A specialist is giving the officers and men technical training.(Photo by Chen Renhai)

　　During the combined exercise for military operations other than war (MOOTW), 100 officers and men from the risk and disaster rescue element of the 3rd battalion of an installation regiment of the Second Artillery Force (SAF) of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) accomplished within just a half day the tasks of  assembling personnel and equipment and sending out the resuce element emergently according to 5 different emergency preplans, namely the preplans for flood fighting, post-earthquake rescue, snow disaster fighting, forest fire extinguishing and wind disaster fighting.

　　Li Jinsong, battalion commander who was in charge of the on-spot command, told the reporters, “The 100-member element can independently undertake emergent rescue tasks for the above-mentioned 5 kinds of disasters without personnel adjustment and supplement.”

　　After consulting with the “establishment table of emergent rescue military strength”, the reporter saw that all of the 100 officers and men were all-rounders. Chen Haiping, a Class-I Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO), has a good command of 8 kinds of professional skills. During the post-earthquake rescue operation, he was the blasting and dismantling master hand. During the flood fighting operation, he was the main player in stemming burst. During the snow disaster fighting operation, he was the deicing vehicle driver.

　　A flood disaster occurred in a water area for the sudden rainstorm in early November, 2009 and the levee was on the verge of bursting. Upon receiving the call for help, the battalion dispatched a 100-member rescue element to rush to the site in less than 2 hours. It is learned that at least 48 hours were needed for such an emergent call-out in the past.

　　By Liang Pengfei, Zhi Xingang