a victory in the battle of Phuoc Long (National Road No.14). In the 1986 Spring General Offensive and Uprising, the Division made significant contributions to thwarting the U.S. “Local War” Strategy, providing us with valuable lessons: “Daring to fight the U.S., we’ll find the way to defeat them,” “Knowing how to fight the U.S., we will achieve victories over the U.S. expeditionary forces.” In the historic Campaign of Ho Chi Minh, under the direction of “lightning speed, daring, determination to win,” with its strong will and resolve, the Division attacked and liberated the military sub-region of Dau Tieng and the town of Chon Thanh, being the main force launching offensives in the West and Southwest of Saigon, attacking and occupying the Capital Special Zone Command, cooperating with other units in liberating Saigon and victoriously ending the Resistance War against the U.S, for national salvation.
After the country was reunified, the Division was deployed to the Army Corps 4’s formation and tasked with controlling the city of Saigon - Gia Dinh, building the local government and stabilising the people’s life. In July 1979, cadres and soldiers began fighting to defend the Southwestern border and helping the Cambodian people to escape the genocidal regime.
Over the past 55 years of combat, construction and development, under any circumstance, generations of cadres and soldiers of the Division have always preserved the tradition of “unity, humility, courage, creativity, invincibility and decisive engagement.” With its extraordinary achievements in the wars for national liberation and protection and its international mission, the Division was twice given the title of “Hero of the People’s Armed Forces” and many noble rewards, namely 1 Ho Chi Minh Order, 1 Fatherland’s Stronghold Order, and 13 First-Class, Second-Class and Third-Class Military Exploit Orders. The State of Cambodia honoured it with the Order of Angkor while our Prime Minister and Ministry of National Defence presented it with the Emulation Flag and many other noble rewards.
Performing the function and task of a main unit stationed in the key, strategic area of South Vietnam, in addition to training and combat readiness as its central task, the Division has taken part in building the postures of all-people national defence and people’s security, constructing defensive zones in the area and carrying out other contingency missions. Hence, the Division’s Party Committee and Command have been encouraging cadres and soldiers to preserve and promote the tradition of a heroic Division, surmount all difficulties, build an “exemplary, typical, comprehensively strong” unit, and maintain readiness for undertaking and successfully fulfilling all assigned tasks.
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| Training models and equipment |
Under the guidelines on building a “revolutionary, regular, elite, gradually modern Army,” grasping the motto: “one focus, two routine tasks, three breakthroughs, and four pieces of work with soldiers” set by the Army Corps 4’s Party Committee Standing Board and Command, the Division has established a system of criteria and realised it via many synchronous, feasible measures. Importance has been attached to well conducting the work of political, ideological education and building up cadres and soldiers’ political zeal, revolutionary vigilance, determination, proactiveness and creativity. The effectiveness and efficiency of the party and political work have been raised. The work of ideological management and internal political protection has been well carried out. Implementing the Project on “renewing political education at military units in the new period,” offices and units within the Division have actively renewed the contents and forms of political education, made them more practical and effective, closely combined basic education with regular education, and aligned political education with discipline management. At the same time, they have proactively provided official information for troops so that they could fully understand the situation, partners, opponents, hostile forces’ “peaceful evolution” strategy and their plot to “depoliticise” our Military.
Furthermore, the Division’s Party Committee has concentrated on improving the leadership capacity and combativeness of party organisations, particularly party cells at full-strength companies, units tasked with combat readiness, and forces stationed far from the headquarters as the basis for building a strong, pure Party Organisation of the Division. The work of Party building has been attached to the building of exemplary, typical, comprehensively strong units while the building of party committees has been associated with that of all-level commanders and the enhancement of the quality of party members. The Division has directed its offices and units to well implement the Regulation on Democracy at grass-roots level, ensure policies for their troops, and cooperate with local party committees and authorities in carrying out the mass mobilisation work and fostering the close-knit bond between the Military and the people. Offices and units have been required to step up the Determination to Win Emulation Movement, the 12th Politburo’s Directive 05-CT/TW, and the Campaign entitled “promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers in the new period,” combat all signs of degradation in political ideology, ethics and lifestyle, fight against “self-evolution” and “self-transformation,” and prevent social evils from penetrating into units.
The Division’s Party Committee and Command have placed emphasis on raising the quality of training, manoeuvrability, and combat coordination as a basis, key task. The Division’s affiliates have been asked to adhere to the training motto of “basics, practicality, and thorough grasp.” The whole Division has made preparations for training, improved the quality of refresher courses for commanders at all levels, and upgraded the system of training grounds. Due attention has been paid to sharing experiences, organising training on various terrains and in different weather conditions, and enhancing night-time training and troops’ manoeuvrability. Consideration has been given to making training relevant to combat reality, especially in the conditions of hi-tech warfare. Besides, the Division has required senior-level cadres to directly take part in training troops in general and difficult contents. Thanks to elaborate preparations, in recent years, the results of training within the Division have always been good (above 80%). Every year, the Division excellently fulfils its tasks in command-office field training exercises and live-firing joint drills. During such exercises, the Division frequently had to manoeuvre across rivers and springs; nevertheless, as all cadres and soldiers of the Division can swim, units taking part in the exercises succeeded in crossing the river of Saigon in a timely, secret, safe fashion.
In addition to the training work, the Division has always focused on strictly maintaining military regulations and adopting various measures for raising the quality of discipline management within its affiliates. Significance has been attached to raising troops’ self-consciousness of observance of regulations set by the Military and their units. At the same time, units within the Division have stringently maintained daily, weakly regulations on study and work, prevented and seriously handled violations of discipline and traffic, training and combat readiness incidents. The Division’s Party Committee and Command have asked cadres at all levels, particularly at company and platoon levels to grasp and manage troops’ ideological situation, settle arising issues, and create a sense of unity between superiors and inferiors as well as between cadres and soldiers. Thanks to taking those above-mentioned measures synchronously, the Division has witnessed a positive change in military standard order building and discipline management, without any desertion.
Besides, the Division has well performed the logistics-technical work, with a focus on providing logistics and technical support for units tasked with training and combat readiness, while improving troops’ living conditions. The logistics branch within offices and units has ensured sufficient policies and entitlements for troops and used budgets under the regulations. Units have enhanced the movement on practising thrift and combating wastefulness in all steps and activities, invested in building and consolidating agriculture production zones, and proactively maintained sources of food. Up to now, they have been 100% self-sufficient in vegetables and fish, 80%-90% self-sufficient in meat; the rate of healthy soldiers has been above 99%. Technical offices at all levels have concentrated on improving their staff members’ professional competence, strictly maintained the order for materiel maintenance and use, and made the Movement 50 more practical and effective, thereby contributing to raising weapons and equipment’s technical coefficient and dealing with materiel’s degeneration. Additionally, great value has been attached to carrying out the work of mass mobilisation, helping locals with natural disaster prevention and mitigation, search and rescue, participating in building strong political bases and safe areas, well implementing the movements, namely “the Military joins hands in constructing new-style countryside” and “the Military joins hands for the poor - no one will be left behind.” Due regard has been paid to assisting the people in economic, cultural development, hunger eradication, and poverty reduction, ensuring social security, and maintaining political security and social order and safety within the stationed area.
Bringing into play the 55-year glorious tradition, cadres and soldiers of the Division 9 will continue building an exemplary, typical, comprehensively strong unit and will keep raising the Division’s synergy and combat power to successfully fulfil all missions in the new situation.
Sr. Col. LE VAN HUONG
Commander of the Division 9