​Confidently stick to the sea thanks to the "square star" force

(Baonghean) - Arriving at the coastal communes of Quynh Luu district, we met fishermen who were busy preparing boats, nets and gear to go out to sea. When I asked about super typhoon Haiyan, they spoke very little about the luck that the typhoon did not make landfall, but they talked a lot about the role of the Party committee, the government, and the forces, especially the core role of the maritime militia in helping them proactively prevent the storm. Fishermen in the coastal communes of Quynh Luu district affirmed that: With the maritime militia, they are more confident in going out to sea; confident in living with storms, floods and natural disasters.

If it is difficult, there must be a suitable way to do it.

That is the affirmation of Lieutenant Colonel Ho Thanh Hai, Deputy Commander, Chief of Staff of the Military Command of Quynh Luu District when talking about training to improve the quality of the maritime militia. As evidence for this affirmation, Lieutenant Colonel Ho Thanh Hai talked about how to organize training and practice live-fire shooting at night at sea for the maritime militia. According to the training time and shooting standards, to organize live-fire shooting at night at sea for the militia of a commune requires a minimum budget of 150 million VND. Most of that money is mainly used to rent boats, set up targets and practice. Therefore, if there is no "appropriate way" to both reduce costs and not affect the quality of the shooting, it is very difficult to implement.

To solve this problem, the Military Command of Quynh Luu district established a group of teachers with the aim of concretizing the standards of the shooting lesson into a training curriculum for night shooting at sea for the militia. Through the time of practicing in the field combined with learning from the experience of fishermen, the group of teachers has "finalized" the most core issue of the shooting lesson, which is the time to pull the trigger to end the shot is the calm between two consecutive waves. From there, the militia is guided to practice the trigger skillfully to end each shot accurately. On the other hand, along with the process of researching and concretizing the shooting lesson standards, the group of teachers has also invented a shaking target system to serve the practice of shooting at sea without using boats or rafts to arrange. The shaking target system with a frame is made from old bicycle parts combined with a crank, or battery current to create a shaking oscillation that when arranged on land is similar to the sea surface with waves. Thanks to that, the sea militia in Quynh Luu does not depend on the weather, ships, etc., helping to ensure training. Soldier To Duy Thai, a good shooter of the Quynh Nghia sea militia platoon, said: Previously, due to not understanding the nature of the shooting exercise, along with the expensive training organization process, the training was mainly formalistic and followed the program. But since the teaching team of the District Military Command "solved the difficulty" of the shooting exercise, for the past 3 consecutive years, the practice of shooting live ammunition at night at sea for the sea militia has been organized regularly and achieved very good results.

The labor force in the Son Hai commune reserve fleet practices shooting.

The “3 plus 4” model

The coastal commune of Son Hai in Quynh Luu district, where 70% of the population is engaged in fishing with 235 large and small fishing boats, with a capacity of 90 CV or more. Over the years, the Marine Militia Platoon here has always played its role well to help fishermen feel more confident at sea. Realizing the role of the "square star" soldiers, the fishermen of Son Hai commune voluntarily established a reserve fleet of 4 boats organized and operated like the marine militia. Mr. Nguyen Van Hai in hamlet 5, Son Hai commune, the owner of a boat in the reserve fleet, said: In 2010, when my boat went to avoid a storm, it ran aground. My boat was promptly rescued by a fishing boat with a marine militia force. From the above incident, the crew on the boat all realized that: If there were more boats organized and operated like boats with a marine militia, the situations that the fishermen requested would be quickly resolved. Therefore, I volunteered and mobilized 3 more fishing boats in the commune to form a reserve fleet.

Since the reserve fleet was established, each reserve fishing vessel has annually sent 8 workers on board to participate in maritime militia training. On the other hand, based on the fishing ground security situation, the Military Command of Son Hai commune has contacted the Military Command of Quynh Luu district, Quynh Thuan Border Guard Station, Coast Guard Region 1... to organize training courses on notification, reporting of situations, coordination of rescue at sea... for the maritime militia force and workers on the reserve vessels. Thus, in addition to the force in the maritime militia team (including 15 people) of 3 official vessels, Son Hai also has 4 reserve vessels. With the "3 plus 4" model in the activities of the maritime militia, Son Hai commune has been able to establish additional contact points to promptly handle situations. Thanks to that, with a large number of fishing vessels and fishermen regularly exploiting and fishing at sea, in recent years, Son Hai commune has always been absolutely safe for people and vehicles.

Lake Linh