Young Major Tin Aung Myint Oo, formerly the First Secretary of State Peace and Development Council and now the First Vice President of Union of Burma, was awarded the Thiha-Thura medal, the second highest medal of valor in Burma, in 1989 for his 1988 heroic role as the Deputy Battalion Commander of IB-11 defending the border town of Maing-yang from numerically superior forces of Communist Party of Burma.
(Concise translation of Chapter-2 from Thaung Wai Oo’s “Battles of Maing-yang”.)
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| First Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo. |
It was the third week of September 1988, and the place was Maing-shu the little town between Salween River and Nangh-pan Stream in Southern Shan Sate. I had just become the battalion commander of IB-6 (Infantry Battalion – 6) in July that year.
Unfortunately the country was in turmoil just after the 8-8-88 Uprising when I got my battalion CO promotion. Even though our battalion then was serving in Maing-shu the Battalion HQ was in Rangoon’s Shwe Pyi Thar.
So we really had to worry for our families back in Rangoon where law and order had completely broken down after the sudden fall of General Ne Win’s BSPP Government and the brutal mob anarchy had been going on for weeks and weeks now.
