Carl Brashear

Brashear was born on 19 January 1931, in Tonieville, LaRue County, Kentucky, the sixth of 16 children to sharecroppers McDonald and Gonzella Brashear.{{cite news |author= Dorsey, Jack|author2=Washington, Jim |url = http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=108110&ran=175615 |access-date = July 26, 2006|title = Pioneering Navy diver Carl Brashear dies in Portsmouth |work = The Virginian-Pilot |page=A1|date = July 26, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071102215001/http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=108110&ran=175615|archive-date=November 2, 2007}}U.S. Navy profile, NHC, 2001. In 1935, the family settled on a farm in Sonora, Kentucky. Brashear attended Sonora Grade School from 1937 to 1946.

{{more citations needed section|date=April 2020}}

Brashear enlisted in the United States Navy on 25 February 1948, four months before the military was desegregated by President Harry S. Truman.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/27/us/27brashear.html |title=Carl M. Brashear, 75, Diver Who Broke a Racial Barrier, Dies |last=Fox |first=Margalit |date=2006-07-27 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2021-05-18 |quote=At 17, he tried to join the Army in early 1948, but the Army did not want him. The Navy was more welcoming, and he enlisted in February 1948. (The military would be officially desegregated in June of that year.)}} He graduated from the United States Navy Diving & Salvage School in 1954, becoming the first African-American to attend and graduate from the Diving & Salvage School and one of the first African-American United States Navy Divers.

While attending diving school in Bayonne, New Jersey, Brashear faced hostility and racism. He found notes on his bunk saying, "We're going to drown you today, nigger!" and "We don't want any nigger divers." Brashear received encouragement to finish from Boatswain's Mate First Class Harry M. Rutherford, and graduated 16 out of 17.

Brashear first worked as a diver retrieving approximately 16,000 rounds of ammunition that fell off a barge which had broken in half and sunk. On his first tour of shore duty in Quonset Point, Rhode Island, his duties included the salvaging of airplanes (including one Blue Angel) and recovering multiple dead bodies from the sea.

Brashear was assigned to escort the presidential yacht the Barbara Anne to Rhode Island. He met President Eisenhower and received a small knife that said, "To Carl M. Brashear. From Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1957. Many, many thanks." After making Chief Petty Officer in 1959, he stayed at Guam for three years doing mostly demolition dives.

File:Brashear Gooding.jpg and then-Defense Secretary William Cohen for 42 years of combined military and federal civilian service. Gooding portrayed Brashear in the 2000 film Men of Honor]]

In January 1966, in an accident now known as the Palomares incident, a B28 nuclear bomb was lost off the coast of Palomares, Spain, after two United States Air Force aircraft of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), a B-52G Stratofortress bomber and a KC-135A Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft, collided during aerial refueling. Brashear was serving aboard {{USS|Hoist|ARS-40}} when it was dispatched to find and recover the missing bomb for the Air Force. The warhead was found after two and a half months of searching.{{cite web|url=http://www.usni.org/oralhistory/B/brashear_excerpt.htm |title=Oral History of Master Chief Boatswain's Mate Carl M. Brashear, USN (Ret.) |publisher=United States Naval Institute |date=November 17, 1989 |access-date=July 30, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060414181810/http://www.usni.org/oralhistory/B/brashear_excerpt.htm |archive-date=April 14, 2006 |url-status=dead }} For his service in helping to retrieve the bomb, Brashear was later awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, the highest navy award for non-combat heroism.{{cite web |url=http://projects.militarytimes.com/citations-medals-awards/search.php?medal=19&service=&conflict=&term=&page=21 |title=Search for those who received the Medal of Honor |access-date=April 14, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130616080133/http://projects.militarytimes.com/citations-medals-awards/search.php?medal=19&service=&conflict=&term=&page=21 |archive-date=June 16, 2013 }}

During the bomb recovery operations on 23 March 1966, a lifting cable snapped, causing a pipe to swing across the deck of the USS Hoist. Brashear darted to push a shipmate out of the object's path. It consequently struck Brashear's left leg below the knee, nearly shearing it off. The impact flipped him in the air, almost casting him overboard before he landed on the deck.Jessica Brodkin Webb. "Beating the Odds: How Navy Diver Carl Brashear Changed History," Fleet Reserve Association Magazine, February 2023, 16-22.Reel Faces. He was evacuated to Torrejon Air Base in Spain, then to the USAF Hospital at Wiesbaden Air Base, Germany; and finally to the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia. Beset with persistent infection and necrosis, his lower left leg was eventually amputated.

