On recognising and commending the Artillery Soldiers’ feats of arms, President Ho Chi Minh presented Artillery Soldiers 8 golden words: “Bronze feet, iron shoulder, good combat, accurate shooting”. His congratulatory words is a great encouragement, becoming the tradition, pride and target for cadres and soldiers of all Artillery Units in their managing and training to deserve these compliments.

Artillery Brigade 368 was established at time when the resistance war against America, saving the country was in the decisive period. Inheriting the Artillery Soldiers’ traditions and being imbued with Uncle Ho’s sayings, in its 55 years of building, fighting and growth, the Brigade’s cadres and soldiers have managed to overcome difficulties, hardships and sacrifices to achieve glorious feats. In the period of 1968 – 1972, the fierce combats and glorious victories in Tri – Thien battlefield such as A Luoi airport, Co Tien cave, Co Ca Va, Ta Bat, Ta Luong in B45 route; Dong village, Tra Ky, Ta May, Route 9 Northern Laos; Ai Tu, La Vang, Tan Dien, Ong Do cave, etc. were glorious milestones in the Brigade’s history, which, in turns, contributed importantly to the victory of the resistance war against America, saving the country, making the tradition of “good mobility, good fighting and good construction”.

To meet the requirements for building the Army, safeguarding the Homeland in the new era, the Brigade’s party committee and command need to lead and direct the synchronous and drastic implementation of many solutions in order to bring into play the traditions, build the strong and pure party cells; construct the all-strong, “exemplary, typical” unit; give education and training for soldiers to have political awareness, virtue, knowledge and skills to meet the mission requirements.

Firstly, the Brigade needs to focus on building political strength. This is an important content to assure that soldiers have a stable political spirit, are loyal to the Party, Homeland and people, raise their responsibility for well accomplishing the assigned missions. To assure the effectiveness, the Brigade’s party committee and command need to enhance their leadership and direction over the renovation and the improvement of political, spiritual education with many forms and methods which are creative and suitable for each participant. In which, it is necessary to focus on educating the traditions and history of Artillery Soldiers, the Brigade, Service and Army, through which, to make cadres and soldiers be profoundly imbued with Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s thought, the Party’s lines and policies; actively self-improve and train the revolutionary morality, pure and healthy lifestyle, firm understanding of missions; be aware of  plots of “peaceful evolution”, “depoliticising” the Army by hostile forces; be determined to prevent and repel the “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” within the Party.

Simultaneously, the Brigade needs to closely combine the quantity strength, quality assurance, structures of party committees and commands, and leading officers at all levels with the education to improve leading skills and combat strength for party cells; promote the democracy, take the construction of strong and pure party committees and party cells as the prime targets. At the same time, it is necessary to focus on the management, education, further training, development of party members and supervision, disciplinary actions within the Party in order to timely prevent the signs and violations of regulations and laws. Besides, the Brigade is to build organisations of Youth Union, Soldiers’ Council, Women’s Union, which are strong and rightly carry out their functions and tasks; strengthen the protection of internal politics, policies on public relations; enhance the implementation of the Emulation Movements connected with learning and following Ho Chi Minh’s thought, ethics and manners, the Campaign of “promoting traditions, devoting talents and deserving to be Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” in the new era and Resolution No. 847-NQ/QUTW by the Central Military Commission on “Promoting “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers’ qualities, being determined to prevent the individualism in the new situation”, etc. with practical and suitable contents and targets.

A drill with BM-21 multiple rocket launching systems of the brigade

Secondly, highly appreciate the renovation, improve the quality of training and combat readiness, build the regularity and discipline observance. This is an essential content, making motivation for cadres and soldiers to prove their tradition of “Bronze feet, iron shoulders, good combat, accurate shooting” and well accomplish their tasks in the new situation. On thoroughly grasping and implementing guidelines from the seniors and the Artillery Arm, the Brigade has actively researched and renovated all contents, organisation forms and training methods to be suitable with presently-owned weapons and equipment and the development of artillery operation art in the resistance wars to protect our Homeland. Closely following the “basic, practical, solid” motto, the Brigade has focused on complete but professional trainings raising main central points and being practical to combat reality, in which, taking tactic training as the centre, specifically technical training as the basis, training cadres, detachment-level ones as the core. In order to take advantage of its mobility, weapons and artillery power in modern wars, the Brigade has concretised the norms of “The artillery unit training well” for each force (gunners, scouts, accountants, radio operators, etc.) to be the basis for their training. Concurrently, the Brigade has directed units to promote their outdoor and night trainings; focus on training soldiers to exploit and skillfully use all kinds of weapons and artillery equipment, individual and group skills, making the basis for the company- and battalion-level exercises. The Brigade has highly appreciated the synchronous training in all components according to the motto of being good at the main task, knowing one to two other tasks in the battery; actively training and exercising at all levels; training and practicing battlefield control and preparing for firing, deploying and seizing weapons and equipment. At the same time, all units have enhanced the training on handling modern weapons and equipment connected with training on professional techniques in order to improve skills of using weapons and equipment for cadres and soldiers, shorten the time of firing preparation, assuring the quick and accurate operations especially in complex situations with enemies’ electronic countermeasures.

