Photo By Shelby West | (Left to Right) Norfolk Naval Shipyard Senior Electronics Technician Larry Pendleton...... read more read more
Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) Code 950 Electronics Technician Larry Pendleton is retiring after more than 14 years at NNSY, but his name will live on at the shipyard. Due to his significant contributions to a newly designed emergency response communication system for Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), it has been named in his honor as “The Pendleton System.” The new system permits first responders to have the capability to communicate in hull, pierside and off-site to coordinate emergency response onboard submarines.
Pendleton started at NNSY as an Electronics Mechanic and now, as a Code 950 Electronics Technician, has had a plethora of responsibilities supporting the needs of the fleet.
“My general responsibilities are Technical Advisor, Senior Technician, and 2M Coordinator, which means the Miniature and Microminiature Soldering program for NNSY,” said Pendleton. “I troubleshoot and repair circuit card assembly (CCA) and electronics modules (EM) for NAVSUP (OPW) [Naval Supply Systems Command] and use the Navy’s MTR [Module Test and Repair] system such as Golddisk and PinPoint.”
“I also train junior mechanics and apprentices on how to use test equipment and troubleshooting techniques,” said Pendleton. “I developed training courses on time domain reflectometers (TDR), oscilloscopes, and Fieldfox vector analyzer and helped develop some fundamental courses on transmission lines, antennas, or radio frequency (RF) wave theory.”
A new Plan of Action and Milestones (POAM) in 2023 provided Code 950 with a challenge that required a seasoned professional, and they knew exactly who to reach out to, Larry Pendleton.
“We were tasked with creating a new and improved emergency response temporary service communication system to be installed on Navy submarines when in port,” said NNSY Code 950 Submarine Electrical/Electronic General Foreman Louis Scala. “When it came to the creation of this system, Code 275 [Submarine Support Branch] reached out to Code 950 for help.”
Scala continued, “After the first meeting it was clear that we were in way over our heads and that’s when Mr. Pendleton came to mind.”
Pendleton has more than 20 years of experience as an Electronics Technician Senior Chief in the Coast Guard and worked on communication systems. His trade knowledge and technical expertise provided immeasurable value in the development of the new emergency response communication system.
“We went from having no idea what we were doing to a fully designed system with, including but not limited to, schematics, data sheets and structural drawings within a few weeks of his involvement,” said Scala. “The lengths and measures Pendleton went through to get the information we needed was incredible.”
He reached out to former coworkers for their advice and expertise and found his old Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) license number so that NNSY could register the new bidirectional amplifiers. Pendleton used his resources and contacts to gather all the information that was required to bring the drawings to fruition.
Two years later NNSY has a functional system that works and is awaiting final testing and NAVSEA approval.
The accolades from his coworkers demonstrate that Pendleton is a beloved team member of Code 950.
“He created and spearheaded Code 950 Shop 67 Focus Training a couple of years back,” said C950 Electronic-Carrier-Surface Director Kelvin Callines. “In particular, antenna theory, radar theory, radio frequency (RF) radio wave propagation and transmission lines theory.”
Callines continued, “I’m a Navy Electronics Technician to the core and I have never met anyone with Pendleton’s knowledge across the entire electronics industry and have learned a lot from him.”
Code 950 Carrier-Surface Electrical/Electronic General Foreman Kevin Manuel is appreciative of Pendleton’s contributions to NNSY and the Code 950 workforce.
“Mr. Pendleton was a key member in the establishment of the Miniature/Microminiature and MTR (Module Test and Repair) Program at NNSY along with the introduction of the PINPOINT II R systems within NNSY,” said Manuel. “His contributions have led to a significant cumulative cost savings for the U.S. Navy since the program’s establishment in 2016 at NNSY and counting.”
Manuel continued, “Had it not been for his tenacity and continuous efforts, we would not have the nearly 20 specially trained personnel we do here at NNSY who contribute to this program daily.”
Pendleton finds the most rewarding part of his job the confidence that his supervisor has in him.
“My supervisor gave me three broken circuit card assembly (CCA) boards to see if I could make one board work,” said Pendelton. “An aircraft carrier needed a CCA repaired and could not get underway without it.”
It was going to take eight months to receive a new board, so Pendleton and a co-worker looked over the three broken CCAs and used the MTR Golddisk system. They were able to determine what needed replacing and put together a substitute board. They provided the repaired CCA to the project team and were told after a couple of hours that the refurbished CCA board was a success.
Pendelton’s time at NNSY led him to discover that there are some very talented people at the shipyard and his code couldn’t agree more.
“It’s because of individuals like Mr. Pendleton that people like me want to come to work every day,” said Scala. “He’s been a joy to work around these past 11 years, and I have learned so much in that time.”
Scala continued, “There is going to be a massive hole to fill when he retires in July and with that, we thought it only appropriate to name this emergency communication system after him in honor of the time and dedication he’s put in to potentially saving hundreds of lives when ‘The Pendelton System’ becomes the new standard for emergency response communications.”
| Date Taken: | 05.28.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 07.03.2025 07:48 |
| Story ID: | 502230 |
| Location: | PORTSMOUTH, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 33 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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