Text/Sun Yanyi (Shandong)
From September 1980 to December 2001, I spent time in the barracks, and although I had not suffered any major hardships or seen any "smoke of gunfire", I had "put on two major events" - at the end of the 20th century, the Chinese People's Liberation Army shocked China and foreign countries with two major "moves": one was the million-dollar disarmament in the mid-1980s, and the other was the disarmament of 500,000 in the mid-to-late 1990s. As a grassroots officer, I had the privilege of experiencing it firsthand, and it was a mixed experience and an unforgettable experience.
In 1980, after graduating from Tengzhou No. 1 Middle And High School, I was admitted to the Air Force First Aviation Aircraft Maintenance School. In August 1982, after graduating from the military academy, he was promoted to a cadre (deputy platoon post) and was assigned to the repair plant of the 46th Division of the Lankong Former Air Force Aviation Corps, and after a year of probation, he was appointed as an ordnance division (full platoon). Although the troops were stationed on the Gobi Desert at the foot of the Qilian Mountains in the Hexi Corridor and far from home, it was nothing for a farmer's son. I obeyed the leadership, worked with peace of mind in the troops, actively demanded ideological and political progress, and in September of the following year, I gloriously joined the Communist Party of China.
Who knows, on June 4, 1985, Deng Xiaoping solemnly announced at the enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission that the Chinese People's Liberation Army would reduce its posts by 1 million. In October of the same year, my division announced its dismissal. Although the troops carried out a series of ideological and political education in advance and laid a "preventive shot," it was still difficult for everyone to accept it for a while. There are those who cry darkly, and there are those who are publicly cathartic. Some small camp tools were taken to exchange for watermelons and so on, and after the repair shop suddenly paid for blankets and so on, they were reported and returned, and some people even lit a fire to light the vegetable cellar of the 137th Regiment Aircraft Maintenance Squadron 4th Squadron... Not long after completing the formalities for their families to accompany the army, some officers whose nests were not yet warm were included in the list of demobilized workers, and they left the barracks they loved with their families in tears; some officers who had worked for one or two decades and were hoping to be promoted, and some soldiers who had worked hard for five or six years and were preparing to become volunteers had to take off their uniforms and change their professions and return to their original homes.
However, we "student officers" (the name of the army for those who have been admitted to the military academy directly from local schools) want to go (change careers), but we can't go yet, because we are young, have diplomas, and have certain work experience, and we are needing knowledgeable young officers in army building. Within a few days, I received a "letter of appointment" and went to the Fourth Squadron of the Seventeenth Regiment of the Sixth Air Division as the commander of the Ordnance Detachment (promoted from the position of the main platoon to the post of deputy company), which can be said to be a blessing due to "misfortune".
After the regiment had been stationed and trained at our original airport for more than a year, because two regiments of different divisions (the other regiment was from the original Air Forty-seventh Division) sharing an airport for training, there was a phenomenon of ridicule, and there were frequent flight accidents, so they were ordered to relocate to the location of the division headquarters, closer to the big city, the climate and living conditions have improved, and it is also a thousand miles away from home. In the new unit, the nature of the work is basically similar to before, that is, to do the regular maintenance of the aircraft and the repair of parts, the work is relatively smooth, and the detachment led by the team has been awarded the collective third class for three consecutive years, and I personally have made a third class merit. In February 1989, I was promoted to political instructor of the squadron and became a company political officer. In June 1993, I was promoted to acting political instructor as deputy political instructor of the second flight brigade of the regiment, and in February 1995, I was appointed as a political instructor. From September 1995 to February 1996, I went to the former Air Force Political College in Shanghai to participate in the training of intermediate flight administrative engineering class, which can be described as a bright future.
What I never dreamed of was that on August 14, 1998, my regiment was suddenly announced to be withdrawn, and the division I was in was merged with another division thousands of miles away (revoked), but the division headquarters was relocated to the other side's station, and the main leader of the division was also the other side. Because the other side's aircraft are advanced and its geographical location is important, although this reorganization has retained the number of our veteran unit division, it is actually equivalent to being "eaten" by the other side. Everyone's hearts were cold. The scene at the time of the last withdrawal of the troops also appeared more or less this time, but after all, thirteen years have passed, and with the continuous deepening of the state's policy of reform and opening up, the ideological concepts of the officers and men have undergone a major change, and the degree of attachment to the troops has also been reduced. On the whole, the reorganization has progressed relatively smoothly. Some of the editors were assigned to another regiment of the division and stayed where they were, some went to Yinchuan, some went to Xinjiang, and so on. The remaining soldiers immediately went through the demobilization procedures, and the officers arranged for a transfer of employment the following year.
I, this time, is far from the last lucky, because of the age, diploma (secondary school) is low, the length of the service time, suddenly was left to work. Since my family has already lived with the army and my parents have died and I have no worries, I want to continue to work in the army; organizationally, taking into account the special and important position of the political instructor of the flying brigade, as well as my consistent performance, I am also interested in leaving me to be arranged. In this way, I was left behind, but I did not wait for the right position. In 1999 and 2000, I was ordered to represent the division and the air force of the military region to the homes of more than 20 pilots in more than ten provinces (cities) in the northeast and southwest and conducted biennial home visits, which provided first-hand information for the troops to do a good job in the ideological and political work of pilots in a targeted manner, which also gave me some psychological comfort.
Even more memorable, when I changed jobs in 2001, I began to have the choice of choosing a career independently, that is, "military demobilized cadres who hold regimental-level posts or military demobilized cadres who hold battalion-level posts and have completed 20 years of military experience can choose to be assigned or resettled by means of independent employment." According to the actual situation of myself and my family, and inquiring about the resettlement of demobilized military cadres in my hometown in previous years, I made up my mind and became one of the first batch of "crab eaters." To put it bluntly, as a peasant's son, who has struggled in the army for more than 20 years and has experienced two major disarmaments, it is really not easy to survive the post of a lieutenant colonel in the air force who is serving in a regular battalion.
Although I have cut down my official position to serve the people, I still receive a monthly retirement pension from the state, and enjoy the housing, medical care, and heating subsidies of civil servants of the same level in Tengzhou City, even if I no longer do anything, the standard of living is not too low in our county-level city, and I am satisfied in my heart. It is understood that since 2001, our city has only accepted 60 demobilized military cadres like me, which is a very special small group, relatively lonely, but I have received the enthusiastic help of many well-wishers in units such as Tengzhou Daily, Dazhong Daily, Longquan Street and Housing and Construction Bureau.
Note: The image comes from the Internet