Brashear remained at the Naval Regional Medical Center in Portsmouth from May 1966 until March 1967 recovering and rehabilitating from the amputation. From March 1967 to March 1968, Brashear was assigned to the Harbor Clearance Unit Two, Diving School, preparing for return to full active duty and diving.{{cite web|url= http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq105-1.htm|title= Transcript of Service|work= Naval Historical Center|publisher= United States Department of the Navy|access-date= July 30, 2006|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060805081505/http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq105-1.htm|archive-date= August 5, 2006}} In April 1968, after a long struggle, Brashear was the first amputee diver to be recertified as a United States Navy diver.{{cite web |url=http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,106968,00.html|title=First Black Navy Diver Dies|publisher=Military.com|date=July 26, 2006}} In 1970, he became possibly the first African-American master diver, (debated between him and John Henry Turpin) and served nine more years beyond that, achieving the rating of master chief boatswain's mate in 1971.{{cite news |first = Dave |last = Forster |url = http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=108380&ran=217257 |title = Navy pioneer's life, career led by determination |work = The Virginian-Pilot |pages = A1, A10 |date = July 30, 2006 |access-date = July 30, 2006 }}{{dead link|date=July 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Brashear was motivated by his beliefs that "It's not a sin to get knocked down; it's a sin to stay down" and "I ain't going to let nobody steal my dream."

Brashear retired from the United States Navy on 1 April 1979, as a Master Chief Petty Officer (E-9) and master diver. He then served as a civilian employee for the government at Naval Station Norfolk, Norfolk, Virginia, and retired in 1993 with the grade of GS-11.

Brashear married and divorced three times: Junetta Wilcoxson (1952–1978), Hattie R. Elam (1980–1983), and Jeanette A. Brundage (1985–1987). He had four children: Shazanta (1955–1996), DaWayne, Phillip, and Patrick. Brashear's grand-nephew is a retired professional ice hockey player Donald Brashear.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/01/AR2009050104147_5.html?sid=ST2009050104383|newspaper=The Washington Post|title=For Capitals' Brashear, Fighting's a Way of Life|date=May 2, 2009|access-date=May 5, 2009|first=Mike|last=Wise}}

Brashear died of respiratory and heart failure at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Virginia, on 25 July 2006. He is buried at Woodlawn Memorial Gardens in Norfolk, Virginia.

After his death, his sons DaWayne and Phillip Brashear started the Carl Brashear Foundation in his honor.{{Cite web|url=https://carlbrashear.org/about-us/|title = About Us | A Tribute to Carl Brashear}}

• 8 gold service stripes.

File:Navmarine.png

The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy and Marine Corps Medal to Chief Boatswain's Mate Carl Maxie Brashear, United States Navy, for heroism while serving aboard U.S.S. HOIST (ARS-40), which was operating in support of Task Force 65 on 23 March 1966, in connection with salvage operations of great importance to the United States. While engaged in transferring stores from a landing craft to HOIST in heavy seas off the coast of Spain, Chief Brashear saw the bowline of the landing craft part. Realizing that a shipmate standing in the stern of the landing craft was in serious jeopardy if the heavily strained stern line also parted, he unhesitatingly pushed his shipmate to safety, but was seriously injured himself when the stress from the remaining line caused a portion of the craft to carry away and hit him in the leg. By his prompt and courageous actions in saving another man from injury or possible death, Chief Brashear, at the risk of his own life, upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.{{cite web |title=Carl Brashear - Recipient - |url=https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/305489 |website=valor.militarytimes.com |access-date=2 April 2023 |language=en}}

