The Military Honour Guard Battalion of the President Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Guard High Command is often called “a battalion of musketeers” with nerves of steel.
On December 28, 1975, four months after the Mausoleum was inaugurated, the Military Central Commission issued a Resolution on establishing a Military Honour Guard Battalion under the President Ho Chi Minh Mausoluem Guard High Command’s Brigade 275 to protect the Mausoleum.
The honour guard is responsible for ensuring security and “solemn, standard, adept, astute” ceremonies; guarding the main entrance as well as by the embalmed body of late President Ho Chi Minh; and for performing daily greeting and flag lowering ceremonies in the midst of Ba Dinh Square.
Carrying significant and sacred mission, but most members of the military honour guard battalion are very young “musketeers” who are just 18 or 20 something.
In each guard, four guards stand watching over the embalmed body of late President Ho Chi Minh for 30 minutes in a room with temperature set at 16 degree Celsius all the time. In the front gate, there are always two guards facing each other, standing for one-hour shift rotation.
Only the guards in each shift can understand all these arduous challenges, requiring a strong body, endurance and nerves of steel.
For the “musketeers” in the daily honour guard battalion, caring for and protecting the sleep of late President Ho Chi Minh is life-changing opportunities. The short guard sessions have become “schools” to train their mind and will with the mission assigned by the Fatherland and the whole people.
Once they complete their mission, returning to their normal life the honour guards will feel so proud that they were chosen to guard and protect "The Sun inside the Mausoleum"./.
