It takes a strong man to be a forgiving one. United States Navy Master Diver Carl Brashear was just such a man. The 2000 film “Men of Honor” starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Robert De Niro is based on Carl Brashear’s extraordinary life and reveals what grit, determination, and a forgiving heart can do for a man with a dreams. He was both the United States Navy’s first black and first amputee Master Diver.
Born in rural Kentucky, into a sharecropper family during the Great Depression, young Brashear could not have imagined the life he was to live. As a child with eight siblings, he didn’t know he was poor and recalled that “we didn’t know much about it. We thought that was a good way to live,” Brashear would later recount that home grown food was a plenty on the farm, and “we had a lot of love in our family, a lot of togetherness.”
It wasn’t until he reached school age that he experienced first-hand the segregated society into which he was born. “When I was about five or six years old, when we would be walking to school in the sleet and the mud and snow, the white kids would be riding the bus. That’s when I realized what was going on.”
When he turned 17 in 1948, a note from his parents and a passing grade on the entrance exam was all he needed to join the Army. The note was no problem but he became so unnerved by the ill-treatment of the exam administers that he failed. True to the form he would exhibit multiple times later in life , he let the experience go and on the way home dropped in Naval recruitment office. Unlike the Army exam proctor, the Naval recruiter was positive and welcoming to the young man and Brashear joined the Navy. He was sent to the Naval Training Center Great Lakes and remembers being impressed by the equal treatment of all the recruits, including himself.
Two years into his service and aboard the the escort aircraft carrier USS Palau (CVE 122), Brashear was working as a “beach master” – launching and recovering seaplanes. It was there that he witnessed a Navy diver in action for the first time. He emphatically requested a change in duty, “REQUESTING, REQUESTING, REQUESTING TO BE A DEEP SEA DIVER.” He was emphatically denied and assigned his next duty aboard the USS Tripoli (CVE 64) on which an MK V Diver was brought on board to salvage a TBM Avenger which had fallen off the jettison ramp. He watched the salvage operation intently and vowed that “I’ve Got to be a deep sea diver.” Rejected repeatedly, Brashear continued his quest. He continued his education by taking correspondence courses and joined the USS Tripoli’s boxing team, where he was trained by none other than famed boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. Brashear was so gung ho in his duties that his fellow sailors gave him the nickname “Mr. Navy.”
In 1954, three years after his first request to become a Navy Diver, he was finally accepted. He was sent to the Salvage Diving School at Bayonne, New Jersey for a comprehensive, sixteen-week course. Being the only black candidate, Brashear experienced a high degree of racism. But he was determine to fulfill his dream and labored without rest. With pure grit and a forgiving heart, Brashear finished 16th in a class of 32 and earned both the respect and admiration of his fellow candidates. Later he recalled that, “When I graduated (from salvage school) I could have jumped over the building. That was one good feeling when they called me up there.”
Brashear eventually completed his G.E.D. and was promoted to chief. His next goal was to become a first class diver. His plans were thwarted however, when he failed a difficult first class course. What made that even more unbearable was that his instructors demoted him to non-diver status.
Crestfallen, he managed to enroll in a second class diving school at Pearl Harbor. Though he had not achieved the rank of salvage diver, he manage to salvage his dream and became a second class diver. While at Pearl Harbor, he was granted the honor of evaluating the remains of the battleship Arizona in preparation for the installation of the Arizona Memorial, honoring the 1177 sailors and marines who lost their lives on that fateful day in December 1941.
After Pearl Harbor, Brashear was assigned to Joint Task Force Eight to support Operation Dominic, in which the Navy tested atmospheric nuclear weapons. He was awarded the Joint Service Medal for his work in support of the operation.
From there he was sent to the USS Coucal (ASR 8), a rescue ship. Chief Patrick Flanagan, the ship’s Master Diver, encouraged Brashear to have another go at the becoming a first class diver and even helped him prepare for the course. Things went much better for him this time. He completed the course and finished finished 3rd in the class.
Following dive school, Chief Brashear briefly served on the fleet tug, USS Shakori (ATF 162) before requesting and transferring to the savage ship USS Hoist (ARS 40). It was a fateful move as it had disastrous consequences for the dedicated sailor. The Hoist was sent on a mission to recover and thermonuclear bomb which had fallen to the depths of the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain. Two U.S. Air aircraft collided midair and in the melee which ensued could not locate the hydrogen bomb. The powers that be wanted the bomb found and recovered before another country did the same.
During the recovery operation, Brashear was directing the movement of the crate which was to hold the recovered weapon when a supply boats mooring line snapped. The sound pushed Brashear into action rushing his fellow crew out of harms way. Just as he was ushering a sailor to the side, a steel pipe broke and whipped around toward him. It was moving too fast for him to move and it struck in the left leg, nearly severing it in two. After the USS Hoist’s corpsman quickly placed two tourniquets on chief’s leg, he was airlifted to Spain. His transport to Torrejon Air Force base was delayed however and he spiraled towards death. While waiting on the tarmac, his heart stopped. When he finally arrived at Torrejan, the doctors manage to restart his heart, expending 18 pints of blood in the heroic effort. He was thereafter stabilized and regained consciousness.
When Brashear learned that it would take three years for him to heal and be able to even walk again, he demanded they amputate his leg and issue him a prosthetic. The doctors refused at first but when an infection set in, they finally agreed and did as he asked.
It was a monumental battle just to return to duty much less return to duty. Chief Brashear had not come this far just to give up. “It took more willpower than I ever thought I had, to accept the fact that I had lost a leg. Once I accepted that I knew I would win the fight to become a master diver.”
In all of the Navy’s storied history, an amputee had never been allowed to return to active duty as a Navy diver. Brashear, again, was the first.
After being granted a one year trial period, Brashear set about to prove to everyone he was able to fulfill the requirements necessary to remain a Navy Diver. The instructor did not go easy on him. Quite the contrary in fact, as he knew that Brashear’s failure in the deep could mean not only his death but a fellow diver’s as well. He fulfilled all the probationary equirements and despite his disability was restored to Navy Diver.
Nine years and several grueling assignments later, Brashear finally realized his dream of becoming the Navy’s first amputee and black Master Diver. His example should not only inspire but should instruct us in our daily lives. His energy, grit, and his power of self-determination are worthy of both our praise and replication.
Enjoy your time with Master Chief Carl Brashear! The Final Day of Christmas is Faith.