Brashear was honored with the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service in October 2000 for 42 years of combined military and federal civilian service. The award was presented by Secretary of Defense William Cohen.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

On 24 October 2007, the Newport News Fire Department dedicated a {{convert|33|ft|m|adj=on}} high-speed fireboat named Carl Brashear to be used by their Dive and Marine Incident Response Teams.{{cite web|url=http://cms.firehouse.com/content/apparatus/detail.jsp?id=46272|title=Newport News Fire Department: Fireboat-1 Carl Brashear|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112223755/http://cms.firehouse.com/content/apparatus/detail.jsp?id=46272|archive-date=January 12, 2008}}

The Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship USNS Carl Brashear (T-AKE-7) was christened in his honor in San Diego, California, on 18 September 2008.{{cite news|title=Navy Ship Named For Diving Pioneer|last=Wiltrout|first=Kate|date=September 19, 2008|work=The Virginian Pilot|pages=Hampton Roads 1–2}}{{cite web|url=http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=35405|title=Navy Secretary Names Two New Auxiliary Dry Cargo Ships|work=Press release|publisher=Department of Defense|access-date=March 10, 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113160400/http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=35405|archive-date=January 13, 2009}}{{cite web|url=http://hamptonroads.com/node/480401|title=Navy to christen ship today honoring diver Carl Brashear|date=September 15, 2008|publisher=Hampton Roads.com|access-date=September 19, 2008|archive-date=May 22, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522141337/http://hamptonroads.com/node/480401|url-status=dead}} General Dynamics delivered the completed ship to the Navy on 4 March 2009.{{cite web|author=General Dynamics|title=NASSCO Delivers USNS Carl Brashear|work=Defense Mirror|date=March 4, 2009|url=https://www.defensemirror.com/news/2877/U_S__Navy_received_USNS_Carl_Brashear_from_General_Dynamics|accessdate=October 12, 2023}}

On 21 February 2009, Nauticus, a science and maritime museum in downtown Norfolk, Virginia, opened a new exhibit called "Dream to Dive: The Life of Master Diver Carl Brashear."{{cite web|url=http://www.nauticus.org/trvlexhib.html|title=Nauticus: Changing Exhibit|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090208091942/http://www.nauticus.org/trvlexhib.html|archive-date=February 8, 2009}} It is the first full-scale museum exhibit dedicated to Brashear.

In 2009 the Chief Petty Officer Club onboard Naval Station Little Creek VA was renamed The Carl Brashear Center. Carl's son and several friends gave speeches at and attended the renaming ceremony. Carl was known to frequent the CPO Club onboard Little Creek up until the time of his death.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

On 9 November 2017, the Commonwealth of Kentucky dedicated the "Carl M. Brashear Radcliff Veterans Center" in honor of BMCM (MDV) Carl Brashear.{{Cite news|url=http://www.thenewsenterprise.com/news/local/radcliff-veterans-center-to-honor-sonora-native/article_3bb86504-d68c-521a-9b28-79c3598ac630.html|title=Radcliff Veterans Center to honor Sonora native|last=Alford|first=Mary|access-date=11 September 2018|work=The News-Enterprise|publication-date=1 October 2017}} Construction on the new center, which is located about 30 miles from Brashear's hometown of Sonora, was completed about a year before the dedication ceremony. On hand was his son Phillip, Founder of the Brashear Foundation, Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton, Veterans Center Administrator Israel Ray, members of the Brashear family, along with members of the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association who nominated and worked to collect over 7,000 signatures in support of naming the center after Brashear.

