Division 304 under Corps 2 was established on 10 March 1950 at Xuan Tho Commune, Tho Xuan District, Thanh Hoa province. In the resistance war against the French colonialist, the division involved in several campaigns and won various glorious victories. Particularly, in the Dien Bien Phu Campaign, it successfully fulfilled its task of occupying Hong Cum sub-region, killed and captured 2,000 enemy troops, including Senior Colonel Langlais – the Vice Commander of the then French-controlled Dien Bien Phu fortification, contributing to the land-sliding Dien Bien Phu Victory.
In the resistance war against the U.S imperialist for national salvation, the Division involved in several major important operations, such as: The Siege of Plei Me in 1965, the Battle of Khe Sanh in 1968, Operation Lam Son 719 in 1971, the Battle of Quang Tri in 1972, the Battle of Thuong Duc in 1974, etc. Especially, in the Ho Chi Minh Campaign in 1975, the Division speedily marched with the Corps and coordinated with local forces to liberate the coastal central provinces and broke the enemy’s defensive line in the outskirt of Sai Gon and headed toward the Independence Palace, captured President Duong Van Minh and his cabinet, forcing them to surrender unconditionally.
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| Honoring individuals and collectives with outstanding achievements in task performance in 2019 |
Not long after the South liberation, in December 1978, the Division involved in the war to protect the southwestern border. Together with Cambodian people and troops, it defeated the Polpot – Ieng Sary dictatorial regime and rescued the country from genocide and fulfilled our noble international mission. With its achievements in combat and national construction and defence, the Division and its 14 collectives and 12 individuals have been awarded with Hero of the People’s Armed Forces title. Hundreds of its collectives and individuals have been presented with noble awards by the State, the Ministry of National Defence and the Corps.
In recent years, the Division has been tasked with training the reserve force and the recruit, combat readiness, building an all-strong unit, and other ad hoc duties assigned by the Corps and the Ministry of National Defence. Promoting its heroic tradition, its cadres and soldiers have always strived, stayed united, been ready to receive and fulfill all assigned tasks, notably training and combat readiness, hence its overall quality and combat strength have been unceasingly enhanced.
To that end, first and foremost, the Division has strengthened education to raise awareness and responsibility of its cadres and soldiers for the task of training and combat readiness. Its Party Committee and Command have led and directed its organs and units to strengthen education to make their cadres and soldiers fully aware of the position and importance of training and combat readiness tasks in the current period. The content of education is comprehensive, focusing on the Party defence and military lines, the resolutions, directives and orders of upper levels on training and combat readiness, particularly the Resolution No. 765-NQ/QUTW of the Central Military Commission, the Resolution No. 253-NQ/DU of the Corps’ Party Committee on “Enhancing the training quality in the 2013 – 2020 period and beyond”, as well as the advantages and disadvantages and the goals and requirements of training and combat readiness.
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| Conducting one-side-two-level map-based exercise |
To make the education highly effective, the Division has employed several measures to implement the Project of “Renewing political education at units in the new period”, combined regular education with topical education and task-based education in association with the implementation of the Directive No. 05-CT/TW of the Politburo on strengthening the studying and following of Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality and style, and the Drive of “Promoting tradition, devoting talents, deserving Uncle Ho’s soldier”. In each training period, its cadres, especially political ones, have regularly grasped and oriented troop’s thoughts, and opportunely settled the emerging issues in their areas of authority. Especially the Division has mobilized various sources for the building of its House of Tradition, and coordinated with the Vietnam News Agency to collect valuable historical images, objects, and documents as materials for traditional education, nurturing its troop’s morale, will, determination in their task performance, especially during combat training and readiness task.
Together with education, the Division has also thoroughly made preparation for training in human resource, weaponry, equipment and material and considered this an important premise for its training quality. Annually, prior to each training season, the Division directs its organs and units to prepare enough training equipment and facilities, and promote initiatives and innovations in training, etc. In addition, it actively builds plans and hold training courses for cadres in charge of new recruits training. The content is focused on new issues, the shortcomings and inadequacies; attention is paid to the improvement of cadre’s level and method of training, especially the ability to organize practice of unit level officers. Thereby, its cadres have developed an all-round capability, a scientific, careful and thorough method of training which is a prime factor for the improvement of training quality.
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| Maintenance of weapon and equipment |
The Division has also emphasized on renewing and enhancing its training quality. Basing on the approved training plans, its organs and units stick to the guideline of “Fundamental, practicality, steadiness” and focus on synchronous and in-depth training. In order to enhance the command, coordination, manoeuvre, combat capability of its cadres and soldiers, annually, the Division holds map-based command exercise and orders one of its regiments to conduct exercise for the reserve force on a rotary basis. Together with renewing managerial and operational mechanism in training and promoting the role of its specialized organs and cadres in supervising, checking, rectifying the shortcomings of soldiers, the Division also holds contests, festivals and carries out checking and re-examining to make sure that training quality is essential. By these measures, its training quality has been increasingly enhanced. 100% of its soldiers meet the criteria of training annually, in which 85% of them achieved good and excellent results. Its exercises have all been conducted successfully in an absolutely safe manner. Besides, it has also gained good results in the contests and festivals held by upper levels, which was highly praised by the Corps High Command.
Improving the capability and level of combat readiness, meeting the requirements of mission in any situations is also a focal content of the Division. To do that, it has directed its organs and units to strictly adhere to the duty regimes at all level, especially at peak times; strengthened briefing to make its troops aware of the plots and schemes of “peaceful evolution” and “military depoliticization” of hostile forces. At the same time, it has regularly coordinate closely with local party committees and authorities, public security forces and other functional organs to grasp the situation as a basis for building, supplementing, perfecting and organising the combat plans relevant to reality and successfully accomplishing its assigned task in the event of an incident.
Moreover, the Division has also ensured sufficient logistics and technical supply for training and combat readiness tasks. Accordingly, its party committee and commandant have strengthened their leadership and direction to ensure the timely supply of logistics and finance for training and combat readiness tasks, particularly the exercises. Implementing the movement of “Military logistic sector follows Uncle Ho’s teachings”, besides the allocated sources, the Division has facilitated agricultural cultivation to improve the meals and health for its troops. Due to the large number and the degradation of its weapon and equipment, the Division directed its organs and units to foster the implementation of the Drive 50 and regularly conduct technical maintenance to ensure sufficient and synchronous weapon and equipment for the tasks of training and combat readiness.
Promoting the achievements gained in training and combat readiness and looking forward to the 70th anniversary of its foundation day (10 March 1950 – 10 March 2020), the entire cadres and soldiers of the Division 304 will continue to maintain and uphold the tradition of “Solidarity, resilience, mobility, victory” and focus on building an all-strong unit and successfully accomplish all assigned tasks.
Senior Colonel Pham Hung Quyet, Commander of the Division