That is, the Party Committee of Warehouse 708 has just successfully organized the Congress of Delegates for the 2025-2030 term and the unit's founding place received the Provincial Monument Ranking Certificate right on the occasion of the warehouse's 74th anniversary (May 1, 1951/ May 1, 2025).

Proud to be born in the Viet Bac War Zone

Knowing that this was my first visit to the historical site where the Viet Bac Inter-Zone Military Medicine Warehouse (the predecessor of the current Warehouse 708) was established, Colonel Nguyen Van Tuan, the warehouse chief, took the opportunity to introduce: "In early 1951, the Military Medical Department decided to establish the Viet Bac Inter-Zone Military Medicine Warehouse, headquartered in Suoi Ben hamlet, Yen Ninh commune today, to carry out the task of receiving medicine and medical equipment from military medicine factories, aid goods from friendly countries and spoils of war; testing, packaging, preserving, and distributing medicine and medical equipment to units stationed in the Viet Bac Inter-Zone. After that, it was the reserve warehouse of the Military Medical Department, from here transporting medicine to the southern battlefields".

Generations of officers and employees of Warehouse 708 and representatives of the local government and people offered incense at the monument where the Viet Bac Inter-Zone Military Medicine Warehouse was established.

It is known that, recognizing the historical role and important position of the warehouse since its early days, on August 21, 2000, the head of the General Department of Logistics (now the General Department of Logistics - Engineering) signed a decision to recognize May 1, 1951 as the founding date of Warehouse 708. According to the leader of Warehouse 708, although the location has been moved many times, the facility has now moved to the capital Hanoi. However, to mark its establishment, therebyeducating the proud tradition for generations of cadres, employees and soldiers, with the support and assistance of local authorities at all levels, in 2001, the unit initially built a monument stele at the Suoi Ben hamlet cultural house. By 2021, the warehouse continued to coordinate with local authorities and people to restore the stele and build a spacious and aesthetically pleasing monument stele house as it is today. Since the stele house was built, the locality has regularly organized activities to care for, protect and promote the value of the relic, especially during community activities.

Leaders of Yen Ninh commune and representatives of the Military Medical Department and commander of Warehouse 708 received the Provincial Monument Ranking Certificate for the birthplace of the Viet Bac Inter-Zone Military Medicine Warehouse.

Joy and pride came to the government, people of Suoi Ben hamlet, Yen Ninh commune and generations of cadres, employees and soldiers of Warehouse 708 when on February 14, 2025, the Chairman of Thai Nguyen Provincial People's Committee signed a decision to rank the historical site where the Viet Bac Inter-Zone Military Medicine Warehouse was established as a provincial relic (the predecessor of Warehouse 708). Returning to the place where the warehouse was founded 74 years ago to attend the solemn ceremony to receive the ranking certificate, generations of former cadres, employees of the unit and soldiers of the warehouse today could not help but be moved. They shook hands, congratulated each other, expressed gratitude and thanks to the Party Committee, government and local people for always helping in all aspects, regularly taking care of, protecting and improving the spacious and clean stele grounds.

Continuing the glorious tradition

Standing next to the stele house on the solemn day, Colonel Nguyen Van Tuan, the warehouse chief, was filled with excitement. He shared that visiting the stele house and hearing about the establishment and development history of the old Military Pharmaceutical Warehouse, he could see the will, determination and strategic vision of his predecessors. The more proud he is of the glorious tradition of the warehouse, the more the generation of warehouse soldiers today need to make more efforts, try harder, innovate and be more creative to build and develop the warehouse worthy of its position and mission requirements.

Having the opportunity to visit Warehouse 708 at the new headquarters, I witnessed the constant changes and development of the warehouse system, especially recently, when the warehouse has just successfully built a technology-based warehouse. Previously, the receiving and distributing of goods in warehouses was done manually, mainly by human power and forklifts; manual management using stamps, box labels, and warehouse book systems made it difficult to search for and retrieve goods. Not to mention, the old warehouses did not have an automatic system to control and warn of environmental conditions; they did not have the ability to forecast and warn of inventory and near-expiry, so management encountered many difficulties.

Modern business operations at the technology-based warehouse, Warehouse 708.

Since the superiors invested in the project to build a technology-based warehouse, the process of managing, exporting and importing goods and the preservation process has been automated. Currently, the medicine and chemical warehouse meets the standards of good medicine preservation practice (GSP); the medical equipment warehouse aims to meet GSP standards... At the warehouse, modern operating procedures are being applied, including the effective operation of automatic goods retrieval robots and self-propelled vehicles transporting goods from robots to forklifts. According to Lieutenant Colonel Hoang Thi Thu Hang, Head of the Medicine and Chemical Warehouse, the technology-based warehouse has helped reduce labor by 50% and doubled efficiency compared to before, creating great excitement for officers and employees.

Officers of the Military Medical Department and commanders and staff of Warehouse 708 in front of the monument where the Viet Bac Inter-Zone Military Medicine Warehouse was established.

Learning more, I learned that thanks to the technology-based warehouse project, the work of receiving and distributing goods has been automated up to 80%. In particular, the new warehouse has created a breakthrough due to the automatic storage and retrieval system with high accuracy and speed, along with a software system that strictly manages each military medical base, each category of goods, and manages batches of expiry dates; has automatic technology to warn of drugs that are nearing their expiry date, an automatic system to monitor, adjust, and warn of temperature and humidity in the GSP warehouse, as well as an automatic fire prevention and fighting system... That has contributed to helping Warehouse 708 always complete well and excellently the task of receiving, preserving, and distributing goods to units, with absolute safety in all aspects, without any congestion or slowness in receiving, distributing, or goods being degraded, lost, or stolen.

From the achieved results, according to Lieutenant Colonel Dang Van Viet, Party Secretary, Political Commissar of Warehouse 708, at the congress for the 2025-2030 term, the Warehouse Party Committee has determined to focus on comprehensively leading all aspects of the unit's activities, focusing on the work of reserving and ensuring military medical supplies for combat readiness, regular and unexpected tasks. In particular, continue to operate and effectively exploit the warehouse applying technology, especially automation in the export and import of goods and supplies, participate in research on packaging of the types of bases being managed at the warehouse to ensure unity, science, convenience, serving the reserve for combat readiness and unexpected tasks, determined to excellently complete the task in all situations, worthy of the heroic history of the unit born in the cradle of the Viet Bac revolutionary base.

Article and photos: VAN CHIEN

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    Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/quoc-phong-an-ninh/xay-dung-quan-doi/viet-tiep-truyen-thong-ve-vang-cua-kho-quan-y-chien-luoc-826541