Colonel Cao Xuan Thang, Director of Social Security Administration of the Ministry of Defense reported on the management and implementation of social insurance and health insurance in the Ministry of National Defense. With the working motto “Think holistically, work specifically, everything must be done right from the beginning”, social insurance and health insurance work in the army in general and management and organization work in the army. The implementation of the Social Security Administration of the Ministry of Defense in particular in recent years has achieved remarkable results. Notably: Social insurance benefits of officers, professional soldiers, non-commissioned officers, defense workers and contract workers in the army are settled promptly, conveniently and closely. The health insurance policy in the army is comprehensively implemented; In particular, the implementation of the military health insurance policy has created conditions for soldiers to receive better health care and medical examination and treatment, especially for soldiers in remote and isolated units. island border. The social insurance and health insurance funds are managed strictly and in accordance with the law. In particular, the reform of administrative procedures and the application of information technology have been promoted, meeting the increasing requirements of the management and implementation of social insurance and health insurance in the army. Lieutenant General Vu Hai San concluding the meeting. Recognizing and praising the achievements of the Ministry of Defense Social Insurance in recent years, Lieutenant General Vu Hai San emphasized: Based on its functions and tasks, the Ministry of Defense Social Insurance needs to continue to do a good job of consultation. advises and proposes to the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense to have appropriate instructions on the guidelines and policies of social insurance and health insurance in the army, which are becoming more and more complete in terms of both the legal framework and practical requirements. characteristics of military and defense activities, always aiming for the satisfaction of beneficiaries. Along with well performing political tasks, the Deputy Minister of Defense also noted that the Party Committee and commander of the Ministry of Defense paid attention to building a team of insurance officers with both professional ethics and integrity. professional knowledge; have methods, scientific working style, meet the increasing requirements in the process of performing tasks.

With the criteria of low cost, efficiency and ease of use, the Hospital of Traditional Medicine, the Ministry of Public Security has created a thermal shockproof shirt for medical staff who are carrying out the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic in medical conditions. extreme hot weather. Senior Lieutenant Le Thi Hoa, Medical Officer of Infection Control Department, Traditional Medicine Hospital of the Ministry of Public Security, the creator of the thermal shock jacket said: ‘This shirt is simply designed with a mesh body. three holes, cool material”. Mesh shirts have a relatively cheap cost of only 50,000 VND, so they can be produced in large quantities to serve the frontline health ministries involved in the prevention and control of COVID-19. The highlight of this thermal shock jacket is the dry ice bags weighing 500g wrapped by a layer of insulation foam with a thickness of 1cm to prevent the ice from directly contacting the human skin and placed in a zip bag to prevent water, Fast cooling effect. Each net shirt is arranged with 4 ice bags in front and back to keep the net shirt balance. 1 set of thermal shockproof vest complete with materials made of mesh cotton fabric to make the process of heat diffusion between the body and the air inside the frame easier, 4 elasticated front and back pockets, each bag for 1 extra piece of insulation 1cm thick and 1 bag of dry ice 500mg. The weight is not too heavy to help doctors manipulate and move conveniently. After acceptance, the Traditional Medicine Hospital of the Ministry of Public Security evaluated the thermal shock jacket to be effective in 6-8 hours, enough for one shift for doctors and nurses, the hospital will quickly coordinate with units to produce large quantities, promptly serve health workers who are performing frontline anti-epidemic tasks. Major General Pham Ba Tuyen, Director of the Hospital of Traditional Medicine under the Ministry of Public Security, who directly experienced the thermal shock jacket, said: “After only a few days from ideation and product testing, the hospital’s leaders instructed to urgently check and accept to quickly put into production and distribute to health workers who are on duty of epidemic prevention in the provinces, especially Bac Giang and Bac Ninh”. On the afternoon of June 3, the Traditional Medicine Hospital of the Ministry of Public Security sent reinforcements to the field hospital in the Bac Giang epidemic center with more than 60 anti-heat shock shirts and many drugs to support epidemic prevention and control.

