Engineer Brigade 513 is a general engineer unit of Military Region 3, tasked with training, combat readiness, construction of defence works, participation in natural disaster prevention and control, search and rescue operations, emergency response to building collapse, and other unexpected missions. The Brigade’s diverse and complex tasks require high standards and troop deployment across multiple areas. The great frequency of vehicle use in training and construction poses significant safety risks. Facing these challenges, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have focused on implementing decisive and comprehensive measures to overcome difficulties and achieve “three highest standards”¹. These efforts have led to significant and stable improvements in the performance of pieces of work, contributing to the development of an “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong Brigade, meeting its task requirements in the new situation.

Providing support for river crossing during PT-23 exercise

Highest awareness, responsibility, and determination

Great awareness, responsibility, and determination showed by officers and soldiers play a pivotal role in the task performance of any unit. This is particularly crucial for the Brigade given the demanding, hazardous, and labour-intensive nature of their assignments, which are often carried out in remote, border, sea, and island areas. Officers and soldiers of the Brigade frequently perform their missions independently, away from their units and families for extended periods. Thus, the Brigade has prioritised stepping up political and ideological education to reach the highest level of awareness, determination, and responsibility among its personnel and encourage them to overcome difficulties and accomplish all assigned tasks. Over the time, the Brigade has directed its offices and units to vigorously implement Directive 2423-CT/QUTW, dated 9 November 2023, by the Central Military Commission Standing Board on “renewing and improving political education in the new era” via diverse methods and approaches tailored to their specific conditions and target groups.

Following that directive, the Brigade’s affiliates have actively researched and compiled various educational themes, such as legal education, building “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong offices and units, “promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho's Soldiers in the new era”, etc., combining fundamental political education with traditional history education and other formats, i.e. “One story about ideology, culture, and discipline each week” and “Young theorists’ club”. These initiatives have created a favourable environment for troops to exchange personal views through stories and situations and improve their life and discipline management skills, while helping foster solidarity and camaraderie among troops and instil noble ideal, a strong sense of duty, and pure motivation into them under any circumstances.

In addition to education work, the Brigade has instructed its offices and units to intensify measures for understanding, managing, and guiding troop ideology, particularly in units operating independently, stationed in remote areas, or engaged in hazardous and risky tasks. This proactive approach has enabled the Brigade’s affiliates to opportunely identify and resolve any ideological issues at grass-roots level.

Furthermore, the Brigade has consistently promoted models, such as “Savings box for comradeship” and “Soldier savings group for families” to build up solidarity and mutual support among troops, both in daily life and in combat, thereby helping alleviate personal difficulties and encouraging them to remain committed to their units. As a result, 100% of the Brigade’s officers and soldiers have maintained steadfast ideological stance and high determination to undertake and successfully fulfil all assigned tasks.

Achieving the highest political mission results

Adhering closely to its functions and tasks while deeply grasping the resolutions, directives, and guidance from higher echelons, the Brigade has directed its offices and units to research, understand, and accurately assess the situation. It has upheld the democratic spirit and collective intelligence of party committees and commands at all levels and among all troops in advising and proposing policies and solutions for implementing political tasks. To achieve high effectiveness, the Brigade has focused on selecting “pilot” units for the sake of experiences. Accordingly, for “pilot” units in training and combat readiness, alongside preparatory work, the Brigade has directed them to renew content, organisation, and methods of training in a practical, effective manner. Advocating that training must be comprehensive but focalised, those units have concentrated on training troops to master weapons and engineering equipment in the inventory as well as improve their manoeuvrability, combat readiness capacity, and expertise in engineering support in all situations.

For river-crossing engineering forces, the Brigade has attached significance to specialised training plans combined with natural disaster response and search and rescue missions, using practical experiences to develop troops’ skills, conduct, and adaptability in challenging and complex conditions. Given the complex and dangerous nature of bomb and mine clearance tasks, bomb and mine clearance forces must master the features and techniques of various types of bombs and mines and become proficient in essential skills and procedures. Therefore, the Brigade has adhered to the principle of being “fundamental, practical, and solid”, combining theory with practice and focusing on practical exercises, segmented training, intensive hands-on experience, and practical situational training, etc.

