Being deeply aware of the assigned political tasks, the Party Committee and Command of the Engineer Brigade 131 under the Navy have drastically and synchronously implemented many solutions to improve the ability of building combat works, together with other forces making contribution to safeguarding the sacred sovereignty over seas and islands of the Homeland.

Engineer Brigade 131 is one of the main forces tasked with building the military works for protecting the sovereignty over seas and islands of the Homeland. As a result, together with the tasks of training, combat readiness, regularity building, discipline training, etc., the Brigade has attentively improved the professional ability, especially the ability of the construction forces and the technical vehicles in order to successfully complete the unit’s political tasks. Also, even in peacetime, cadres and soldiers of the Brigade operate dispersedly in remote areas, borders or islands, doing the dangerous and harmful jobs with high risk of unsafety. Clearly understanding the features and the task requirements, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have defined many guidelines and solutions for leading and directing the building of the comprehensively strong, “exemplary, typical” units, improving the overall quality and combat power, in which, the improvement of the ability of building the military works is regarded as the key.

Commander of the Brigade speaks at a driver contest held in 2023

First and foremost, the Brigade enhances the political and ideological education, improves the awareness, builds the motive, responsibility, skills and determination for cadres and soldiers in their task performance, considering these as the basic and important solutions. Only when having the correct awareness, strong political will and the high determination could soldiers be strong enough to overcome any sacrifice and difficulties to successfully accomplish the tasks. Keeping this in mind, the Brigade has directed its offices and units to thoroughly grasp the superiors’ resolutions, directions and instructions on the military and defence work, directly the orders by the Commander of the Navy on the task of building the combat works, and the requirements of keeping the State’s secrets, military secrets, works secrets, and the insurance of safety, quality and progress of the construction. The Brigade has regularly grasped and informed soldiers about the situations of the world, region, the East Sea, especially the new and complicated ones, made clear the plots and tricks by foreign countries at sea, our Party’s and State’s viewpoints and policies on solving the conflicts at sea, etc., since then, to raise the soldiers’ awareness of objects, partners and the units’ tasks, heighten the vigilance, build the stable political spirit and high determination, readily receive and well complete the assigned tasks. Together, the Brigade has attentively led and directed the improvement of the quality of holding, managing, orienting and solving soldiers’ thought, effectively implemented the “4 nos”, “3 quicks”, prevented the “self-evolution”, “self-transformation”, stably kept the Party’s ideological ground, the high solidarity and unity within the Brigade.

Together with well doing the political education and soldiers’ thought management, the Brigade attentively improves the leadership ability and the combat strength of all-level party organisations, brings into play the leading and exemplary roles of cadres and party members in executing tasks. Closely following the superiors’ resolutions, directions and instructions on the party and political work, directly the resolutions and directions by the Service’s Party Committee and Command and the reality, the Brigade has drastically and synchronously implemented many solutions for building the pure, strong and typical party organisations combined with building the comprehensively strong, “exemplary, typical” offices and units; focusing on well implementing Resolution No. 21-NQ/TW, dated 16^th June, 2022 by the Politburo (13^th tenure) on improving the consolidation and construction of the party organisations and the quality of party members in the new period. To achieve high effectiveness, the Brigade has specially concerned strengthening the party organisations in units, the forces in the key and independent projects, difficult areas; heightening the leading cadres’ activeness, creativity, accountability and exemplary role in doing their tasks; enhanced the implementation of models of “The party members guiding the masses and juniors”, “The masses giving feedback to the party members”; combined the construction of party organisations and party members according to the 4^th Central Resolution (13^th tenure) with Conclusion No. 01-KL/TW by the Politburo on continuously implementing Direction No. 05 on promoting the studying and following of Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality and lifestyle; improved the effectiveness of inspection and supervision, firmly struggled against and strictly solved the manifestations of bureaucracy, lack of democracy, formal democracy, patriarchalism, and militarism.