Isolated in the middle of the forest Panting, I followed Lieutenant Ho Van Giang, an officer of the A Vao Border Guard Station (Quang Tri), crossing steep slopes to find the 8-house village. Giang is good at going to the forest, crossing slopes, so his feet are always pounding, sometimes even making jokes. I don’t make up for it, sometimes my heart feels like it’s going to jump out of my chest. “Ba Lin village is the most remote and most difficult area of ​​Quang Tri province. But in Ba Lin, the place with the most things must be this 8-house village” – Lieutenant Giang said, while his feet were still fast. mountain pass. The road to the village of 8 houses is just a small path, enough for one person to go. There is a passage through the reed grass and myrtle forest that is in full bloom. The distance to the village is about 3 km, but it took us more than 1 hour to arrive. That’s right, the steep slopes to overcome have consumed all of my time and energy. A corner of the 8 house version Kitchen corner of the people of the 8 house village The people of the 8-house village swim and catch fish in A Tang stream The 8-house version now includes 10 roofs with nearly 50 people. Standing from above, looking down, the village is picturesque with close-knit houses on stilts, thatched roofs with dark thatched grass. The village is located right at the foot of A Le hill, upstream of A Tang stream. In this place, the summer is cool but the winter is bone-chilling because of forest dew and mountain air. Mr. Ho Van Sau, nearly 60 years old but his muscles showed no signs of slackening, welcomed us into his house. While the two- and three-year-old children saw a stranger, they rushed into the kitchen, nestled in the gap in the door and looked out. They may squeal if strangers try to get close, even if their faces widen in goodwill. Old Ho Van Sau and his son reported the situation of the border and milestones to border guards A student from the 8th village carried him back over the mountain after a day of studying Pouring water to invite guests, Mr. Sau said that people’s lives here are almost self-sufficient. In the rainy season, the spring water rises, this place is completely isolated from the outside. In the village, people do not use money to transact. Only when going out, do people use money to buy food and reserve food. “Here, the grid system and phone signal are still not available. The way to become people’s life is separate from the outside. Our relatives mainly live in the forest, fearing the Giang (heaven) and old age. All children are united in one heart,” said Mr. Sau. Ong Sau was one of the first two people to enter the A Tang valley to build a house and make a village. It was 1991. At that time, he and his brother went through the forest to find land to build a village. The forest is immense, it takes 3 days to reach A Tang valley – where many species of birds and animals live. Seeing that the land was good, they offered a posthumous ceremony to ask Giang to establish a village and settle down to this day. Drink roots, eat “specialties” In the dry season, people in the 8-house village go up the hill to burn, hoe, and chop. In the rainy season, they go to the forest to find cardamom and hunt wild animals. In addition to upland rice cultivation, they grow pumpkins, potatoes, and cassava to eat. During the year, they rarely bring goods outside to exchange. Sometimes, hunting wild animals, catching big fish or getting a nest of wild bees, they bring them outside to sell or exchange for food. In the whole village, only the head of the village, Ho Van Au, has a motorbike but posted it outside the center of Ba Lin village. Because the road becomes different when someone is sick, the boys in the village have to take turns going to the military medical station in Bali for treatment. The sick, after being cured, cross the mountain to return. Everyone is like that in the past. I went to all 10 rooftops in the village, seeing that almost every house invites guests with a bowl of crimson water. Is it new or is it the water cooked from the roots of a forest tree called “blood tonic”. Throughout the year, people drink water cooked from the roots of this tree. According to the people, the root of the tree tonic blood is very good for health and cures many diseases. In the A Tang valley, just tiptoe into the forest to find this root species. Step out of the door to see the forest. The forest is very primitive, with trees so big that some people can’t hug them. It is home to many rare species of wild animals. Three years ago, people also saw the footprints of a bear by the A Tang stream. Footprints are bigger than adult feet. “Tigers and leopards don’t exist, but wild boars, gills, chamois, and weasels are abundant. They often drag their herds to clear fields to plant rice, corn, and potatoes. In the season, people have to put a lot of effort into barricading the fields. trails from the forest and keep watch through the night,” said Mr. Sau. The day I went to the village, the young people caught a flying weasel about 2 kg. Asking to know that they set traps on trees, disguised discreetly, so they tricked it. One sister, when she returned from the upland, still dragged along with her a black tiger snake, as big as an adult’s wrist. She smiled and said that she went to work in the field and saw it lying in the