In particular, in the work of preventing and fighting natural disasters and floods, officers and soldiers of Division 968 always excellently complete their tasks, ensuring absolute safety, and are highly appreciated by leaders and commanders at all levels and localities. To achieve these results, the Party Committee and command of Division 968 have proposed many policies and measures in the work of preparing and dealing with storms and floods, in which the unit always attaches great importance to practicing plans to defeat the "water enemy".

Regiment 19 alerted to practice flood and storm prevention plan.

Although it is only the beginning of June, when learning about the training and preparation for the 2023 flood prevention mission of Division 968, we realized that everything is ready. At the beginning of the story with us, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Manh Ha, Deputy Division Commander of Division 968 said: “With the task of training, combat readiness and mobility to perform other tasks, the division is also assigned to participate in flood prevention, search and rescue in the provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue. The specific locality of these provinces is that every year they suffer severe consequences from natural disasters, in which major floods, inundation and isolation often occur. From that characteristic, in the past time, we have focused on training officers and soldiers to be proficient in common situations during the flood season, such as welding the banks of water-containing dams, searching and rescuing people in conditions of strong water flows, landslides, flash floods, flash floods, tornadoes...”.

To demonstrate the thorough training of plans and the readiness of officers and soldiers in the mission of fighting the "Water enemy", Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Manh Ha took us to "see firsthand" the preparation and training work for flood prevention and control in some units. Arriving at Regiment 19, after checking the preparation work of tools, materials, food and provisions of all units, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Manh Ha alerted Battalion 5 to practice handling flood prevention and control situations.

Officers and soldiers of Battalion 5, Regiment 19 practice plans to prevent dike breaches.

The situation was that due to the influence of storm No. 2, water from the upper reaches of Hieu River poured in, and due to prolonged heavy rain, the Nghia Hy dam area in Cam Thanh commune, Cam Lo (Quang Tri) was at risk of breaking and a resident was swept away by the water. The battalion's task was to mobilize forces to participate in dam rescue and search and rescue of victims. After 5 minutes of issuing the alarm, the unit formation with full equipment and military equipment such as iron baskets, sacks, bamboo stakes, hammers... along with enough food and dry food for 5 days began to carry out the mission. The unit's fish pond area was chosen as the location for practicing the situation of preventing overflow and preventing dam erosion.

Under the command of Major Le Van Trong, Deputy Battalion Commander, nearly 2/3 of Battalion 5's troops directly participated in the dam rescue. A group quickly spread tarpaulins over areas showing signs of dam body bubbling and used bamboo poles to pin the corners of the tarpaulins tightly, then used sandbags and iron baskets filled with rocks to reinforce the dam body. In areas at risk of overflow and breakage, soldiers drove bamboo poles into the dam walls and added iron baskets filled with rocks and sandbags to reinforce the dike to protect the dam body...

At the end of the alert session, talking to Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Quyet, Commander of Regiment 19, he confided: “Over the years, the unit has always paid great attention to training in flood prevention and search and rescue. We determined that if the training is not guaranteed and complete, it will affect the completion of the task and endanger the lives of soldiers in the process of participating in flood prevention and control. Therefore, in the condition that the training curriculum for this content is still lacking, the unit mainly applies accumulated experience from practice to the training process and actively practices mastering the plans, increasing the soldiers' exposure to reality.”

Soldiers of Division 968 help people in Cam Lo district, Quang Tri overcome the consequences of storm and flood.

We learned that among the requirements set forth in Regiment 19 is that 100% of officers and soldiers must know how to swim, ensure a physical foundation, and do well in all preparations to be ready to move and perform tasks at all times. To concretize the above requirements, every week the units have a plan to alert for long-distance marches carrying heavy loads; take advantage of break time to train more swimming content for comrades who do not know how to swim or are weak swimmers. To bring the troops closer to the reality of storms and floods, the units increase the alert on rainy days, at night, and move to different areas to practice and handle situations close to the characteristics and areas of the assigned units.

It is known that not only Regiment 19 but all agencies and units in Division 968 have prepared for the task of preventing and fighting storms and floods. In addition, up to now, the division has coordinated with localities according to the assigned plan and transportation units to transport troops to carry out tasks when there are storms and floods. The rainy and stormy season is approaching, with careful training of plans and good preparation, officers and soldiers of Division 968 are ready to deal with and defeat the "water enemy" in all situations.

Article and photos: NGOC THANG