A training course using multifunctional rescue vehicles

In executing military construction projects, troops must use various technical equipment and explosives in harsh conditions with rugged and treacherous terrains. Hence, the Brigade has placed emphasis on the principle of “safety first”. Based on basic and specialised training in narrow fields, each soldier must make sure that they can undertake two or three missions. Before each mission, the Brigade has required its offices and units to make detailed safety plans regarding personnel selection, possible incident response, and necessary safety equipment. Particularly for difficult, complex, and high-risk tasks, the Brigade has prioritised selecting a contingent of experienced and highly skilled cadres and non-commissioned officers with strong political acumen and careful, meticulous work styles to directly supervise and inspect each unit’s activities. Special inspection teams, led by brigade-level commanders, have frequently conducted regular and surprise inspections to promptly identify and address shortcomings, support units in completing tasks, and ensure absolute safety. Additionally, the Brigade has extensively implemented emulation movements like “Top secrecy, safety first, and pioneering quality”, “Outstanding drilling team”, and “Most efficient transport shift”, creating an enthusiastic emulation atmosphere to encourage officers and soldiers to overcome difficulties and fulfil missions with the highest outcomes.

Since 2022, through decisive and comprehensive solutions, the Brigade has consistently completed its political tasks, implementing hundreds of military and defence projects on schedule with good quality and safety, highly appreciated by evaluation councils at all levels. The Brigade was awarded with the “Excellent Training Unit” flag and the “Determined to Win” title from the Ministry of National Defence in 2022 and 2023 respectively; it was honoured with the Government’s Emulation Flag in 2023.

Highest-level regularity building and discipline management

Regularity building and discipline management are overarching aspects directly related to the daily activities of each soldier. The quality and efficiency of these efforts can only be achieved via every soldier’s appropriate awareness and voluntary actions. This is especially important for the Brigade, given that many of its affiliates are stationed so far away from its direct management and command, and their troops are constantly exposed to the downside of the market economy and social evils. To transform awareness into a self-disciplined mindset and actions among officers and soldiers, the Brigade has directed its offices and units to thoroughly grasp and strictly execute documents by the Ministry of National Defence and Military Region 3 on regularity building and discipline management, particularly Directive 11/CT-TM, dated 12 April 2023, by the Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army on improving the quality of regularity building and discipline management across the Military.

In the process, the Brigade has focused on combining education with administrative measures, enhancing all-level commands’ inspection, and bringing into play its offices’ guidance for its units. It has regularly disseminated tasks and forecasted situations to enable officers and soldiers to proactively arrange their personal affairs and single-mindedly perform their duties. It has increased democratic dialogues, effectively maintained the Political and Cultural-Spiritual Day, and organised seminars to provide information about disciplinary violations across the Military.

Notably, in discipline management for distant and independent units, the Brigade has always emphasised the example-setting responsibility of officers, especially those in charge of managing soldiers. It has regularly collaborated with local party committees and authorities to grasp relevant information and closely manage the relationships of its military personnel, effectively forecast and proactively prevent safety risks and signs of disciplinary violation. Additionally, it has strictly handled violations with no holds barred as a deterrent to possible violations.

Alongside those above-mentioned measures, the Brigade has actively promoted internal resources to boost animal and crop husbandry, consolidate landscapes, build a “bright, green, clean, beautiful” environment, and ensure good material and spiritual life of its troops. Thanks to practical and effective measures, the work of regularity building and discipline management within the Brigade has made remarkable progress; for many consecutive years, it has witnessed no serious disciplinary violation, and the rate of common disciplinary violations has been below 0.2%. The Brigade Party Committee has been rated as clean and typically strong, while the Brigade has been acknowledged as an “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong unit. This lays an important foundation for the Brigade to continue striving to fulfil all assigned tasks.

Sr. Col. NGUYEN TRONG TIEN

Commander of the Brigade

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1. “Three highest standards” refer to: (1) highest awareness, responsibility, and determination, (2) highest political mission results, (3) highest-level regularity building and discipline management.