Promoting good order and discipline is an objective requirement and vital measure to enhance comprehensive quality and combat power, ensuring that the military is always ready to undertake and complete all missions successfully. This is a significant matter with the 330th Division, which is a mobile regular unit of the 9th Military Region. The unit is scattered in many provinces. Political security, social order and safety in border areas are fairly complex. Some social evils have been exerting dramatic effects on feeling and sentiment of cadres and soldiers. Meanwhile, cadres of the division come from many areas and regions. Most of them live far away from their families. The noncommissioned officers and soldiers are recruited from many Southwestern provinces, thus retaining their typical culture and lifestyle. On perceiving these issues, the Division Party Congress for the 2020 – 2025 tenure has chosen establishment of good order and discipline as one of the breakthroughs, which aims to bring about positive changes in all aspects. Content of promoting good order and discipline has been closely led by party committees and commanders at all echelons and realised by means of various synchronous, practical measures. After two years’ implementation, the division has reaped encouraging results. Good order is upheld seriously and unanimously from departments to units. Weaknesses are gradually addressed. Violations of normal discipline have decreased by 0.18 percent as compared to the preceding term. There are not any serious violations of discipline. These outcomes truly serve as a huge driver of enhancing comprehensive quality and combat power, making vital contribution to accomplishment of the unit’s political tasks. Promoting good order and compliance with State law and military discipline in the division have been greatly improved so far. The division is graded as successful completion of missions and a comprehensively strong, exemplary, representative unit in inspections conducted by the military region and MND. In 2022, the division was awarded with the Flag of “Excellent Unit in the Determination to Win Emulation Movement” by the Prime Minister. Based on realities of leading and directing implementation of breakthroughs in promoting good order and discipline, the division draws some experience, which are also solutions have been adopted effectively.

To have those achievements, first of all, the Division Party Committee and commanders strengthen leadership of education with a view to raising cadres’ and soldiers’ awareness and responsibility for this crucial content. Accordingly, party committees and commanders of directly affiliated departments and units deeply grasp higher echelons’ resolutions, directives, regulations, circulars, and instructions on promoting good order and discipline as well as regulations on building comprehensively strong, exemplary, representative departments and units; focus on overcoming limitations according to requirements of promoting good order and discipline in the division. Additionally, they are to hold classes of legal education and regulations of the division and units on promoting good order and discipline for soldiers. Through education, soldiers clearly perceive that establishment of good order and discipline training are continuities of fine nature and tradition of the military and dignity of Uncle Ho’s soldiers. This is also a regular, vital task and a breakthrough of the entire division.

To achieve high effectiveness, the division applies many comprehensive, intensive, extensive educational forms and methods to all learners, especially the new recruits. It is important to closely combine education with discipline management and training; conduct emulation movements; step up studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and style and the campaign of “Promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers” in the new era; select and build exemplary units to multiply them throughout the division. Outcomes of promoting good order and discipline are regarded as vital criteria for assessing task performance, evaluating emulation, and praising and rewarding individuals and collectives. Every month, the division commanders request departments and units to report their task performance; enumerate limitations, causes of the limitations and measures to overcome them, especially weaknesses and matters of great concern, thereby enhancing soldiers’ sense of self-training, organisational skills, and discipline compliance. These measures serve to bring about positive changes in cadres’, soldiers’, party members’, party committees’, and commanders’ awareness and responsibility for maintaining regulations, good order, and discipline; create firm, all-round changes in every working aspect, contributing to increased comprehensive quality and combat power of the division.

Good order in training and combat readiness is a vital, regular content which makes direction contribution to enhanced comprehensive quality and combat power of units. Consequently, the division concentrates on grasping and implementing orders, plans, programs, and content of training and combat readiness. In combat readiness, the division attaches importance to deeply grasp the combat training orders from Chief of the General Staff and Military Region Commander. These orders serve as the foundation for the division to develop, supplement, and complete its concepts of operations and operational plans in any situations, including on-site combat plans and plans for disaster relief and search and rescue, ensuring synchronicity and unity. Furthermore, the division instructs its units to formulate combat readiness documents and approve the documents within their authority; maintain combat readiness duty, command duty, and combat duty in a serious and unitary manner; guarantee strength, weapon systems, technical equipment, and vehicles in any situations at all levels.

