65 years ago, on May 19, 1958, the 25^th Engineer Battalion (predecessor of the 513^th Engineer Battalion, currently part of the 3^rd Military Region) was established. This was an important event, marking the development of the engineering forces within the People’s Armed Forces, meeting the new requirements of our resistance war against the US. In the initial years after its establishment, despite being understrength and facing many material difficulties, with the enthusiastic fighting morale shared by the military and the people throughout the country, “All for the beloved South of our homeland” “All to defeat the American invaders”, the officers and soldiers of the battalion overcame all hardships, sacrifices, and showed bravery, creativity, and dedication to ensure the seamless operation of our lines of communication to the front. Generations after generations, officers and soldiers of the battalion have always been united, proactive, creative, self-reliant, and accomplished excellently all assigned tasks, contributing together with the Military and the People to the Great Victory in the Spring of 1975, liberating the South, and reunifying the country.

Promoting the tradition of “Opening the path to victory”, in the cause of national construction and defence, the officers and soldiers of the brigade unite their efforts, overcome difficulties, implement uniformed measures, create a solid and comprehensive transformation in all aspects of their work, and successfully complete all assigned tasks. With outstanding achievements in combat and operations, the Brigade has been honoured twice by the State with the prestigious title of “Heroic Unit of the People’s Armed Forces” (in 1985 and 1994), the 3^rd Class Military Merit Medal, the 3^rd Class Military Feat Medal (in 2000), the 3^rd Class Medal for the Defence of the Motherland (in 2013), and hundreds of collective and individual commendations. In recent years, as a mixed engineer unit under the 3^rd Military Region, the Brigade’s main political task is training and maintaining combat readiness, disaster prevention and search and rescue operations, construction of defence works, mine and explosive clearance, and other emergency tasks.

River crossing practice

Meanwhile, one of the distinctive characteristics of the unit is that its tasks are often implemented in large areas, remote and border zones, islands, and with dispersed forces, posing significant challenges in management and command work. Its specialised equipment has been in use for many years, with unstable technical coefficiencies. The Battalion’s personnel and vehicles involved in training often operate in crowded and high-intensity construction sites, and occasionally, they also have to work with hazardous and dangerous explosives and detonation tools for rock blasting, which can pose safety risks. Recognising these difficulties, the Party Committee and Command of the brigade always pay attention to building an exemplarily pure and strong Party organisation, and a comprehensively strong unit model. In particular, they focus on breakthroughs to improve the Battalion’s training quality to fulfil all requirements and tasks in the new situation.

First, focus on effectively implementing, educating, and enhancing the awareness and responsibility of the troops regarding training tasks. Every year, the Brigade has to train various groups with different levels of awareness, and at the same time conduct various tasks with increasing requirements. Meanwhile, there are difficulties due to the lack of uniformed weapons and technical equipment, challenges in logistical and technical support, and frequent changes in the leading personnel. Therefore, the Brigade requires its agencies and units to focus on thorough education for troops, ensuring a solid grasp of resolutions, directives, and guidelines from higher authorities regarding training work. The key focus is on Conclusion No. 60-KL/QUTW dated January 18, 2019, of the Central Military Commission on the continued implementation of Resolution No. 765-NQ/QUTW; Resolution No. 1659-NQ/QUTW dated December 20, 2022, of the Central Military Commission on improving the training in the period of 2023-2030 and subsequent years; Resolution No. 280-NQ/ĐU dated April 10, 2013, of the Party Committee of the Military Region on “Improving the quality of training in the period 2013-2020 and subsequent years”; Training orders from the Military Region 3’s Commander, along with the specific objectives and requirements that the unit needs to achieve. Based on that, Party committees at all levels of the Brigade issue dedicated resolutions to lead training tasks, determine appropriate leadership directions, and overcome existing limitations and weaknesses. These are then transformed into plans and training schedules relevant to each specialised field, the unit’s conditions, and the characteristics of the area, and then comprehensively implemented throughout the Brigade.

To ensure the high effectiveness of the educational work, the Brigade directs units to aggressively innovate, diversify the educational contents,  programmes, forms and methods, and combine centralised education based on the basic training curriculum with specialised education according to specific tasks of each phase through various forms such as propaganda campaigns, internal broadcasting, experience-sharing sessions, forums, symposiums, political and ideological discussions, Political and Cultural Day, and monthly democratic dialogues. At the same time, the Unit integrates educational work with commendation and reward activities, highlighting exemplary individuals in the regular emulation movement and breakthroughs during training phases. Additionally, the Brigade also orders its subordinate units to actively monitor all activities of the troops, promptly identify ideological problems and provide ideological guidance, and effectively resolve emerging issues. As a result, there has been a significant transformation in the understanding and responsibility of the troops towards training tasks, with 100% of officers and soldiers ready to receive and successfully complete all assigned tasks.

