The 330th Division, 9th Military Region is a mobile, regular unit and tasked with training, combat readiness, and other unplanned missions. This is an honour, but a considerable challenge to cadres and soldiers of the Division because the missions make huge demands on them in many aspects, especially the combat skills and tactics for operations on submerged flat land, islands, waters, and so on. Being deeply aware of the difficulties, over the past few years, the Division Party Committee and Command have adopted many solutions to lead and direct building of comprehensively robust, representative, typical units close to their characteristics and missions. Training and combat readiness are identified as the major breakthroughs and key, regular tasks, thereby integrated quality and combat readiness of the Division have been ceaselessly enhanced. The Division has been one of the leading units in the Military Region’s “Determination to Win” Emulation Movement since 2018. The Division Party Committee has been always graded as pure and strong. Every year, test results of all training contents are graded as competent, in which 94% are graded as good and excellent. The results of drills and live-fire exercises at all levels, participation in the military region defence exercises, and exercises in imposing martial law are all graded as good. Many units have been recognised as “Good Training Unit” by the Ministry of National Defence. In 2021, the Division was awarded the Good Training Unit Flag.

To achieve the above-mentioned outcomes, the Division Party Committee and Command have attached importance to education and propagation in order to raise soldiers’ awareness and responsibility for this vital task, regarding this as the most fundamental, regular solution. Accordingly, before each training stage, the Division holds meetings to popularise higher echelons’ directives and resolutions on training work, especially the Combat Training Order from the Chief of General Staff, Viet Nam People’s Army; Combat Training Order from the Military Region Commander; and instructions of higher departments for all cadres and soldiers. Attention is paid to clarification of training objectives, targets, and requirements for each department and unit as well as advantages and disadvantages during implementation.

Additionally, every year, the Division Party Committee promulgates specialised resolutions to lead combat training task, laying the foundation for departments and units to do this task. The Division steps up stages of peak emulation in training in association with organisation of competitions at all levels in order to inspire emulation and promote training quality in the entire unit.

Practise manoeuvring on waterway

As a result of mission features, units of the Division are deployed on a large area, both on the border, islands, and at sea. Some cadres, especially the junior officers, show certain limitations in the ability and experience in managing and training soldiers. The training grounds are shrinking. More importantly, the COVID-19 pandemic which occurred in the area in 2020 and 2021 had an enormous influence on training progress and result of the Division. In such a situation, on deeply grasping the Resolution No. 765-NQ/QUTW, dated 20 December 2012, of the Central Military Commission and the Resolution No. 533-NQ/DU, dated 7 March 2013 of the Military Region Party Committee on “Improving training quality in  the 2013 – 2020 period and beyond,” the Division focuses on leading and instructing departments and units to enhance quality of training management; accelerate reform of training contents and methodologies to ensure closeness to missions, operational plans, adversaries, organisation and staffing, weapons, and equipment. Regarding important occasions and missions, the Division proactively sends mobile teams to instruct and help units garrisoned far away from the Division Headquarters, forces in charge of special tasks or undertaking a crucial role in training, drill, prevention and response to natural disasters, search and rescue, and so forth. More importantly, the Division has instructed its units to use camera systems to monitor, track, and observe training contents with explosion during the daytime and at night since 2018, thus correctly assessing training results. It has also intensified unplanned inspections and requested units to crosscheck each other, which aim to implement the three-substantive motto successfully.

As far as training contents and methodologies, on closely tracking the program framework provided by the Ministry of National Defence, instructions of higher-level agencies, and realities, the Division has directed its units to step up reform in a practical, effective manner. Comprehensive training must associate with focal points and closeness to realities, missions, operational plans, adversaries, operational terrain, especially operations to defend borders, waters, and islands. Importance is attached to the integrated exercises and command-department exercises on various scales and forms. There needs to promote training to improve forces’ mobility and ability to respond to emergencies, floods, and storms; undertake search and rescue. The Division requests its units to successfully realise the motto of “basicness, practicality, firmness” in association with the requirements of “swiftness, robustness, precision”; focus on training to enhance technical and tactical skills, ability to effectively exploit new weapons and equipment; closely combine military training with political education; combine military training with physical training; overcome the trend of simplification or lowering training requirements.

To bring about a comprehensive change and enhance training quality, together with proactively making early, careful preparations in every aspect, including development of training plans and programs, offering training courses, and preparation of training facilities, recently, the Division has directed its departments and units to strictly carry out approved training plan, maintain regulations on adoption of lesson plans through model teaching in the field, accelerate the use of model teams for specialised training, and closely combine training with combat readiness. They are also requested to step up reform of organisations and training methodologies to suit each level, major, content, and training item; promote inspection, re-examination, and meetings to draw lessons from training realities; maintain competitions at all levels.

The Division attaches importance to training support work, most notably increased technical, logistical work. Accordingly, it gives priorities to enhance the progress of synchronising weapon systems and technical equipment; receive and issue weapons and equipment accurately and safely; complete planning and invest in building and upgrading facilities used for training and combat readiness as well as the system of training grounds; effectively manage, exploit, and use training materials and information technology in command and control of training. Consequently, the training work becomes increasingly ordered and disciplined, meeting requirements of independent conduct of long-endurance military operations in any terrain and weather conditions, and combined arms operations.

To leverage results, especially lessons learnt from reviewing 10 years’ implementation of the Resolution No. 765-NQ/QUTW, in the time to come, the 330th Division will continue to strengthen leadership of party committees and organisations; bring into play the pioneering, exemplary role of cadres at all levels in training. It also seeks to accelerate reform to enhance quality of political, ideological education with a view to making cadres and soldiers deeply aware of hostile forces’ plots and have absolute confidence in military guideline, art of war, existing weapons and equipment, and ability to triumph over the enemy in any situations. Additionally, the Division closely combines training with practice and exercises, military training with political education, physical training, and discipline; gives priorities to field training, night-time training, and training to master, exploit, and use existing weapons and equipment. It is necessary to step up reform of tactical training contents and methodologies, live-fire exercises at platoon and company levels, integrated exercises at battalion level, command-department exercises with forces imitating part of real-life scenarios, live-fire exercises of infantry battalions reinforced with land-based anti-ship systems, combined arms coordination exercises, and military region defense exercises. The Division is to further work with functional agencies to propose upgrade and planning of training grounds, especially the Chi Lang Shooting Range, contributing to improving training quality and combat readiness of soldiers, capable of satisfying demand of safeguarding the Fatherland in any situations.

Senior Colonel NGUYEN VIET HUNG, Division Commander