sun in the middle of the road, let’s catch it! In the forest, there are countless holes and deep waterfalls along the A Tang stream. This is an ideal place for eels and cool fish to live. These two species of fish are now specialties in the lowlands and although the price is very “expensive”, now looking for red eyes can’t find it. “Sometimes people catch eels that weigh more than 10 kg, and those that weigh more than 3 kg are often. When they catch fish, they divide and eat. Too many people can’t eat it all, they cross the mountain and bring it outside to sell or exchange rice.” – Mr. Ho Cu Chang – 35 years old, a “fisherman” in the 8th village – said leisurely. Let’s keep the milestone together In village 8, the house has 2 main roads. That is the road to the village and the path to the national landmarks on the Vietnam – Laos border. The village is located between 3 national landmarks 627, 628, 629. In which, the nearest landmark is about 2 km from the village. Among the 10 national landmarks that the A Vao Border Guard Station is managing, these are the landmarks with the most dangerous and craggy terrain. Veteran Ho Nhat (79 years old), white hair like clouds on the top of A Le hill, said that every day when going to the fields or looking for honey, the villagers still often pass through national landmarks. From men to women, from young to old, everyone has the spirit of protecting borders and landmarks. “We always tell each other when crossing a border marker to stop to observe. If you see high grass, you have to break it, if a tree falls, you have to clean it up, if you see a mold that’s chipped, you must report it to the official immediately. border guard” – veteran Ho Nhat confided. Senior Lieutenant Ho Van Giang affirmed that the people here are very responsible in patrolling and protecting the borders and landmarks of the Fatherland. Among them are typical examples such as father and son Ho Van Sau, village chief Ho Van Au or veteran Ho Nhat. “The evidence is that every time we go on patrol, we see that the national landmark area is cleared by people. If there is anything at the border, they also send people to cross the mountain to report,” said Lieutenant Giang. Difficult words On the way to leave the 8 house village, we met a lot of students returning from a day of study. The children go in groups, sometimes the older child carries the baby over steep slopes. According to the head of Ba Lin village, Ho Van Nhien, because of the bumpy roads, children’s education in the village is interrupted and they do not reach their destination. In the village, no one studied until grade 10 and many children dropped out of school very early. Stopped learning so the pickaxe, the machete, therefore, “sticks” tightly to the hand.

Lesson 1: Memorable summer In the summer of 1970, my father and many other soldiers and uncles that I worked with my father at the General Staff Department such as Uncle Vuong Thua Vu – Deputy Chief of Staff; Mr. Vu Lang – Director of the C51 Operations Department; Mr. Phan Binh – Director of C52 Intelligence Department; uncle Phan Hao – Chief of Staff of the High Command of Artillery; Uncle Nguyen Huu An – Senior Master 308 … and his “natural” family also went to work in Sam Son at the same time and were arranged in the same multi-storey motel area of ​​the army that remained after the war. ruin! The summer of 1970 was brilliant and memorable, after 4 years of evacuation from the end of 1965 to the end of 1969 by the US bombarding in the North, for the first time we were happily free on the streets and back to school. Hanoi inside. Headquarters of Road 9 – South Laos B702 during a meeting with General Vo Nguyen Giap in 1971 (document photo) The first time I studied with friends in the South crossed the Truong Son road for thousands of miles to the North was when I was in grade 6 at Xuan Dinh school. Little girls and boys who were about 9-12 years old, or even younger, were children of soldiers and soldiers secretly operating in the enemy area, after the Mau Than General Attack was revealed and was shot and killed and arrested by the enemy. , fierce repression should be brought to the North. They had to walk through the streets of “Liberation”, always being ambushed by the enemy, bombarded from all over the southern provinces to the Socialist Palace (near the North) to get a car, usually it took nearly 2 – 3 months, “bring a backpack with all kinds of things like clothes, hammocks (with curtains and covers), dry food, drinking water, etc … and put on the shoulder about 3 – 5 kg of rice on the shoulder , most of which serve themselves. In total, from 1954 – 1955 to 1975, about 32,000 children in the South were sent to the North, studied at dozens of schools dedicated to Southern students or studied with us like at Xuan Dinh school … In Grade 7 I studied at Trung Vuong school, Ms. Binh was the head teacher. Due to my poor score and bad behavior in 6th grade because I used to fight and was diligent in practicing soccer without doing my homework, I almost got double classes, luckily thanks to my mother also teaching Van and dad to fight. So far, the homeroom teacher sympathized with me to grade 7! For this reason, I was seated by Ms. Binh at the last table, behind the wall and with up to 5 girlfriends sitting in front and around, of which I remember three “Jade rocks” sitting