Staff Sgt. Brenden Kuhlman, an artillery electronics technician with 12th Littoral Combat Team, 12th Marine Littoral Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, repairs a circuit board on Camp Hansen, Okinawa, Nov. 7, 2025. (Robert Blanks/U.S. Marine Corps)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa – The chief of naval operations has recognized a Marine staff sergeant for repairing a sophisticated radar system used to defend troops against aerial threats.
Brenden Kuhlmann of the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment received the Gold Disk award after fixing a key component of the regiment’s AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar, according to a Navy administrative message in September.
“It’s a good feeling to allow a lot of Marines to actually do the repairs that they’re capable of, then see them get recognized for it and come together to do all kinds of stuff,” Kuhlmann told Stars and Stripes by phone Thursday. “The entire program that we’re running here is really beneficial.”
The radar made its operational debut during the July 2024 Resolute Dragon exercise on Yonaguni Island, about 67 miles east of Taiwan. The system can detect, identify and track airborne threats in 360 degrees, according to its manufacturer, Northrop Grumman.
The system plays a central role in the regiment’s mission as a stand-in force, part of the Marine Corps’ island-fighting doctrine. Marine littoral regiments are small, mobile units that operate within an adversary’s missile range to seize and hold key terrain and restrict enemy naval movement.
The radar malfunctioned in an unexpected way, said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jared Hohmeier, the regiment’s electronics maintenance officer.
“It wasn’t in our technical manual,” he said during the phone interview.
Staff Sgt. Brenden Kuhlman, an artillery electronics technician with 12th Littoral Combat Team, 12th Marine Littoral Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, repairs a circuit board on Camp Hansen, Okinawa, Nov. 7, 2025. (Robert Blanks/U.S. Marine Corps)
The repair involved restoring a connection between a major subassembly and a smaller one – “one of the important vital components of the radar,” Kuhlmann said.
Fixing the issue allowed the regiment “to get the radar back up and healthy,” he said.
Kuhlmann is not the first Marine in the regiment to earn the award. Sgt. Dylan Yates was recognized last year for repairing four electric modules and circuit card assemblies, and Cpl. Daniel Mullins received the award in 2024 for repairing nine modules and assemblies on other equipment.
A Gold Disk in the Defense Department refers to a diagnostic test routine used by electronics technicians to diagnose circuit card assemblies and electronic modules.
“The recognition, also from the Navy side, [is] definitely very cool,” Yates said during the phone interview. “We get to have all the people that we work with who are all supporting us.”
The award program was established in 1997 by then-Vice Adm. William Hancock, deputy chief of naval operations for logistics, to encourage fleet personnel to develop advanced repair techniques that improve readiness.
In their free time, Kuhlmann and Yates work on automobiles as hobbyists and had little electronics repairs experience before entering the Marine Corps, they said.
Kuhlmann said he felt confident when he made the repair.
“It was kind of one of those things where it was in front of us, had to get done,” Kuhlmann said.
Repairs by the regiment’s members have saved the Marine Corps an estimated $2 million and prevented more than 2,000 days of operational downtime, according to a 3rd Marine Division news release Jan. 11.
AloJapan.com