Being imbued with Uncle Ho’s teachings: “Supply work is as important as fighting enemies on battlefields; to obtain victory over enemies, troops must be provided with sufficient weapons and their basic needs must be met,” the Army Corps 2’s Military School has been stepping up the emulation movement entitled “the Military Logistics Branch follows Uncle Ho’s teachings” to raise the quality of logistics support for training and combat readiness.

The Army Corps 2’s Military School is tasked with training reservist officers, non-commissioned commanding officers, and technical employees for the Army Corps 2. In 2020, the School was assigned to organise first training courses for the Military Medical University’s cadets by the Ministry of National Defence. It is also tasked with training new soldiers and performing several other missions. Due to its task, the School is stationed in 3 areas with harsh weather conditions; therefore, its forces are scattered. Meanwhile, natural disasters and epidemics, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic tend to be complex (in 2020 and 2021); sources of basic supplies have been scarce and their prices have constantly risen, which has negatively impacted on cadres and cadets’ health and life. Against that backdrop, the Logistics and Technical Division has promoted its core role in counselling, directing, and organising the emulation movement titled “the Military Logistics Branch follows Uncle Ho’s teachings” so as to improve the quality of logistics support as the basis for building an “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong School capable of fulfilling all assigned missions.

To translate the movement into daily life effectively, the School has frequently consolidated the Steering Board on the Emulation Movement titled “the Military Logistics Branch follows Uncle Ho’s teachings,” developed action plans/programmes and guiding documents for affiliates in a comprehensive but focalised manner with specific topics and targets for each period in accordance with their task and particularities, and included the emulation movement’s contents and targets in party committees’ resolutions and commanders’ work plans on a yearly, quarterly, monthly basis. Due attention has been paid to enhancing the work of propagation and education to achieve a consensus amongst staff members about the emulation movement.

Adhering to the “one-focus, three-breakthrough” goal set by the Army Corps 2, the School has concentrated on continuing to well implement the Central Military Commission’s Resolution 623-NQ/QUTW on “the military logistics work towards 2020 and beyond” in line with the 12^th Politburo’s Directive 05-CT/TW and the Central Military Commission’s Directive 87-CT/QUTW on studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics and lifestyle to build comprehensively strong logistics offices and units. It has identified three breakthroughs, namely (1) ensuring troops’ life and health, (2) practising thrift, fighting against wastefulness, and complying with regulations on logistics support, (3) stepping up administrative reform and military standard order building in the logistics work and ensuring traffic safety. 5 pieces of logistics work have been well performed, namely (1) good service, (2) effective crop/animal husbandry and good healthcare, (3) wastefulness combat and practice of thrift, (4) development of creative logistics models, (5) military standard order building and administrative reform.

In the process, the School has effectively implemented campaigns, namely “units good at catering and ordnance management” and “units good at crop/animal husbandry” by the Ordnance Branch, “military medical soldiers follow Uncle Ho’s teachings” and “five-good medical units” by the Military Medical Branch, “building and managing standard, green, clean, scenic barracks”, “standard, safe, effective transport units,” and “managing and using petroleum safely, economically, effectively” by the Barracks, Transport, and Petroleum Branches. Via such campaigns, the order and regimes of logistics support from offices to units have been strictly maintained, logistics cadres and employees’ responsibility and service attitude have been improved, and there have been many positive changes in logistics support for training, combat readiness, natural disaster and epidemic prevention and control, and other contingency missions.

Giving support for COVID-19 prevention and control

Being imbued with Uncle Ho’s teachings: “military units must enhance crop/animal husbandry to be partly self-sufficient and ease the people’s burden,” the School has directed its logistics offices to closely manage sources of food and food processing, publish financial records at messes on a daily basis, and step up crop/animal husbandry to stabilise sources of food. Units within the School have actively promoted their internal strength and taken advantage of their land and ponds for crop/animal husbandry in accordance with their site planning. Moreover, the School’s affiliates have proactively cooperated with local party committees and authorities in borrowing land for agricultural production. As a result, the School has been 90% self-sufficient in vegetable, 92.3% in pork, and 58.5% in poultry, basically meeting its demands for food and food safety and hygiene. In the past 5 years (2015-2020), the School has deducted nearly 1.5 billion VND from its husbandry revenues for national holidays, making contributions to improving cadres and cadets’ life.