at either end of the table and blocking right in front of the table. face so I can’t play with and get close to any boyfriend during class! I was just at the school of cadet Nguyen Van Troi when I returned to the beginning of 6th grade, so I still wore the uniform even though my pants were too low because I grew too fast for my age, my head wore a border guard and pulled the front cover and two earplugs. dropped down without a rope, covering his face, looking very pitiful! At that time, my father came out of the Central Highlands after more than 2 years of fighting on B3 Field from the 1968 General Attack on Mau Than as Deputy Chief of Staff. The Military Region returned to the position of Director of the C55 Military Training Department as before he left B. My father was very interested in teaching his children, especially because I was the first son, growing up early during the war, so he paid special attention to teaching. I shoot guns, learn martial arts and exercise … At the end of the summer of 1970, my father sent the whole family to work in Sam Son! It is impossible to imagine our happiness because at that time, although the US had stopped bombing the North, the fighting was still raging in the South and across the Indochina battlefields. At the age of 15, Sam Son was beautiful before the war with casuarina forests stretching on the coastal white sand, large fishing rafts grafted with bamboo trees on the shore and chains of fishermen pulling nets every day. tomorrow, the little souvenir rafts with red and blue sails and the small shells that we still scavenge for early in the morning on the sandy shore as we go out to watch the sun rising slowly. golden streaks of light and glittering on the top of the night waves rushing to the shore. That year, the whole family was allowed to ride a round-legged caravan, a bit cramped for a family of 5 but compared to the Sam trip. Son was by train for almost a day from Hanoi to Thanh Hoa via Ham Rong Bridge just before the war, and my younger brothers and I were allowed to go with the Japanese, Huy “batch” and fish i Lan “black” the son of Uncle Hong Cu and Aunt Hanh, who had just got rid of the measles, the person still covered with red itchy pimples was great, much cooler and faster because at that time the train seemed to only run every 10 – 15km / hours! The scene of the North after 5 years of bombing by the US widened before the eager eyes of the teenagers and bold in the memory with the words “Victory” in white stone, standing in the middle of the pine forest on the top of Dragon Mountain. American bomb craters were as big as ponds filled with water on both sides of the road, along with landmarks such as Do Len, Vong Phu rock and Doc Doc temple, the Drowning Woman mountain range … This summer, my father and many other soldiers and uncles that I worked with my father at the General Staff Department like Uncle Vuong Thua Vu – Deputy Chief of Staff; Mr. Vu Lang – Director of the C51 Operations Department; Mr. Phan Binh – Director of C52 Intelligence Department; uncle Phan Hao – Chief of Staff of the High Command of Artillery; Uncle Nguyen Huu An – Senior Master 308 … and his “natural” family also went to work in Sam Son at the same time, arranged in the same multi-storey motel area of ​​the army that remained after the war. ruin! Many rows of buildings and main buildings at the gate of this guest house were completely destroyed by US bombs, green coconut flower beds mixed in sea spinach and casuarina leaves filled the aisles … My family at two gables was also destroyed by American bombs, however the middle staircase and the upper floors were intact, but there were soldiers with guns guarding them. Once, I sneaked over the broken concrete boulders to reach the 2nd floor and immediately encountered Uncle Vu practicing Tai Chi, so I got down, just in time to see a few big rooms where Dad and my uncle, They still meet every day with many large maps on the wall and it seems to be the whole table, but due to the hurry and the room is dark, they cannot see clearly inside. Uncle Vu was very serious, sometimes we chased each other and shouted too loud and he was reminded by him and we were scared of him. Once I saw a few Volga cars with firearms guarding them. At that time, all we knew was that vehicle of Mr. Le Trong Tan – Deputy Chief of Staff; Uncle Vo Chi Cong – Secretary of Zone 5 and Uncle Chu Huy Man-Commander of Military Zone 5 meeting, we also did not pay much attention because we were busy shooting birds, soccer and swimming, we only knew that the father and the Your uncle is discussing military matters only. Sam Son Summer noon at that time was very special, full of sunshine but clear, quiet and distinctly the smell of the sea, like the sound of the wind surfing between the casuarina forest and the roaring waves, sometimes adding a few more crows of crows. melt away forever. It was so special that, decades later, when I returned to Thanh Hoa town, one summer afternoon, standing by the window on the second floor of the Provincial People’s Committee Office Building, I again seemed to see the cool air filled with the flavor of that childhood. flashed by the breeze brought in by the sea and the nostalgia was so strong that I had to visit Sam Son right away with my wish even if only for a minute to be immersed in the childhood space. (There’s more)