On 25 July 2018, Lincoln Parkway bridge, just outside Tonieville, KY was renamed the "Master Chief Petty Officer Carl Maxie Brashear Memorial Bridge."{{Cite news|url=http://www.thenewsenterprise.com/news/local/bridge-to-be-named-after-carl-brashear/article_da8ff179-b42b-5754-9ff7-4ce11d2c3493.html|title=Bridge to be named after Carl Brashear|access-date=11 September 2018|work=The News-Enterprise|publication-date=24 July 2018}}

Brashear's Dress Uniform is on display at the Hardin County History Museum in Elizabethtown, Kentucky as part of the "We Were There" Military Tribute and Exhibit.{{Cite web|url=http://www.hardinkyhistory.org/features.asp|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060515030535/http://www.hardinkyhistory.org/features.asp|url-status=usurped|archive-date=15 May 2006|title=Museum Artifacts and Memorabilia Exhibits Speakers Tours of Hardin County Elizabethtown History from the Hardin County History Museum preserving artifacts memorabilia rotating exhibits on display and speakers tours}}

Oris SA released the Oris Carl Brashear Cal. 401 Limited Edition dive watch to commemorate Brashear. {{cite web|url=https://www.ablogtowatch.com/oris-debuts-carl-brashear-cal-401-limited-edition/|title=Oris Debuts Carl Brashear Cal. 401 Limited Edition|date=January 19, 2021 }}

{{Portal|Biography}}

Cuba Gooding Jr. plays the role of Brashear in the 2000 film Men of Honor which was inspired by the life of Carl Brashear.

{{Reflist}}

• Stillwell, Paul. The Reminiscences of Master Chief Boatswain's Mate Carl Brashear. Annapolis, MD: United States Institute. 1998.
• {{cite web|url=http://www.chasingthefrog.com/reelfaces/menofhonor.php

|title=Carl Brashear — Men of Honor

|work=Reel Faces

|access-date=June 22, 2006}} Facts & fiction — real life versus the movie.

• {{cite web

|url = http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq105-1.htm

|title = Master Chief Boatswain's Mate Carl Maxie Brashear, USN (Ret.)

|publisher = Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy

|access-date = November 25, 2004

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20041204230006/http://history.navy.mil/faqs/faq105-1.htm

|archive-date = December 4, 2004

}} Brashear's NHC profile.

• {{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/25/brashear.obit.ap/index.html

|publisher=CNN

|title= Inspiration for 'Men of Honor' dies, Carl Brashear was first black U.S. Navy diver

|date=July 25, 2006

|access-date=July 26, 2006}} {{Dead link|date=September 2010|bot=H3llBot}}

• {{cite news

|url=http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060726/NEWS0104/607260521/1008/NEWS01 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130119184354/http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060726/NEWS0104/607260521/1008/NEWS01 |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 19, 2013 |work=Louisville Courier-Journal

|title=Kentuckian Carl Brashear, first black Navy diver, dies

|date=July 26, 2006

|author=Michael Felberbaum

|access-date=July 26, 2006}}

• [http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/131-12292005-590450.html Brashear has a Pedigree of Greatness]{{dead link|date=November 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080112223755/http://cms.firehouse.com/content/apparatus/detail.jsp?id=46272 Firehouse.com "Unit Bio – Fireboat-1 Carl Brashear"]
• [http://www.hamptonroads.tv/adv_search_embed.cfm?e=134871&keyword=§ion=&source= Hampton Roads TV]{{Dead link|date=August 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, October 24, 2007.

• {{cite web

|access-date=August 17, 2008

|url= https://www.afspc.af.mil/News/Commentaries/Display/Article/252622/direction-discipline-determination-the-story-of-carl-brashear/

|title=Direction, Discipline, Determination: The Story of Carl Brashear

|author=Pringle, Capt. Shuan

|date=February 21, 2001

|publisher=Air Force Space Command, United States Air Force

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113153018/http://www.afspc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123041850

|archive-date=January 13, 2009

}}

• [http://www.awesomestories.com/flicks/men-honor Story of Carl Brashear with rare photos from U.S. National Archives and the US Navy]
• {{Find a Grave|15044278|Carl Maxie Brashear}}

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Category:1931 births

Category:2006 deaths

Category:American underwater divers

Category:American amputees

Category:People from LaRue County, Kentucky

Category:Recipients of the Navy and Marine Corps Medal

Category:United States Navy sailors

Category:20th-century African-American sportsmen

Category:20th-century American sportsmen

Category:21st-century African-American military personnel

Category:African-American United States Navy personnel

Category:African Americans in the Korean War