Second, implement effective preparation work. Recognising that preparation is the first and decisive phase that can determine the training outcomes, the Brigade Command directs its subordinate units to proactively prepare an adequate quantity, and improve the quality of the systems of planning, documents, training schedule, lesson plans, training models, training materials, and training grounds. The Unit also aims to harness the intelligence of officers and soldiers in improving and inventing teaching models and training materials for cost and labour saving and enhance training quality. With the principle of “Cadres are the foundation of all work,” cadre training is considered a critical phase. Therefore, the Brigade Party Committee and Command focus on nurturing and enhancing the political competence, knowledge, skills, experience, and training methods of the officers, especially those directly involved in training, managing, and commanding the troops. Furthermore, the training and professional development content concentrates on addressing unresolved issues, new content, and weaknesses from the previous year, as well as key issues for enhancing training quality, such as planning methods, training schedule, and procedures for the registration, statistics compiling, and monitoring of troop strength, weapon and equipment, vehicles, and training outcomes, and training methods. At the same time, the 513^th Engineer Brigade strictly maintains weekly in-service training and the curriculum ratification regime for junior-level instructors, encouraging them to utilise their own time for self-learning, research, practice, and improving their professional competence and training methods. To diversify training methods and measures, the Brigade combines focused training stages throughout the year with training through competitions, sports events, and training inspections, briefings, and discussions on a weekly and monthly basis in accordance with the principle of “Train where the weaknesses lie, superiors train subordinates, divisions train units”. As a result, 100% of the battalion’s officers receive training at various levels, with 85% - 90% of platoon leaders performing at good or excellent levels, 80% of company and platoon leaders achieving good or excellent ratings, and 100% of platoon leaders rated as having fulfilled their duties, with over 50% able to conduct training several simple topics.

Third, make breakthroughs and innovations in the content, methods, and overall quality of training. As a combat engineer unit, the Brigade is required to maintain combat readiness, be adaptable to various missions and terrain, as well as be flexible and creative in all situations, especially complex and dangerous ones. Therefore, the Brigade Party Committee and Command focus on leading and directing units and agencies to intensively renew the content and methods of training, ensuring their relevance to the assigned tasks and the characteristics of the Unit’s area of operation. The Brigade’s training prioritises practical exercises to ensure combat readiness in complex terrain, limited time, adverse weather conditions, and hypothetical scenarios involving the enemy using advanced weapons. Also, training activities are organised based on the principles of “being fundamental, practical, and solid”. In addition, the Brigade focuses on conducting uniformed and specialised training sessions for various missions such as river crossing, road and bridge construction, mine and explosive clearance, disaster mitigation, search and rescue operations, etc. Besides, the Unit maintains close coordination between training and real missions in different areas of operation and implements the rotation of personnel from static training contingents to units engaged in field activities and construction projects to enhance the ability to apply theoretical knowledge to practical tasks for officers and soldiers. Additionally, physical training is intensified to ensure that all officers and soldiers are proficient in the techniques of armed swimming and river crossing; camouflage and concealment, as well as manoeuvring with heavy loads across challenging terrains and in adverse weather conditions. These efforts aim to improve endurance, agility, and the ability of the troops to meet all the demands and tasks at hand.

Fourth, enhance the quality and effectiveness of training guidance, management, and operation. To ensure high training effectiveness, the Brigade focuses on comprehensive innovation in training guidance, management, and implementation, following the principles of “concentration, unity, coordination, effectiveness, and no overlap”. The Unit also focuses on adjusting the content, methods, and locations of training to suit each timing, and task, especially in conditions with harsh weather and disease prevention and control measures. In addition, the Brigade emphasises providing development training and mentoring activities to enhance the competence, capabilities, and experience of the officer corps and specialised agencies involved in training advisory work. Close coordination is fostered between agencies and operational units to ensure the effective implementation of planned training programs. Timely feedback and lessons learned are utilised to identify weaknesses and responsibilities of agencies and units, aiming to improve the quality of training. As a result, the training outcomes of the Brigade have consistently been improved, and the Unit has been recognised by the Ministry of National Defence as an "Excellent Training Unit" for several years, and achieved high rankings in various competitions and military contest events, creating self-motivation to excel in fulfilling assigned tasks.

Building upon these achievements and the traditions of “unity, cooperation, proactive offensive, resilience, and victory,” the officers and soldiers of the 513th Engineer Brigade will continue to strive for even better performance in training tasks, contributing to the overall improvement of combat capabilities and successfully fulfilling all assigned tasks.

Senior Colonel NGUYEN TRONG TIEN, 513^th Engineer Brigade Commander