In training, the division seriously carries out and promotes good order in all aspects of training work, ranging from instructing, managing, and providing support for drills, exercises, and training to strict realisation of regulations on training time, discipline in the field, and military personnel’s uniform and working style; aligns training with compliance with military regulation and discipline. It also thoroughly perceives and strictly realises the “basic, practical, solid” motto and pays attention to both synchronous and in-depth training and training of soldiers’ skills, steadfastness, and physical agility. The training content covers a wide range of knowledge, including training in politics, military, regulations, and physical fitness. More importantly, the division attaches special importance to implementation of devolution in training; concentrates on enhancement of cadres’ knowledge and skills, formulation and approval of training plans. Besides, competitions are carried out annually by the division, thereby helping to train cadres and soldiers in a comprehensive and close-to-scenario manner. Good order is also embodied in material support, which includes formulating plans, building training grounds, keeping a record of training results, and managing and using budgets in each department, unit, and individual of the division.

To enable cadres and soldiers to make progress in compliance with State law and military discipline, the division seeks to promote good order in close association with discipline training. Accordingly, departments and units pay attention to renewal of their working style and conduct of training courses to reach consensus about regulations on uniform and working style of military personnel. It is necessary to maintain implementation of regulations, duties, control of strength, and discipline compliance among the corps of cadres and party members; coordinate efforts of units, families, and localities to manage and educate soldiers; bring into play the exemplary role of cadres at all levels, who are both the elder brothers and friends of soldiers; strictly carry out devolution in management in connection with leveraging responsibility of each individual and organisation for close control of soldiers in every aspect, especially their ideological developments. The division requests cadres from battalion level and below. Specifically, company, platoons, battery, and section commanders must eat, live, and work with soldiers to understand their feelings and aspirations and timely resolve problems. Cadres intensify inspection, especially on days off, time off, holidays, and New Year. Special attention is paid to small units deployed far away from the division and units with high potential for discipline violations. All military personnel are strictly forbidden to drink wine and beer in working hours, at time for siesta, when performing their tasks, and so on. The division requests commanders at all levels to closely manage quantity and quality of their cadres, seriously meet reporting demands, and resolutely punish discipline violations, ensuring strict and clear discipline, without covering up and concealing shortcomings. These measures have promoted the effectiveness of education and prevented soldiers from violating discipline. Cadres’ and soldiers’ compliance with discipline has witnessed much progress. To establish an environment conducive to promoting good order and discipline, the division directs its party committees and commanders at all echelons to strengthen internal political protection; implement the Regulation on Grassroots Democracy, Political, Cultural, Spiritual Day, and Legal Day in a regular, high-quality manner; bring into the role of “Security Protection Team” in units; attach importance to cultural and sport activities to improve cadres’ and soldiers’ spiritual life; and create favourable conditions for cadres and soldiers to produce a harmony of families and units, thus facilitating democracy, solidarity, and unit in the entire unit.

Additionally, the division pays attention to establishment of good order and discipline in logistical, technical work in a synchronous, scientific direction, meeting requirements of combat readiness and task performance. This is carried out right from building and consolidating barracks and warehouses to guarantee unity and scientificness; creating “bright, green, clean, beautiful” landscape of units. Every year, the division spends hundreds of millions of Vietnamese dongs from production fund on repairing barracks, signboards, clotheslines, and clothes horses, building flower gardens, growing bonsai, etc., which aims to create clean, beautiful landscape to keep their mind on the work. Units also promote good order and discipline in storage, maintenance, and repair of weapons and equipment, satisfying requirements of combat training and readiness.

Given practical, proper leadership and solutions, promoting good order and discipline in the 330th Division has brought about positive effects, which creates momentum, belief, responsibility, and new impetus for cadres and soldiers, making vital contribution to enhancement of integrated quality and combat readiness and building of a comprehensive, exemplary, representative division, capable of successfully accomplishing all assigned tasks.

Senior Colonel NGUYEN VIET HUNG, Division Commander