Photo By Lance Cpl. Robert Blanks | U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Brenden Kuhlman, an artillery electronics technician with...... read more read more
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CAMP HANSEN, OKINAWA, JAPAN – U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Brendan Kuhlmann was awarded the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Gold Disk Program Award for his efforts in the successful repairs to electronic assets.
Kuhlmann arrived in the fleet expecting hands-on electronic maintenance where Marines traced signals, opened components, and repaired. What Kuhlmann was meet with felt like a step back for him. If a circuit card failed on the new AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (GATOR), the system would simply tell Marines which box was inoperable. The fix was to pull that box and replace it. No deeper inspection. No component-level troubleshooting.
“Why don’t we just open it? It’s already broken, what’s the worst we can do?” Kuhlmann said he stated in the past on several occasions.
“I was told, ‘Marines aren’t authorized,’” said Kuhlmann, “’We don’t do that,’ or, ‘There’s a warranty sticker. Don’t touch it.’” His leadership at the time stressed their concerns every time he asked to repair equipment. Determined to use the skills he sought to employ; he continued to ask. The answer was always no.
Everything changed the year he picked up Staff Sergeant.
With a rocker on his chest, the right chief warrant officer supporting him, and program-office connections willing to listen, the opportunity finally opened. For the first time, they had the information needed to attempt true component-level repair on a GATOR. From then on, the team started a proof of principle for the machine. They didn’t fix anything yet, but they identified problems, ordered parts, and proved the concept had promise.
“When 3rd Battalion, 12th Marines (3/12) sent that GATOR our way it was just another chance to prove what good maintenance we can do.” Kuhlmann said, “We broke it down and figured out exactly what failed and brought it back to life.”
A GATOR from 3/12 was used in a training exercise for live testing. Someone noticed a pin pushed out of place inside the radar’s components responsible for nearly 90% of the radar’s function.
Kuhlmann says when he walked in, there was a moment of silence. The Marines knew something was wrong. But this was exactly the moment he’d been waiting for since he was a lance corporal.
Instead of sending the component back or ordering a replacement, Kuhlmann says him and his Marines made the repair which took about five minutes. The entire job took approximately two or three hours.
Over time, Kuhlmann and his team has saved nearly $2 million and prevented more than 2,000 days of operational downtime. Marines arrive from units across Okinawa to learn, train, and contribute to a mission that didn’t exist a few years ago.
Through all of it, Staff Sgt Kuhlmann’s perspective hasn’t changed. To him, the award belongs to the Marines who put their hands on the work. He says “Multiple people had their hands on the it. It back-fed into the whole idea that we can face these things more in depth than we thought we could”
| Date Taken: | 01.11.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 01.12.2026 04:08 |
| Story ID: | 555295 |
| Location: | JP |
| Web Views: | 11 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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