Political Work

The Thick Stack of Maintenance Notebooks in the Honor Room Is This Radar Station's 'Family Heirloom'

荣誉室里那一摞厚厚的维修笔记，是这个雷达站的“传家宝”

PLA Daily (解放军报) 29 June 2026

Summary

A Western Theater Command Air Force radar station positioned at roughly 5,000 meters elevation on the Tibetan Plateau maintains a decades-long collection of handwritten maintenance notebooks documenting communication fault diagnosis and fiber-optic repair procedures, with Staff Sergeant Second Class Gong Guilin as the current custodian and contributor. The article documents a specific institutional solution to a persistent technical knowledge-retention problem at high-altitude, low-manning radar outposts — informal written tradecraft passed laterally across generations of enlisted personnel rather than through formal technical manuals. This fits a recognizable pattern in PLA ground-based air surveillance units where institutional memory for site-specific fault conditions is carried by long-serving NCOs rather than embedded in standardized maintenance systems, raising the question of how resilient that knowledge base is to personnel turnover.

Translation

Maintenance Notebooks Bear Witness to Mission Commitment ■ Huang Te, PLA Daily Special Correspondent Deng Dongzhi

For Gong Guilin, a Staff Sergeant Second Class at a radar station of the Western Theater Command Air Force, the thick stack of maintenance notebooks in the honor room is a treasure more precious than any medal.

"These were written by hand by generation after generation of Party member backbone personnel at the radar station, and they are filled with troubleshooting procedures and maintenance insights for all kinds of communication faults." Whenever new soldiers join the unit, Gong Guilin brings them to the bookcase in one corner of the honor room and introduces them to the "family heirloom" that has been passed down at the station for decades.

Gong Guilin pointed to a line of somewhat faded pen writing in one notebook and said: "This was left behind by a veteran Party member before he was discharged. More than 20 years have passed, and the maintenance experience he summarized is still in use today."

Having held his post for more than ten years, Gong Guilin has himself written several maintenance notebooks now among the collection. Running his fingers over the Party member badge on his chest, he said: "I want to pass on my own experience so that those who come after me will stumble into fewer pitfalls and take fewer detours, and can guard the lights of ten thousand homes behind us with more refined skills. This is the mission of a veteran soldier, and even more so the duty of a Party member."

The radar station is located on a plateau at nearly 5,000 meters above sea level, surrounded by continuous mountain ranges, mostly uninhabited areas. In order to inspect the lines running through the mountains, Gong Guilin often spends an entire day trekking outside.

On one occasion, a blizzard struck without warning, and a rockfall severed a line. At the critical moment, the station commander decisively organized a "Party Member Assault Team" and deployed an emergency repair mission.

The mountains were swallowed by the darkness of night. Gong Guilin, as a Party member backbone, stood at the front of the formation and led the team. The group hiked and climbed for several hours before finally locating the break point in a mountain hollow. The optical fiber core is as fine as a hair, and cold-weather gloves made it impossible to perform the delicate splicing operation. Gong Guilin immediately removed his gloves and, in the biting wind, stripped the fiber core with bare hands and made the precise connection. By the time the repair was complete, his fingertips had turned deep red from the cold.

"What is so earth-shattering about line inspection? Cross one more ridge, check one more pole — every footprint on the wind-and-snow road contains the original aspiration (初心) of a Party member." That night, sitting under a desk lamp, Gong Guilin wrote and sketched over a pile of circuit diagrams: "I eliminated a hidden fault today — I need to get it written down right away."

On the position, the rotating radar antenna emitted a low, steady hum. That sound seemed to interweave and fuse with the resounding oaths of the officers and soldiers, together forming the most powerful symphony in this mountain.

Original Chinese

维修笔记见证使命担当 ■黄特解放军报特约记者邓栋之对西部战区空军某雷达站二级上士龚桂林来说，荣誉室里那一摞厚厚的维修笔记，是比任何奖牌还金贵的宝贝。 “这是雷达站一茬茬党员骨干亲笔写下的，里面记满了各类通信故障的排查步骤和维修心得。”每当新兵下连，龚桂林都会带他们来到荣誉室一角的书柜旁，向大家介绍站里传了几十年的“传家宝”。龚桂林指着一本笔记中一行有些褪色的钢笔字迹说：“这是一位老党员退伍之前留下的。20多年过去了，他总结的这条维护经验仍在沿用。” 坚守阵地十多年，龚桂林写下的几本维修笔记也在其中。他摩挲着胸前的党员徽章说：“我想把自己的经验传承下去，让后来者少踩坑、少绕路，以更精湛的本领守护身后万家灯火，这是一名老兵的使命，更是一名党员的职责。” 雷达站位于海拔近5000米的高原，四周群山连绵，大多是无人区。为了排查山间的一条条线路，龚桂林常常一整天都在外跋涉。那天，暴风雪突然来袭，一处线路被落石砸断。关键时刻，站长果断组织“党员突击队”，部署紧急抢修任务。大山隐匿于夜色之中，作为党员骨干的龚桂林站在排头带领队伍。几人徒步攀爬了数小时，终于在一处山坳里找到断点。光缆纤芯细如发丝，防寒手套无法完成精细熔接操作。龚桂林立刻摘掉手套，在寒风中赤手剥离纤芯、精准对接。抢修完成后，他的指尖已经冻得通红。 “巡线哪有什么惊天动地？多翻一道梁，多查一根杆，风雪路上的每一个脚印，都蕴藏着一名党员的初心。”当天夜里，坐在台灯下的龚桂林对着一堆电路图写写画画，“今天排除了一个隐蔽故障，要赶紧记下来。” 阵地上，转动的雷达天线发出低沉嗡鸣。那声音仿佛与官兵的铿锵誓言交织融合，共同汇成了这座大山里最雄浑的交响。