The True Story Of Carl Brashear, The Barrier-Breaking Navy Hero Profiled In ‘Men Of Honor’

The topic of the film Adult men of Honor, Carl Brashear battled racism to turn into the U.S. Navy’s initially Black learn diver — even just after losing 1 of his legs.

Disaster struck on March 23, 1966. Two Air Force planes collided off the coastline of Spain, dropping a hydrogen bomb into the ocean. As a Navy recovery workforce hauled the nuclear bomb up from the base of the sea, the towing line broke.

As a weighty steel pipe shot across the deck, diver Carl Brashear threw himself between the salvage group and the pipe in an unbelievable act of heroism. It struck his leg, shattering his bones. A physician pronounced Brashear dead thanks to blood reduction, only to improve his thoughts shortly right after. Brashear survived, and went on to turn into the initially amputee diver in the Navy, as properly as its initially Black grasp diver.

“I would do it all above once more, if I could,” Brashear claimed in a 2001 speech at DePauw College. This is the story of Carl Brashear, the barrier-breaking Navy hero featured in the 2000 film Men of Honor.

Who Was Carl Brashear?

Carl Brashear was born on Jan. 19, 1931. The sixth of 8 young children, Brashear was the son of sharecroppers scraping alongside one another a residing in rural Kentucky.

Brashear at some point dropped out of school in the seventh grade to function on the farm with his family. But he had even larger goals.

In 1948, New York Times experiences, Brashear tried using to indication up with the U.S. Army. When the Military turned down him, he experimented with the Navy, and was accepted. He formally enlisted in February 1948 – just 4 months just before President Harry Truman desegregated the navy.

But signing up for the Navy was just the beginning for Brashear, who would go on to make record, overcoming hurdle after hurdle in the method.

Becoming A 1st-Class Diver

The Navy assigned Carl Brashear to the stewards’ department, where by he cooked for white officers.

Then, in 1950, Brashear viewed from the deck of an plane provider as divers recovered airplanes that had fallen into the ocean. At the time, the Navy had zero Black divers, but to Brashear, diving appeared each little bit the experience he’d been dreaming about.

But when Brashear wrote to the U.S. Navy Diving & Salvage School requesting a seat, his letters mysteriously vanished.

Brashear sent about 100 letters to the diving faculty right before they finally acknowledged him, producing him the school’s to start with Black attendee.

Throughout his diving instruction, Brashear was frequently harassed by some of his fellow trainees, who referred to him working with racial slurs or remaining him threatening notes. “Sometimes my project would be sabotaged,” he recalled.

In spite of his poor cure, Brashear graduated in 1955. He was the first Black salvage diver in U.S. armed service record, in accordance to Black Past.

“Some folks may perhaps not like you,” Brashear later mentioned in his DePauw speech. “But they just cannot halt you.”

Brashear’s task was unsafe. As a diver, he was tasked with retrieving sunken ships and planes. At times, the Washington Article reviews, he had to detonate World War II torpedoes. But Brashear thrived. And he continued his education, obtaining his high university equivalency diploma in 1960.

Upcoming, Brashear enrolled in the Navy’s deep-sea diving system. At first, he struggled with the tough physics and arithmetic courses, but just after yrs of learning, Brashear became a first-course diver in 1964 – and graduated third in his class.

The Hydrogen Bomb Catastrophe

Sunken Environment War II torpedoes could be deadly. But a lost hydrogen bomb was even even worse.

In 1966, Carl Brashear experienced his most tough assignment nonetheless. That January, SOFREP experiences, a B-52 bomber carrying 4 hydrogen bombs collided with a refueling tanker in Spain. 3 bombs ended up swiftly recovered in a nearby fishing village. But just one fell into the Mediterranean.

Brashear’s rescue and salvage team was dispatched to get well the missing nuclear weapon.

Then, an incident virtually finished Brashear’s lifestyle. As the first-class diver stood on the deck overseeing operations, a towing line snapped. In an quick, a large steel pipe flew throughout the deck toward the crew.

Brashear leapt into motion, pushing the males out of the way — a heroic feat that would afterwards earn him the Navy and Maritime Corps Medal.

But the pipe struck Brashear’s left leg, almost killing him. Just after he was transferred to the Portsmouth Naval Healthcare facility in Virginia, physicians advised Brashear that his leg would get many years to recover, and that he’d still have to stroll with a brace and a cane.

“Go in advance and amputate,” Brashear replied. “I cannot be tied up that long. I’ve bought to go again to diving.”

Brashear remained in the healthcare facility for almost a yr as he recovered. Meanwhile, the Navy sent Carl Brashear discharge papers. He refused to sign.

The Initial Grasp Diver With A Prosthetic Leg

As the very first Black gentleman to graduate from the Navy’s diving faculty and the first Black 1st-course diver, Carl Brashear had presently damaged numerous barriers. After dropping his leg all through a salvage mission, Brashear vowed to return to his duties, a feat that would also make him the Navy’s initially amputee diver.

Fitted with a prosthetic leg, Brashear returned to diving faculty. Several of the Navy officials there didn’t imagine Brashear would succeed. But Brashear quickly proved them erroneous.

The Navy set Brashear as a result of extreme checks. He experienced to climb ladders carrying large barbells on his again, and carry 300 pounds of devices devoid of support – all even though wearing a prosthetic leg. Carl Brashear passed each test.

It wasn’t straightforward. “Sometimes I would appear back from a run, and my synthetic leg would have a puddle of blood from my stump,” Brashear admitted, for every the Los Angeles Times. “If I had gone to sick bay, they would have prepared me up. I didn’t go to ill bay. I’d go someplace and conceal and soak my leg in a bucket of scorching water with salt in it.”

In 1970, Brashear attained the master diver credential – the greatest amount for Navy divers.

Brashear served in the Navy till 1979, and then worked in a civilian part at Naval Station Norfolk right up until he retired in 1993.

Gentlemen of Honor Celebrates Carl Brashear

In 2000, the movie Adult men of Honor told the serious-existence story of Carl Brashear, performed by Cuba Gooding Jr. The retired diver acted as a expert for the film, and afterwards confirmed that it was a mainly accurate depiction of his lifestyle.

“Not in my wildest goals did I feel this would come about,” Brashear claimed in a 2001 CNN job interview. “Even after I missing my leg I was just executing my job.”

Carl Brashear died of coronary heart and respiratory failure at the Naval Healthcare Center on July 25, 2006 at the age of 75.

Just a couple of decades right before his loss of life, Brashear mirrored on his career, saying, “I was ready to convert tragedy into triumph, even with the dirt I had on me the dirt of racism, the filth of prejudice, the grime of discrimination, the grime of doubt, the dust of disbelief. I had it all on me but I experienced the ability to shake it off and raked it under my shoe until I was in a position to stage above adversity.”

---

Just after overcoming tremendous odds, Carl Brashear became a celebrated hero. Subsequent, go through about Henry Johnson, a Black Planet War I hero neglected for yrs, and then master about other Black heroes in the navy.