Determined to protect Truong Sa (the Spratly) islands, a sacred territory of our beloved Fatherland! It is the oath, a sacred and noble task of the whole officers and soldiers of Truong Sa brigade – the naval soldiers at the front line of the Fatherland.

Brigade No. 146 (Truong Sa Brigade), under the Naval Region No.4 (NR4), was founded on May 8^th, 1978. Under the leadership of the Party Committee and the Naval High Command, directly the Party Committee and the Command of the NR4, and the support of the internal and overseas Vietnamese, in the last 40 years, generations of cadres and soldiers of the Brigade have shown the solidarity and upheld the spirit of determination to win to overcome all challenges, difficulties and losses, devoting to build, to fight, and to firmly protect the sovereignty of the Homeland over the Spratly Islands, creating the tradition of “Bravely fighting, unification, actively overcoming difficulties, firmly protecting sovereignty”. With these achievements, the brigade and its two belonging units as well as three officers and soldiers have been awarded with “Hero of the People’s Armed Forces” title. These have been the spiritual property, the numerous momentums, the proud and encouragement for the present officers and soldiers of Truong Sa Brigade to uphold and bring them to a new level. At present, the sovereign dispute in the East Sea is still complex, imbedding unprecedented dangers, including new developments that would affect the peaceful and stable environment of our country and the region.

Firmly standing on the Homeland's front-line island

Therefore, the Brigade is focusing on making it revolutionary, regular, seasoned and gradually modern. The task of managing, firmly protecting national sovereignty, peaceful environment and stability in the Spratly Islands and its adjacent waters is becoming more urgent and complex than ever before.

To successfully accomplish its task, the Brigade’s Party Committee and its commanders have implemented a number of measures, focusing on the leadership, management and implementation. First and foremost, building the Brigade politically and organizationally strong. This is a content of importance and a solution to improve its overall quality, fighting strength and capability of the Brigade. Accordingly, attention has been paid to the leadership and the practice of upper levels’ directives and resolutions, stepping up political and ideological education, enhancing the awareness of officers and soldiers on the partners, subjects, and the intentions as well as the plots of foreign countries in the East Sea and the Spratly Islands. The Brigade has successfully conducted the task of internal political protection, with no cases of being infiltrated by the enemy or leakage of military confidential information, and actively prevented and fought against the “peaceful evolution”, “depoliticized, civilized the military” and evidence of internal “self-evolution”, “self-transformation”. The “Determined to Win” Emulation Movement in coordination with the studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s thought, ideology and style and the movement of “Promoting tradition, devoting talents, and deserving Uncle Ho’s Army – the Naval soldiers” have been accelerated. The practice of democracy at grassroots levels in parallel with firm disciplines and taking good care of the spiritual and material life of the soldiers have been strictly implemented. The Brigade has also focused on promoting the pioneer role of mass organization, the responsibility, vigilance, and determination and readiness to fight against the enemy to firmly protect the maritime and islands sovereignty of each officer and soldier.

Given the fact that it is daily facing with challenges of the weather and unprecedented situation, the Brigade has paid attention to building clean and strong party organization at all levels to make it the core figure in leading the unit to successfully fulfill all assigned tasks. To this end, attention has been paid to improving the leadership and fighting strength of party organization; promoting the exemplary role and responsibility of the party committees and commanders at all levels in managing, educating and training the cadres and party members. The practice of studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s thought, ideology and style, the 4^th Central Resolution No.4 (12^th tenure) on enhancing Party building and rectification, attaching it with the implementation of measures to build strong and clean party organization have been accelerated.

Thoroughly protecting the country's sovereignty

The task of continuously improving the training quality, capability and readiness, meeting the requirements and demands of the new situation is considered the regular and the core and decisive factor to the fighting strength of the unit. Upholding the resolutions and directives of the upper levels on training, the unit has done it utmost to improve training quality and build it in the direction of revolutionary, regular, seasoned and gradually modern, considering the training areas as the fighting areas, the task of protecting sovereignty of the Spratly Islands as the training target. Importance has also been attached to understanding situation and requirements, strictly following the training principles of “basic, practical, and sustainable”, making a breakthrough in comprehensive and enhanced training which is relevant to the situation, operational plan, combating objects, available weapons and equipment; improving capability and skill; applying traditional and modern tactics; mastering and operating available weapons and equipment, including the modern ones. In addition, attention has been paid to enhancing political and fighting will, the capability to independently and creatively operate of the soldiers in challenging and complex situation.

Besides the enhancement of the sense of responsibility and activeness of cadres at all levels, the unit has concentrated on improving the capability and skills of on-command teams; stepping up supervision and alertness, strictly maintaining the readiness of the soldiers and weapons. The Brigade has regularly reviewed and assessed the situation in order to adjust operational plans to make them relevant to the tasks of each battalion, and then order them to conduct thorough training of each operational plan. It has also maintained the duty, accelerated patrolling and grasping situation in order to timely identify abnormal actions of foreign countries and timely report and suggest measures and solutions. It has cooperated with other forces to block and prevent the infiltration of foreign ships, being alert of provoking actions of foreign forces, making contribution to the maintenance of the national maritime sovereignty and the peaceful environment on the Spratly Islands.

Since its units are stationed in a large area and far away from the land, the task of supplying logistics is challenging. Thoroughly being aware of this challenge, the unit has always been active in logistics task, taking care of the material and spiritual life of the soldiers. With experience from operation, it has suggested ideas for logistics and technical agencies of the Naval High Command in order to have the best logistics and technical supply that is relevant to the condition and fighting tactics in remote islands. Besides the preparation for readiness – their core mission, units of the brigade have paid attention to raise the awareness and responsibility of officers and soldiers in operating and maintaining available facilities, especially in saving petrol, electricity and water.

Thanks to being active in improving comprehensive capability, officers and soldiers have mastered skills and tactics, being ready to fight in any situation, determining to protect sovereignty of the Spratly Island – the sacred territory of the Fatherland, deserving the trust of the whole people.

Senior Col. Bui Phuoc Hai, Brigade Commander