As a strategic reserve unit, Engineers Brigade 239 is tasked with training, combat readiness, construction, mine clearance, search and rescue, as well as other unscheduled tasks. Over the years, based on closely following the functions, tasks and realistic situations, the Brigade has synchronously carried out practical and effective solutions, gradually improved its comprehensive capacity, synergy, successfully completed all assigned tasks, and been awarded several noble rewards by the Ministry of National Defence and the Engineers Corps.
From the results achieved, the Brigade has drawn many lessons to apply and improve its ability to perform assigned tasks in the coming time.
One of the most important lessons is strengthening leadership, guidance as well as education to raise awareness, and building great determination and intentionally endeavour for cadres and soldiers to successfully accomplish tasks. Every year, adhering to the resolutions, directives, instructions and political plan, the Party Committee and commander of the Brigade pay special attention to leading and directing the drastic implementation of thoroughly studying and grasping the military and defence line, the leadership resolutions of the Engineers Corps’ Party Committee as well as directives and orders of superiors to each cadre, party member and soldier; regularly concretise with targets and measures which are close to the reality, requirements and tasks of the unit. In its leadership and direction, the Brigade always attaches importance to innovation in leadership methods and styles, formulating and promulgating resolutions and conclusions of the party organisation in a short and concise manner, focusing on key tasks and issues, difficult and new missions, and overcoming weak points. The Brigade has directed party committees and branches to issue thematic resolutions to lead the implementation of breakthroughs by scientific and realistic plans; assigned specific responsibilities to each cadre and party member. At the same time, it has promoted the roles and responsibilities of commanders and agencies in management and administration; strengthened the inspection and do the preliminary and final review well, learn from experience, promptly correct and overcome the shortcomings and limitations.
Along with that, the Brigade has successfully performed the tasks of political education and ideological leadership; actively innovated and applied effective measures and models, such as: promoting military democracy, the role of "Psychological and legal consulting group", "Team of 3", "Security guard" ... to grasp, educate and proactively cope with soldiers’ ideological matters at the grassroots. At the same time, the Brigade has focused on improving the efficiency of the party and political work; in which, the focus was on personnel and policy work, emulation movements, linking the targets of the emulation movements of Determine To Win with the implementation of the Politburo’s Directive No. 05-CT/TW (12th tenure) "On encouraging studying and following Ho Chi Minh's thought, morality and style", the Campaign to promote tradition, dedicate talents to deserve the title of "Uncle Ho's Soldiers" in the new period, etc. Consequently, over the years, all of the brigade's professional officers, soldiers, employees, non-commissioned officers and soldiers have always thoroughly grasped the Party's lines and views, and the tasks of the Army and Units, had strong political will and high determination, proactively overcome difficulties, and consciously strived to successfully complete all tasks.
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| Troop of the brigade conduct training |
With the awareness that "Cadres are the root of all jobs", the Brigade has placed a strong emphasis on training and fostering the capacity and professional qualifications of the forces, particularly the contingent of professional officers and soldiers who are considered as a direct determinant of the quality of the unit's task performance. The Brigade has also implemented the plan and roadmap to adjust the force organisation in the direction of ‘elite, compact and strong’ of the Ministry of National Defence and the Corps. On the one hand, the Brigade has actively reviewed and arranged personnel in accordance with the training major; coordinated with responsible agencies in training cadres at academies and schools inside and outside the Army, at home and abroad to raise their qualifications and meet the requirements of rapid development. On the other hand, the Brigade has maintained the quality of military-democratic activities for all soldiers to realise the common weaknesses or inconsistent contents that need on-the-spot training and retraining. Since then, the Brigade has directed the agencies and units to drastically implement practices as required.
Within the Brigade, the commander directly organised training. Meanwhile, in subordinate units, the Brigade appointed the commanders of these units to carry out training under the Brigade’s supervision. In particular, after Engineers Team No.1 (organised and trained by the Brigade) participated in the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission and continued to prepare relevant contents for the training of the Engineers Team No.2. To deal with the shortage of human resources, especially specialised machine drivers, the Brigade actively selected cadres with military driver's licenses for retraining to take over the new tasks as required.
