Man of Honor

Carl M. Brashear, the first black U.S. Navy diver, died on Tuesday. He was 75. He was born in Tonneyville, Kentucky on January 19, 1931. A real hero he was the inspiration for the 2000 film "Men of Honor," which started Cuba Gooding Jr. and Robert De Niro. He died of respiratory and heart failure. He gave 30 years of service to the Navy before retiring in 1979. He joined the Navy at the age of 17 in 1948 soon after the military was desegregated. "Hate notes were left on my bunk. People just weren't ready for a segregated Navy; they didn't want me to make it through the program," he said. At first he was stuck in the galley like most racial minorites but he overcame a seventh grade education and was admitted to the Navy Dive School. Yet through the adversity he still kept going and had a notabke career as a Navy diver. In 1966 he was recovering a hydrogen bomb that dropped into the Mediterranean. While on his mission he was badly injured and his left leg had to be amputated below the knee. He refused to be retired by being labeled as unfit for duty. He would go back to full service and four years later he would go on to become the first first black Master Diver in the history of the U.S. Navy.


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