Especially, the Brigade has directed other units to make plans on physical training; practice of outdoor operation, operation with heavy loadings; practice of moving and replacing artillery in all terrains, training on deploying and retreating artillery in conditions of night and erratic weather; training on river crossing, moving under camouflage, diversion, anti-recce, enemies’ electronic countermeasures, etc. Also, the Brigade has actively organised military exercise at all levels; focused on exercises with live firings, general exercises at artillery company- and battalion-level, joined the exercises of combined forces with live firings with other forces in the corps. In which, the practice of moving forces has been much concerned and directed by the Brigade with the increasing levels of difficulties and fighting conditions. Through these exercises, there has been a clear improvement in cadres’ commanding skills and sections’ combination capability. Since 2017, the Brigade has gained the Ministry-level Title of “Excellent Training Unit”.

Together with enhancing the training, the Brigade has made breakthroughs in improving the quality of regularity building and discipline practice with many synchronous and drastic methods; focused on building “exemplary” units, strictly and effectively kept the daily and weekly routines; implemented the working routines due to plans, responsibility and regulations; strengthened the management measures of thought, disciplines and other new regulations on soldiers’ manners. Presently, the Brigade’s barracks, scenery and environment are made “bright, green, clean, beautiful”; room arrangement is tidy and unified; systems of wires, shelves, signs, panels and slogans are sufficient and following the “regular, typical, exemplary” rules, making the ideal environment for soldiers to feel secure and attach with the unit. Accordingly, the observance of national law and the Army’s regulations in the Brigade has been stably maintained, with the conventional violation rate being kept under 0.2%, which contributes to firmly holding the Title of “all-strong unit”.

Thirdly, well ensure the technical and logistic work to sufficiently and timely support the missions. Thoroughly understanding the importance of the technical work, the Brigade has paid attention to the maintenance, making sure the technical coefficient for missions of training, combat readiness and military exercises. In the conditions that weapons, equipment, vehicles are old, asynchronous, even some of them have been degraded owing to being in use for a long time, etc., the Brigade’s command has closely combined the exploitation, use, store, maintenance of new types with promoting the research, modification, repair the old ones; strictly carried out the regulations of registration, management and statistics of the technical work; closely cooperated with the senior technical departments to step by step widen and improve the Technical Area and Repair Station, making sure the synchronicity, modernity and standard observance. Besides, the Brigade has strengthened the effective implementation of the Campaign on “Managing and exploiting weapons and technical equipment effectively, sustainably, safely, economically, and ensuring traffic safety”.

Regarding the logistics, the Brigade has directed offices and units to closely cooperate between the effective, proper exploitation and use of sources granted by the seniors and the promotion of cultivation and breeding, contributing to the improvement of soldiers’ life. In the implementation process, the Brigade has attentively connected the emulation movement of “The Military Logistics following Uncle Ho’s sayings” to the movement of “Being good in soldiers nurturing and military supplies managing”; well implemented the management and health care, ensured the food safety and prevented the diseases. As a result, the logistic reserves for combat readiness have been assured sufficiently and timely; systems of documents, plans of logistic support have been frequently added and adjusted; the rate of healthy soldiers in the Brigade has been stably maintained at 98.6% and over.

Being proud of the traditions and achievements, Artillery Brigade 368 continues to promote the policies and solutions on improving the general quality, combat strength in order to meet the requirements and missions of safeguarding the Homeland in the new situation, really deserving the tradition of “Bronze feet, iron shoulder, good combat, accurate shooting”.

Senior Colonel NGUYEN TUAN MINH, Brigade Commander