On the basis of deeply grasping the Central Military Commission’s Resolution No. 765-NQ/QUTW, the Engineers Corps’ Party Committee’s Resolution No. 274-NQ/DU on enhancing the quality of training for the 2013-2020 period and years forward; the order by Commander of Engineers Corps, resolutions, directives and instructions on annual training, over the years, the Brigade has directed the task of building training plans and synchronised documents system at all levels; training fields, grounds, models of learning tools, and lesson plans are consolidated in a basic and synchronous manner. Training management was strictly maintained with adequate training contents, programs and schedules. Besides, the Brigade has closely combined technical training with tactical training, professional training with physical training and field discipline. It also carried out field trips, night training, long-distance mobile operations under the harsh weather conditions and short preparation times, etc. The focus of these tasks is on training detachments to ensure ferry and bridge crossings directly supporting combat readiness tasks. Currently, 100% of the Brigade's cadres are capable of running decentralised training tasks; annual training results with 100% of the content are good and above, specialised training is well-done; participation in competitions and sporting events frequently produces high results. The detachments are always capable of successfully completing both scheduled and unscheduled tasks.
In order to improve the capability to accomplish tasks, the Brigade has consistently attached special importance to building a comprehensive strong unit with high combat synergy. In which, one of the breakthroughs is regularity building, adhering to the rules of military etiquette, innovating working methods and styles; discipline management, and creating stable conditions to build a comprehensive strong unit that is "exemplary and typical". During this process, the Brigade has always acknowledged and strictly adhered to the directives, regulations, and guidelines on building a comprehensive strong, "exemplary and typical" unit. Actively propagated and educated in association with holding on inspection, rectification and raising soldiers’ awareness in regularity building and discipline observance. Additionally, it has timely evaluated, corrected defects with serious manners, actively managed military relationships, regularly strengthened public relations among soldiers and the people; intentionally took part in the construction of new rural areas with safety; promptly identified and strictly handled violations, etc. Moreover, the Brigade has concentrated on security work; strictly adhered to rules and directives regarding fraud prevention, assured secrecy, and ensuring the security and safety of information technology equipment; selected forces for key and secret positions; effectively managed the internal political situation.
In the condition of being equipped with old and degraded facilities, the Brigade has concentrated on technical repair and maintenance; implemented the Campaign "Managing, using weapons and technical equipment with durability, safety, economy, and ensuring traffic safety"; holds technical contests among brilliant technicians. The inventory of weapons and technical equipment is appropriately conducted; handling, taking over and purchasing equipment according to the correct orders and procedures. Therefore, weapons and equipment of the unit are regularly maintained high technical quality. The system of technical guarantee facilities has been basically built and consolidated with the focus on synchronously and regularly upgrading the garage floors, technical warehouses, training rooms, stations, workshops, etc.
Along with that, the Brigade has comprehensively deployed timely and enough logistics to ensure for the tasks, effectively implemented the movements “Military Logistics follows Uncle Ho's teachings”, and “Good catering and supply management unit”. It has also paid close attention to the work involved in growing and raising livestock, as well as the hygiene, and health care provided to cadres and soldiers; Ensured enough fuel and timely transportation for the tasks; Built and upgraded housing projects and infrastructure along with green, clean, and scenic barrack. Several advantageous measures were established in managing energy, water, and other resource savings. As a result, the Brigade has consistently maintained and improved the lives of the soldiers, with the percentage of healthy soldiers is 98.7% or higher, fostered synergy to successfully complete training tasks, and be highly ready to fight, actively participated in the task of preventing natural disasters, search and rescue, assists people in overcoming the consequences of natural disasters, and helped ensure complete safety at significant political events of the Party and State.
The above contents and solutions are practical lessons for Engineers Brigade 239 to keep on applying and cultivating to suit the characteristics and situation in the new period, which would help to increase the overall quality and tasks performance capability to meet the demands of building a powerful and comprehensively strong Engineers Corps which is revolutionary, regular, elite, advancing towards modernity.
Senior Colonel MAI XUAN LUONG, Brigade Commander