The barrack and its environmental landscapes are the face of each agency and unit; the facilities that ensure daily activities, study, and work for cadres and soldiers are one of the pivotal factors in the building of regularity. Thus, over the years, together with training and combat readiness, the Party Committee and Command of Engineer Brigade 575 (under Military Region 1) has always attached importance to constructing a “regular, bright, green, clean, and beautiful” barrack and consistently adhering to the principle that regardless of any conditions and circumstances, the Brigade will be determined to well implement this issue and consider it as a crucial content in building an all-strong, “exemplary and typical” unit and the content to concretise the Emulation Movement entitled “The Military Logistics follows Uncle Ho's teachings”. The goal of this content is to create a neat environmental landscape, a wholesome living space, which contributes to improving the quality of daily activities, work, and cultural and spiritual life of the unit to lay a foundation for the building of discipline and motivation for cadres and soldiers so that all assigned tasks can be accomplished.

Beautifying the landsacpe

To realise the goal, the Brigade has concentrated on leading and directing the management of lands for defence and good implementation of barrack planning. Particularly, during the implementation of the decision on the merger and restructuring of the Unit, the Brigade had operate dispersedly across two provinces, with 17 barracks, which presents numerous challenges in managing and constructing the barracks. Therefore, the Brigade has established a Barrack Maintenance Steering Committee with the function of closely coordinating with relevant superior specialised agencies, units, and local authorities to review and accurately assess the status of each land plot, meticulously verify land data to classify and manage it strictly and legally in accordance with the land laws and the regulations of the Ministry of National Defence. In addition, the Brigade has regularly kept track of the positions of each agency and unit within the master planning of localities; summarised and categorised barracks models in detail, etc. to lay a foundation for reporting, advising, and proposing to the Military Region the plan to re-plan the overall layout of the barracks, from the location of the Brigade's command post and agencies block to the units and subordinate units. Currently, all of the units in the Brigade have been approved in terms of location; organised trench digging, built walls to delineate boundaries, set boundary markers, and managed tightly to prevent encroachment and disputes to ensure a safe unit and safe area.

The building of a regular, bright, green, clean, and beautiful barrack is a constant and long-term process that requires significant budget and manpower. Meanwhile, due to mission requirements, the unit often has to experience force dispersal and operate in far-flung areas. Therefore, to achieve the set goals, the Brigade has mobilised all organisations and individuals to perform the emulation movement entitled “Build and manage regular, bright, green, clean, and beautiful barracks”. Thoroughly grasping Directive No. 05/CT-BQP issued on 6 March 2012 by the Ministry of National Defence on accelerating the emulation movement entitled “Build and manage regular, bright, green, clean, and beautiful barracks”, the Brigade has concretised 6 emulation contents in association with the implementation of Resolution No. 1658-NQ/QUTW issued on 20 December 2022 by the Central Military Commission on Military Logistics until 2030 and the next. In particular, it is necessary to specify the focus and phases during the construction; conduct after-action reviews to surmount all challenges and difficulties; propose appropriate measures for funding sources, task characteristics, overall barracks master planning, and local residential planning. To that end, the Brigade has established the Steering Committee for the emulation movement entitled “Build and manage regular, bright, green, clean, and beautiful barracks” and assigned members in charge in each unit; promoted democracy and collective intelligence in agencies and units. Logistics - technical agency functions as a key role in advising, planning, and proposing models, construction plans, and implementation guidelines. The Brigade has assigned specific tasks to each agency, unit, collective, and individual for cohesive implementation. At the same time, the Brigade has closely combined the emulation movement of building and strengthening barracks with the Determined-to-Win Emulation movement, to create an all-pervasive effect and arouse the consciousness and responsibility of cadres and soldiers in managing and using barracks, equipment, electricity, water, and maintaining hygiene. As a result, officers and soldiers have enthusiastically participated and developed the emulation movement both in breadth and depth with practicality and effectiveness. In 2023, thanks to regular funding resources, the Brigade has utilised its capabilities and mobilised over 3,600 workdays and 1.5 billion VND to build, repair, and renovate multiple construction entities.

