- Try your best, Duong. Send this telegram to the Regiment headquarters. It's very important! - The platoon leader encouraged.

Receiving the call from the Platoon Leader, Duong took off his gloves, wiped his sweat, and quickly entered the telegram room. Although his eyes were still stinging from lack of sleep and his hands were still shaking, Duong quickly finished sending the telegram.

Only 10 minutes later, the operations officer called back: "There was a mistake! The deployment was at G-2, not G+2! Completely different from the coordination plan!"

Illustration: QUANG CUONG

The atmosphere at the command post immediately became tense. The platoon leader quickly checked the original telegram. The code line that Private First Class Le Van Duong had just translated clearly stated: “G+2”. Everyone realized: Duong had mistakenly coded a minus sign as a plus sign.

Duong was called to the command post to explain: “Reporting to the leaders, I am not sure why it was wrong. It could be because the printed code was blurry, or... because of interference with the equipment. I am sure I did it right...”.

The room was silent, only the flashlight reflected on the coded text still placed in the middle of the table.

The platoon leader looked up, his voice harsh: “You’re not wrong? Then who’s wrong? The deployment order was 4 hours off, almost disrupting the coordinated battle formation, affecting the entire exercise, and you still think it’s because of… blurry paper, noisy machines?”

Duong was confused and had not yet said anything when the Company Political Commissar stepped forward, his voice slow but stern: “The most dangerous thing is that you are still subjective, thinking you are never wrong. An information soldier must always be careful, meticulous, and check every character carefully. That is what is serious and responsible.”

Duong paused and explained: "Reporting to the commander, I just arrived at the place, my uniform was still soaked with sweat but I still immediately received the order, translated the telegram, without any negligence or intention, and did not violate the procedure."

The Company Political Commissar continued: “I am not saying you did it on purpose. But you are confusing effort with results. You sent the wrong telegram from G-2 to G+2. In drills and especially in combat, everything must be precise. You know, every telegram, every character written is an order from the commander, linked to the mission that the entire unit must carry out. Therefore, a single wrong sign, a single wrong idea, can lead to a misunderstanding of the mission, a failure of coordination and the consequences are extremely disastrous, sometimes costing the lives of comrades and teammates...”.

Listening to the Company Political Commissar's analysis, Private First Class Le Van Duong bowed his head and admitted his mistake. The air in the semi-soundproof bunker seemed to quiet down, and the sound of rain falling on the canvas roof could be clearly heard.

That night, Private First Class Le Van Duong sat quietly in the bunker, rewriting each code table in his own handwriting, underlining the places that were easy to make mistakes, even though no one forced him to do so. Three days later, in the situation of dealing with electricity, the fastest and most accurate code translator in the Company was Private First Class Le Van Duong. This time, Duong did not take his eyes off the code table, his hands quickly wrote each character and carefully checked the places that were easy to make mistakes...

PUBLIC OPINION

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