Besides, the School has frequently well carried out the work of epidemic prevention and control in each season, enhanced measures to supervise food safety and hygiene at its messes, and closely managed the collection and treatment of wastes to protect the environment. Due attention has been paid to stringently maintaining the operation of infirmaries, opportunely, sufficiently supplementing medicine and medical equipment, actively developing herb gardens, and closely combining modern medicine with traditional medicine to provide medical examination and treatment for troops, beneficiaries, and aged people in difficulty in the stationed areas. To respond to the first outbreak of COVID-19 in Vietnam, the School kept widely and deeply disseminating directives, regulations, and guiding documents on epidemic prevention and control to all cadres and cadets, while directing all staff members to implement the 5-K measures set by the Ministry of Health. When the epidemic broke out in Bac Giang province, under higher echelons’ directions, the School proactively selected and trained 45 cadres and soldiers in epidemic prevention and control so that they could work at 4 quarantine zones in the two districts of Lang Giang and Yen Dung. As a result, in many past years, the School has witnessed no epidemic within itself and the rate of its healthy troops has always been over 98.8%. It has also closely collaborated with local party committees and authorities in managing national defence land and actively constructing training grounds, sports facilities, gardens, internal roads, and campus. In the construction process, the Logistics and Technical Division has intensified inspection and supervise to ensure the quality and progress rate of construction. Due regard has been paid to managing, maintaining, and repairing barracks and equipment to prevent deterioration due to the impacts made by weather, climate, and environmental factors. At the same time, the School has encouraged its offices and units to bring into play their internal strength, troop labour, and funding to build “standard, green, clean, scenic” barracks. Up to now, all offices and units’ barracks have been consolidated in a spacious, clean, scenic manner and troops’ standards of living have been considerably improved.

Furthermore, the School has stepped up the work of propagation and education relating to practice of thrift and wastefulness combat amongst its cadres and soldiers. Consideration has been given to managing finance and fighting against corruption in all logistics operations, closely combined logistics support with logistics management, and strictly maintained regulations on logistics support, production, and acquisition. Great value has been attached to inspecting and supervising the process of logistics support, particularly capital construction, crop/animal husbandry, water, electricity, and petroleum use, and food processing. Messes at the School have been frequently randomly inspected to ensure troops’ ration. At the same time, the School has democratically published financial and material quotas for troops, regularly reviewed and completed regulations on using and managing petroleum, water, electricity and equipment, and allocated norms of those materials to each mission and affiliate. Thus, in the period of 2015-2020, the School saved 490,360,000 VND, including 415,810,00 VND thanks to food processing and crop/animal husbandry, 19,250,000 VND thanks to herb gardens, and 55,300,000 VND thanks to electricity saving.

In addition to those above-mentioned measures, the School has attached importance to building comprehensively strong logistics offices and units as the core force in performing the work of logistics support and stepping up the emulation movement entitled “the Military Logistics Branch follows Uncle Ho’s teachings” in tandem with relevant campaigns and contests. In 2020, the School was presented with a Certificate of Merit for its remarkable achievements in the emulation movement titled “the Military Logistics Branch follows Uncle Ho’s teachings” in the period of 2015-2020 by the Army Corps 2’s Command. In June 2021, it was given a Certificate of Merit for its contributions to COVID-19 prevention and control by Minister of National Defence.

In the upcoming time, the School will keep enhancing the emulation movement titled “the Military Logistics Branch follows Uncle Ho’s teachings” in order to further raise the quality and effectiveness of logistics support for all missions.

Sr. Col. NGUYEN QUOC PHONG, Head of the School’s Logistics and Technical Division