Building the combat works is a special task taking place in difficult areas, which requires soldiers to have not only courage, spirit and determination, but also skills, professionals and mastery of knowledge. Hence, together with prioritising the building of the politically strong unit, the Brigade has gained breakthrough in improving the quality of training and skills for objects, combined the training with the task execution. On grasping and implementing the superiors’ resolutions, directions on training, directly Resolution No. 1659-NQ/QUTW, dated 20^th December, 2022 of the Central Military Commission; Resolution No. 1378-NQ/ĐUQC, dated 30^th March, 2023 by the Navy’s Party Committee on improving the training quality in the 2023-2030 period and the coming years, the Brigade’s Party Committee has made the specialised resolution on the task of combat training, defining 2023 as “the quality year of training and building the combat works”. Accordingly, offices and units have attentively improved the training quality, regularity building and discipline management. In training, they have closely followed the motto of “being basic, mastering and professional in exploiting and using weapons and technical equipment, strictly following the safety precautions and taking the task of building the combat works as the target”. To meet the defined targets and requirements, the Brigade has directed offices and units to enhance the reform of contents, organisation forms, training and managing methods; attentively organised the training courses to improve the knowledge and capability for cadres who are directly doing the construction; improved the skills of using vehicles and technical equipment, the specialised ones in particular for technicians, making sure they could proficiently use the assigned equipment, know how to use 01-02 other vehicles and master new equipment. In implementation, the Brigade has directed the combination of training with construction, taking “the construction sites as the training grounds” to do the training and suitably arrange the working shifts and rotations; enhancing the assistance by the higher skilled to the lower, the experienced to the newbies.

Maintaining vehicle

Thoroughly grasping the “secret, safe, quality, progressive and economical” motto, the Brigade has specially paid attention to training, safety assurance in building. Recently, the Brigade has synchronously implemented many solutions such as issuing safety regulations and rules in each area and task; directing offices and units to grasp and train soldiers to understand the safety precautions in the training and construction. Before each task, the Brigade has directed the constructors to build construction plans and safety plans; organised the extra trainings, retrainings and examinations so that soldiers could clearly understand the safety insurance before the constructions. The Brigade has directed offices and units to anticipate the arising problems during the construction, build the systems of exercises, and train soldiers to firmly grasp the tasks, understand the procedure and actions in solving the situations and problems, at the same time, strictly implemented the technical safety verification of equipment and vehicles; seriously maintained the safety insurance activities such as: being on-duty in the construction sites, wearing protective gear, etc.; directed staff of cadres and engineers to stay closely to the constructions and strictly follow soldiers in order to guide and inspect to timely discover and correct the shortcomings, making sure the absolute safety in the construction.

Due to the requirements, the Brigade has to execute their tasks in many complicated sites and complex terrains with difficult working conditions. Meanwhile, the equipment and facilities which have been used for years have been downgraded and become unreliable. Based on this reality, the Brigade has attentively mobilised resources to invest in new and modern equipment, machines and vehicles, and applied the technical initiatives and reforms into the construction works. Accordingly, together with promoting the Campaign 50, the Brigade has attentively advised and proposed to the superiors to purchase and timely install new types of machines and vehicles, making sure the adequate quality, quantity and correct types for the construction of the defence works. In its implementation process, the Brigade has strictly followed the rules and procedure of purchase, ensuring the synchronicity for the main equipment, supporting equipment, technical materials, the training for the user crew, and the improvement for using and exploitation. The Brigade has encouraged and created the best conditions for cadres and technicians to take part in the movement of Creative Youth in the Army, other campaigns and emulation movements in the whole army. Since 2015, the Brigade has applied nearly 50 technical initiatives in building the military works; of which, 03 initiatives winning the “Nguyen Phan Vinh” award and 01 initiative winning the “Creative Youth in the Army” award, which has brought real effectiveness, saved the fuels and soldiers’ working capability.

Together with the above solutions, the Brigade enhances its discipline training and management; maintains the order of the Democracy at the grassroots level; pays attention to the work of policies, public relations and internal politics protection. With the political determination, scientific and synchronous solutions, since 2015, the Brigade has transitionally constructed many buildings with safety and quality insurance, and started several new ones according to the plans. Many of the projects have been finished ahead of the schedule with high quality and been highly appreciated and awarded by the Ministry of National Defence Ministry and the Navy. These are the important foundation and motivation for Brigade 131 to continually try its best to successfully accomplish the assigned tasks, contributing with other forces to firmly safeguarding the sacred sovereignty over  seas and islands of the Homeland.

Colonel NGUYEN TRAN NAM, Commander of the Brigade