Training course for lecturers on explosives and first aid opened

PANO – The Command of the Engineering Corps, the Vietnam Mine Action Center (VNMAC) and the Defense Cooperation Office of the US Embassy in Hanoi on August 8 opened a training course for instructors in tackling explosives and providing first aid at the Engineering Technical School in Hanoi.

Senior Colonel Nguyen Anh Tuan, Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the Engineering Corps, representatives from agencies under the Engineering Corps Command, the Ministry of National Defense of Vietnam, the US Embassy in Vietnam, 12  instructors in tackling explosives and providing first aid under the US Pacific Command, and 30 Vietnamese trainees attended the opening ceremony.

Participants at the opening ceremony

Organized into five levels, the training program will last in five years, ending in 2020. During the course, trainees will be provided with knowledge, skills, experience and teaching methods in line with the International Mine Action Standard on detecting and dealing with bombs and mines and providing first aid.

After the course, the trainees who met the international standards will be promoted to instructors.

Senior Colonel Nguyen Anh Tuan confirmed that the course is one of the Engineering Corps’ and VNMAC’s important international cooperation activities with the aim of effectively implementing the MoU on jointly overcoming post-war aftermath in Vietnam inked by the Steering Committee 504 of Vietnam and the US Department of State.

For his part, Lieutenant Colonel Nagelvoort, a representative from the US Embassy in Vietnam, emphasized at the opening ceremony that the training course will not only help enhance Vietnamese engineering force’s capability of detecting, defusing bombs and mines and dealing with medical emergencies, but also bolster the two armies’ mutual understanding and cooperation.

In 2013, also at the Engineering Technical School in Hanoi, the Engineering Corps Command in collaboration with the US Embassy in Hanoi and the US Pacific Command organized a training course on skills of tackling bombs and mines and giving first aid to injured people caused by explosives.