"Keep trying, Duong, send this message to the Regimental headquarters. It's very important!" the platoon leader encouraged.

Upon receiving the message from the platoon leader, Duong removed his gloves, wiped away the sweat, and quickly went into the room to translate the message. Although his eyes were still stinging from lack of sleep and his hands were still slightly trembling, Duong urgently completed the message to send.

Just 10 minutes later, the operations duty officer called back: "There's been a mistake! The deployment was scheduled for G-2, not G+2! It's completely different from the coordinated plan!"

Illustration: QUANG CUONG

The atmosphere at headquarters immediately became tense. The platoon leader quickly compared the message with the original. The code, which Private First Class Le Van Duong had just translated, clearly read: "G+2". Everyone realized: Duong had mistakenly used a plus sign instead of a minus sign.

Duong was summoned to headquarters to explain: "Reporting to the superiors, I'm not sure why it was wrong. It could be due to a blurry printed code, or... interference from the equipment. I'm sure I did it correctly..."

The room was silent, only the flashlight beam reflecting off the coded message still lying in the middle of the table.

The platoon leader looked up, his voice sharp: "You're not wrong? Then who is? The deployment order was off by 4 hours, almost disrupting the coordinated formation and affecting the entire exercise, and you still think it's because of... blurry paper or interference?"

Before Duong could say anything, the Company Political Officer approached him, his voice slow but stern: "The most dangerous thing is that you're still overconfident, thinking you can never make a mistake. A communications soldier must always be cautious, meticulous, and carefully check every character. That's what it means to be serious and responsible."

Duong paused and explained, "Reporting to the commander, I had just arrived from the march, my uniform was still drenched in sweat, but I immediately received the order to transmit and decode the telegram. I was not irresponsible or negligent, and I did not violate any procedures."

The company's political officer continued, "I'm not saying you did it intentionally. But you're confusing effort with result. You sent the wrong message, G-2 instead of G+2. In training exercises, and especially in combat, everything must be precise. You know, every message, every character written, is an order from the commander, linked to the mission that the entire unit must carry out. Therefore, a single misplaced mark, a deviation in meaning, can lead to misunderstandings of the mission, incorrect coordination, and the consequences can be extremely disastrous, sometimes costing the lives of comrades..."

After listening to the company's political officer's analysis, Private First Class Le Van Duong bowed his head and admitted his mistake. The atmosphere in the semi-underground bunker seemed to quiet down, and the sound of rain pattering on the canvas roof could be clearly heard.

That night, Private First Class Le Van Duong quietly sat in the bunker, rewriting each code table in his own handwriting, underlining the easily mistaken parts, even though no one forced him to do so. Three days later, during a situation involving handling electrical signals, the fastest and most accurate code translator in the company was Private First Class Le Van Duong. This time, Duong didn't take his eyes off the code table, his hand moving swiftly across each character, and he carefully checked the easily misspelled parts...

PUBLIC OPINION

    Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/quoc-phong-an-ninh/xay-dung-quan-doi/sai-mot-ky-tu-834566