Implementing the principle of building, managing barracks, and using equipment, electricity, and water in a practical, regular, cohesive, and economical way, the Brigade has closely adhered to the master planning and criteria for building regular, bright, green, clean, and beautiful barracks to plan the construction, consolidate, repair, renovate; combining barracks planning with environmental landscape planning with clear functions, etc. to ensure continuity, cohesion, and convenience for living and managing and training troops. At the same time, the Brigade has strictly performed regulations in basic construction investment; actively deployed ratified construction projects and barracks projects; promoted the management of basic construction investment from surveying and designing processes to construction, acceptance of construction entities to come into use, improve investment effectiveness, prevent loss and waste, etc.

Participating in agrit-production

Due to the concurrent use of old and new models of barracks and the degradation of numerous construction entities, which cause difficulties in managing and ensuring safety, regularity, and unity, the Brigade has required its logistic-technical agencies to regularly check, survey, and categorise the quality of barracks and their service life. Therefore, the units have proactively designed plans for maintenance and repair, proposed short-term and long-term construction investment, and advised the Brigade to mobilise resources and request funds from higher echelons to implement and meet the usage requirements. Priority has been given to housing for all service members, working facilities for cadres, and the system of technical warehouses, vehicle parking, and equipment storage. To ensure regularity and unity, the Brigade has paid attention to researching and rationalising the design with the arrangement of equipment and signs; harmoniously combined construction projects with planting trees and grass. Regardless of the limited budgets allocated from higher echelons, to accomplish all set goals, the measure, as well as the experience of the Brigade, is to bring into play the spirit of self-reliance, actively mobilise various resources and bring into full play the professional qualifications of engineers and technical workers in repairing, consolidating, and building barracks. Accordingly, the Brigade has directed its units to constraint expenses, and balance income resources from food production and animal husbandry to strengthen and maintain barracks and construct internal roads and yards. Especially, the Brigade has promoted the expertise of engineers and technical personnel in military engineering in planning, designing, and constructing facilities. At the same time, attention has been paid to encouraging cadres and soldiers to actively consolidate signs, and building campuses; repairing and consolidating minor damages to equipment, electricity, water systems, hanging lines, etc. Emphasis has also been placed on bringing into play the pioneering role of the Youth Union and young cadres in developing initiatives and building models.

Intending to further improve the living conditions of the service members, the Brigade has constructed hot-water facilities for bathing in the winter and applied various management measures to ensure good maintenance, durable, safe, and economical use of barracks equipment, electricity, and water. Agencies and units have regularly reviewed regulations on the use of barracks equipment, electricity, and water; they have stepped up the installation of separate electricity and water meters in each room and public lighting system operated by solar energy; the electrical and water networks have also been separated for living, working, and other tasks

In addition, the Brigade has paid attention to protecting the environment and ensuring hygiene and safety. Accordingly, right from the stage of planning, the Brigade has attached importance to constructing separate sanitation facilities and livestock areas away from living spaces; and regulating areas for collecting and processing organic and medical waste. The food production and animal husbandry have been carried out in a closed system following the VAC model; used environmentally friendly chemicals and organic, less toxic plant protection products. Importance has been attached to strictly maintaining daily and weekly hygienic activities for barracks; special attention has been given to the cleanliness of animal areas, centralised food processing areas, the messes in units, etc. to ensure the green, clean, beautiful, and hygienic environment landscapes.

Despite numerous difficulties, with the painstaking effort and determination of the party committees and commanders at all levels, and the cohesive awareness and actions of the cadres and soldiers, the Brigade has accomplished the goals of the emulation movement entitled “Build and manage a regular, bright, green, clean, and beautiful barracks”. Up to now, the Brigade has basically completed the master planning of the barracks area; strictly implemented the management and use of lands for defence; the agencies and units have well-organised, regular barracks with bright, green, clean, and beautiful environmental landscapes; the living conditions of the soldiers have been significantly improved with clean water and having hot-water bathing facilities,... for which the Brigade has been awarded a Certificate of Merit by Military Region.

Bringing into full play the achieved outcomes, Engineer Brigade 575 will continue to accelerate and deepen the emulation movement entitled “Build and manage a regular, green, clean, and beautiful barrack” to generate a motivation to enhance the quality and effectiveness of barracks maintenance work, build an all-strong, “exemplary and typical” unit, and accomplishing all assigned tasks in the current context.

Senior Colonel NONG VAN DANG, Commander of the Brigade