Over the years, while well performing all tasks to improve its synergy and combat power, Artillery Brigade 572 (Military Region 5) has attached special importance to making itself “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong with many synchronous, proper measures. In the process, it has drawn several practical experiences and will continue to apply them effectively in the upcoming time.

Artillery Brigade 572 is stationed in a strategic area characterised by harsh climate conditions, prolonged heat waves and droughts, a large number of storms and floods, as well as complex developments in the political security situation, religion, and social evils which negatively impact on its troops’ health, ideology, and sentiment and its task performance. Fully aware of those issues, first of all, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have focused on building a politically, ideologically, organisationally strong Brigade as the basis for raising the Brigade’s synergy and combat power. Adhering to higher echelons’ guiding documents, resolutions, and directives, the Brigade has attached significance to improving all-level party committees and organisations’ leadership and combativeness, aligning the building of pure, strong party organisations with the building of comprehensively strong offices and units, and turning its cadres and party members, particularly the key ones into typical examples in terms of morality and professional competence. It has directed all-level party committees and commands to execute plans on building pure, strong party cells and organisations in a close, scientific way. Due regard has been paid to improving party secretaries and party committee members’ professional competence, working methods, and capacity to realise targets, tasks, and measures mentioned in their resolutions. All-level party committees’ inspection and supervision work has been enhanced to opportunely prevent and detect signs of disciplinary violation. Currently, the Brigade Party Organisation is focusing its leadership on heightening the example-setting responsibility, fighting 10 signs of individualism, encouraging “self-review and self-correction”, and multiplying “four-good” party cells and “four-good” party organisations.

The Brigade inspects its units’ training models and initiatives

Furthermore, the Brigade has enhanced political education and ideological management, building up its troops’ political steadfastness and resolve to overcome difficulties and successfully fulfil all assigned tasks. Offices and units have rendered their troops fully aware of the Party’s military and defence guidelines and the Military’s regulations on combat readiness, deeply and widely organising political campaigns, namely “Raising troops’ awareness and responsibility for themselves and their families, comrades, and units”, “Preserving and bringing into play comradeship among Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” via specific, practical deeds. As a result, the Brigade has always maintained great stability, unity, and uniformity. Cadres and party members, especially the key ones have promoted their vanguard, exemplary role in all tasks; the Brigade Party Organisation has recorded no signs of degradation in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle as well as “self-evolution” and “self-transformation”. On a yearly basis, over 86% of party organisations and members within the Brigade have been highly rated for their task performance.

In addition to making itself politically strong, the Brigade has focused on making force adjustments and raising the quality of training and combat readiness. Grasping resolutions, directives, and guiding documents by Military Region 5’s Party Committee on realising the breakthrough year of force adjustments, the Brigade has proactively designed a specialised resolution and plans to execute the Military Region’s decisions on merging logistics and technical offices in a close, synchronous, scientific way. It has directed offices and units to review and consolidate their organisational structure, adjust their combat readiness resolution and projects, and strictly maintain combat readiness duty.

A part from its breakthrough in force adjustments, the Brigade has renewed and improved its training and combat readiness tasks. Under the Central Military Commission’s Resolution 1659-NQ/QUTW, dated 20 December 2022, on “raising the quality of training in the period of 2023 - 2030 and beyond”, on an annual basis, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have focused their leadership and direction on raising the quality and effectiveness of training management and renewing the contents and methods of training and exercises in accordance with the Brigade’s task requirements. Emphasis has been placed on enhancing troops’ capacity to master weapons and technical equipment, holding training courses based on projects, stationed areas, and objects of combat, taking tactical training as the centre, considering specialised training as the basis, and seeing cadre training as the key. As for commands and offices, the Brigade has concentrated on unmasking enemy operational plots and artifices, improving the art of using artillery, raising their operational staff work and methods of directing, inspecting, and organising training and exercise work. Concerning units at detachment level, the Brigade has adhered to the criteria for a “good training artillery unit” to hold training courses, improving its units’ capability in response to enemy firepower; besides, its units have been trained in manoeuvrability and coordination during Military Region-level operations, defensive zone operations, and sea and island defensive combat.

While well carrying out preparatory work, the Brigade has directed offices and units to abide by the approved training plans and maintain refresher courses and training contests at all levels. Over the years, offices and units have applied many effective, creative models, approaches, and emulation movements to their training work, such as “good training, strict discipline, high combat readiness”, “versatile artillery battery”, “versatile artillery reconnaissance team”, and “versatile artillery officer”. Consequently, the Brigade’s training quality has unceasingly improved; troops have mastered tactics and their assigned weapons, demonstrating their manoeuvrability and high combat readiness, readily undertaking and successfully fulfilling tasks in all situations. In 2023, the Brigade took part in the Military Region’s DT-23 exercise with good results; it obtained distinction during an inspection conducted by the Artillery Corps Command in April 2024.

Cadres and soldiers of the Brigade enjoy their break time after hours of training

In response to complex developments in violation of the State’s law and the Military’s discipline, particularly in the relationship between new and old soldiers, loans without repayment capacity, and traffic accidents, the Brigade’s Party Committee has recently issued a specialised resolution on raising the quality of regularity building and discipline management. More specifically, while introducing resolutions, directives, regulations, and guiding documents by higher echelons and the Brigade itself to all cadres and soldiers, the Brigade has directed its offices to design and include topics about traffic safety, main points of the Penal Code, and several legal regulations and disciplinary rules in education programs, with a view to equipping troops with necessary legal knowledge and preventing possible violations of discipline and safety regulations. Additionally, the Brigade has attached significance to promoting the vanguard, exemplary role of cadres and party members in morality and observance of the State’s law and the Military’s discipline. It has maintained the Regulations on Grass-Roots Democracy, improving the quality of the “Political and Cultural Day at grass-roots level” and democratic dialogues between Brigade Command and troops. It has also closely collaborated with local party committees and authorities in its stationed areas and its troops’ families to manage and educate troops. As a result, in recent years, the Brigade has witnessed no serious violation of discipline, while the rate of normal disciplinary violations has been below 0.2%.

In addition to those above-mentioned measures, the Brigade has attached importance to bringing into play self-reliance in logistics and technical work. It has reviewed, adjusted, and supplemented the system of logistics and technical documents in accordance with the force adjustment process, completing regulations on logistics and technical work, delegating specific duties and authority to commanders of logistics and technical boards, sectors, and affiliated units. It has stepped up the Campaign on “managing and exploiting weapons and technical equipment effectively, sustainably, safely, economically, and ensuring traffic safety”, encouraging its cadres and soldiers to promote and apply technical initiatives and innovations to maintaining and repairing weapons and technical equipment as well as improving the Brigade’s manoeuvrability and combat readiness capacity. It has also promoted the vanguard role of mass organisations and the exemplary role of cadres and party members in fostering animal and crop husbandry, building “regular, green, clean, beautiful” barracks, raising the quality of logistics and technical work as the basis for reaching the targets of building an “exemplarily, typically comprehensively strong” Brigade, meeting the requirements of Army building and Fatherland protection in the new period.

Col. NGUYEN HAI LONG

Commander of the Brigade