During these historic April days, we had the opportunity to visit Regiment 19, Division 968. We were walking under the early summer sun, but when we entered the unit's barracks, we felt as if we were lost in an "ecological farm". The green color of the garden system, the trellis with all kinds of high-quality vegetables and fruits combined with the cool air from the orchards, timber gardens and fish ponds gave me an unusual feeling. That green color originated from the solidarity, unity and efforts of many generations of officers and soldiers of the unit.

Local schools come to visit and study at the unit.

Visiting the units in the Regiment, admiring the lush vegetable gardens, the system of ornamental plants, fruit trees interspersed with cultural works, I suddenly remembered the first days when the unit set foot here. In those days, the grounds of the units in the Regiment were as messy as a battlefield. Rows of level 4 houses were bare among piles of rocks and even bomb craters interspersed with wild plants. At that time, on holidays, breaks, after training hours, all officers and soldiers became farmers, struggling with wild plants to create productive gardens.

In Battalion 5, in order to have a water source for the newly sown vegetable area, during the day, the unit did not have time to take advantage of the evening to collect wild plants and burn them to get light to dig ponds. With the solidarity of the whole unit, after a while, the pond system, livestock production area and unit campus gradually took shape. However, this area was originally barren and infertile rocky land, so the vegetables could not grow, so the unit often lacked green vegetables and food. Faced with that situation, the Regiment had to allocate hundreds of millions of dong from the capital fund and tens of thousands of working days of soldiers to renovate the production area and unit campus. Thousands of cubic meters of colored soil were mixed with green manure, lime powder and rice husks by returning units to renovate the soil. Thanks to that, the demand for green vegetables and food for soldiers was basically guaranteed.

Soldiers of Regiment 19 beautify the environment.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Tien Luong, Commander of Regiment 19, said: “The quality of life and aesthetics of the troops are increasingly required to be higher. Along with that, responding to emulation movements such as “Good military kitchen, good management”; “The Army Logistics Sector follows Uncle Ho’s teachings”... in recent years, the Regiment has allocated revenue from increased production and a part of the capital fund to invest in renovating the production area, building barns... Along with that, the unit allocated a part to rent excavators and bulldozers to expand and renovate the pond system to raise fish, solve the problem of enough irrigation water and air conditioning, rebuild the system of barns, racks, and gardens. Currently, the Regiment has 2 concentrated production and livestock areas in the direction of semi-industrial and all battalions have concentrated production and livestock areas”.

Promote increased production.

After having a basic system of gardens, barns, trellises, and ponds, the Regiment sent a number of cadres to specialized vegetable growing areas to learn planting and care techniques and buy vegetable varieties suitable for the unit's climate and soil conditions for planting. As a result, many high-yield vegetable varieties that can withstand hot climates, such as high-yield squash, heat-resistant mustard greens, and squash, were experimentally grown in the units. Not only did they ensure the need for green vegetables and food all year round, but in many stages, the unit also sold the remaining vegetables to the market. Every year, the Regiment earned hundreds of millions of dong in profit from increasing production and raising livestock, becoming the main source of income to build the unit's landscape and environment and improve the soldiers' lives.

The unit's growing area is always "full" of green vegetables and fruits.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Tran Van Tu, Political Commissar of Regiment 19, the quality of life, the soldiers' meals have improved, the environment and the barracks are spacious and clean, directly contributing to improving the quality of the unit's political tasks. In addition to promoting the self-reliance of the squads, the Regiment has allocated hundreds of millions of dong from the profits from increased production to build a system of poster panels, internal concrete roads, etc. Along with that, the unit has directed the construction of points for implementing regular discipline in a number of aspects in a number of units to expand to the entire Regiment. Every month, the unit's Emulation Council includes the content of building environmental landscapes in the emulation scoring. From there, a widespread emulation movement to build environmental landscapes has been created throughout the entire unit. Up to now, the squads in the Regiment are like miniature "youth parks", regardless of the time, the production area is always filled with the green color of vegetables and fruits, and the unit's campus is always full of flowers in all four seasons.

From a difficult land, over the years, Regiment 19 has risen to become a bright spot in terms of production increase and environmental landscape construction of Military Region 4. For many consecutive years, it has been commended by the Military Region 4 Command and Division 968 for its production increase and cultural environment, becoming a model for agencies, units, and people in the area to visit and learn from.

Article and photos: NGOC THANG – THANH TRUONG

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