Why Did a Temporary-Duty Officer Win Major Awards Repeatedly?
■ Li Chao, Yuan Chuan, PLA Daily Correspondents Liu Siyu
Sun Wanjing (second from right) discusses plans with the institute's core research personnel. Photo by Yao Junqiang.
"It was the strong support of the institute's Party committee that gave me the opportunity and the confidence…" In early summer, the auditorium of a certain institute under the Air Force Research Academy rang with applause as Sun Wanjing, a temporary-duty officer from an aviation brigade of the Central Theater Command Air Force, stood at the podium to deliver his remarks—shortly before, he had received a third-place prize in a certain PLA-wide theoretical research competition.
This was not Sun Wanjing's first award. Just last year, he had also received the first-place prize in the same competition. Sun Wanjing had not anticipated that he would achieve such recognition during a temporary-duty assignment.
Before he departed, a comrade who had gone through a similar experience told him: "Temporary duty is mainly about gaining experience—there's no need to put too much pressure on yourself." Sun Wanjing did not agree with this view; he believed that even on a temporary-duty assignment, one should produce results. But faced with an entirely new environment and set of tasks, he was still apprehensive.
Shortly after reporting to his new unit, the institute's director arranged for Sun Wanjing to participate directly in a military theoretical research project, catching him completely off guard.
It turned out that on the eve of Sun Wanjing's arrival, the institute's Party committee had convened a special meeting to study how to set the stage properly for temporary-duty officers. "Military scientific research ultimately serves the troops, and Sun Wanjing has spent years working at the grassroots front line—he understands what the troops need. We should give him ample opportunity to voice his thoughts and impressions, and let him serve as a link and bridge between research institutes and the troops." The institute's political commissar explained that at that meeting, they repeatedly discussed Sun Wanjing's professional background and decided to "put some weight on his shoulders."
"Before the assignment, I worried about whether I could find my footing in the new unit and whether I would have the chance to put my abilities to use. After arriving, there were plenty of opportunities and tasks, but I struggled to find my bearings," Sun Wanjing admitted candidly. In the troops, he had looked at problems from the perspective of an equipment "user," but after coming to the institute, he needed to shift his identity and become a "designer" and "creator," participating from the source in design, testing, improvement, and demonstration across every stage. For Sun Wanjing, this was no small challenge: "At the grassroots level, I had some 'golden ideas,' but those creative thoughts were the icing on the cake, standing on the shoulders of giants. The technical work at a research institute, however, means breaking new ground in a technological 'no-man's-land.'"
When he first arrived at the institute, Director Fang of a certain research division told Sun Wanjing that grassroots officers and soldiers are the most demanding "question-setters," and that the angles from which they pose problems tend to be relatively "exacting." Sun Wanjing did not fully understand this at the time, but now he feels it deeply: "Before, I often complained with my comrades that some equipment had such good mobility but only average protection—why couldn't the designers take both into account? After truly understanding the work, I realized that scientific research is a systems engineering endeavor; under the premise of prioritizing combat effectiveness, factors such as cost control must be weighed comprehensively. Our earlier thinking was overly idealized and presumptuous."
On one occasion, during a field trial of a certain piece of equipment, Sun Wanjing was eager to demonstrate a "fast, powerful, and aggressive" effect. When setting parameters, he blindly pursued incremental gains in performance indicators and neglected the overall system's constraints and balance, causing the equipment to trigger alarms repeatedly and even activate its self-protection mechanism, nearly affecting the progress of the research.
After several similar experiences, Sun Wanjing developed an unprecedented sense of alarm about his own capabilities. "Your advantage is that you understand the actual situation at the grassroots level and can complement the division's comrades by offering the perspective of front-line commanders and fighters," the division leadership quickly noticed his anxiety and offered guidance. "In other areas, if you don't know something, learn it; if you don't understand something, ask—we will all help you. Temporary duty is not about gilding yourself, but about being tempered in fire and becoming 'true gold.'"
Those words reignited Sun Wanjing's fighting spirit and gave him a clear direction for his efforts. At the same time, the institute's leadership recognized that cultivating temporary-duty officers required far more than simply "setting the stage"—helping them improve their relevant professional capabilities was equally important.
To that end, the division leadership arranged for core research personnel to pair up with Sun Wanjing, helping him fill capability gaps and break through limitations in his thinking through actual tasks such as upgrading and retrofitting older equipment and manufacturing and debugging prototypes. Sun Wanjing did not hold back: during the day he went to the field and conducted research alongside the core personnel; at night he reviewed and analyzed, organized his thinking, and worked to integrate the advantages he had accumulated at the grassroots level with what was currently needed.
Gradually, Sun Wanjing adapted to the rhythm of research tasks, and his work steadily improved. The experience he had accumulated at the grassroots level also brought the institute a number of new perspectives and viewpoints closely tied to actual combat requirements.
A certain type of vehicle-mounted equipment had been approved for development relatively early. When soliciting opinions from the troops, the institute discovered that certain technical specifications set during the preliminary research phase could no longer meet the current needs of front-line units, and a fresh round of investigation and research had to be launched.
Upon learning of this situation, Sun Wanjing put forward more than 50 suggestions. After a preliminary assessment of the feasibility of the suggestions, the division decided to provide resources and technical support, with Sun Wanjing taking the lead on the trials. Sun Wanjing then drew on the actual conditions of front-line units to formulate multiple demanding conditions approximating real combat, and spared no effort in refining the equipment's various technical and tactical performance indicators. After the equipment was delivered to the troops for trial use and testing, officers and soldiers broadly reported that it was easy to operate and felt natural to use.
This experience gave Sun Wanjing a deeper understanding of where his own advantages lay, and he threw himself into the work with even greater energy.
While at his original unit, Sun Wanjing had done some thinking about a certain cutting-edge military domain, but constrained by a lack of theoretical and technical grounding, these flashes of insight during training breaks—though rich in operational relevance—were difficult to systematize and impossible to replicate or disseminate. During his temporary-duty assignment, higher authorities solicited opinions from research personnel on this subject. Sun Wanjing learned that the institute's prior research in this area had been largely theoretical in nature, lacking consideration of practical factors such as grassroots organizational structures and training levels.
"Once everyone joins hands and complements each other's strengths, the problems resolve themselves," Sun Wanjing reflected with deep feeling as he looked back on this experience of collaborative research.
Just as the subject was achieving significant progress, a PLA-wide theoretical research competition was organized. With the support and encouragement of the institute's leadership, Sun Wanjing and the team's core members signed up with the attitude of giving it a try, and to their surprise, achieved outstanding results.
This achievement gave Sun Wanjing tremendous encouragement. From that point on, he threw himself into military scientific research with ever-greater vigor. Over the two years of his temporary-duty assignment, he and his comrades at the institute have competed in various PLA-wide competitions, winning one first-place prize and one third-place prize in a certain PLA-wide theoretical research competition, one theater-level first-place prize in a PLA-wide innovative results competition, and publishing joint research findings in internal journals on multiple occasions.
In the second half of this year, Sun Wanjing will conclude his temporary-duty assignment and return to the troops. "Whether grassroots officers and soldiers or scientific research personnel, we are all strivers on the road to strengthening the military—our division of labor differs, but our goal is the same," Sun Wanjing said. He will bring the research methods and management models of the scientific system back to the front line, and will promptly relay to his comrades at the research academy the difficulties encountered in grassroots technical practice, continuing to serve as a bridge for joint scientific research.