(Obit) Carl Brashear, 75; Navy's First Black Deep-Sea Diver Inspired Film

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-brashear27jul27,1,2288384.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california

After enduring threats from white shipmates and efforts by Navy officers to sabotage his final exam in diving school, Carl Maxie Brashear emerged as the Navy's first African American deep-sea diver.

So he had no intention of giving up that hard-won position in 1966, after injuries suffered while recovering a bomb from the ocean left him an amputee.

In the months after the accident, Brashear put himself through grueling physical training and held fast to an attitude, learned from his father, that worked in the face of racism as well as disability.

"It's not a sin to be knocked down," Brashear told the Salt Lake Tribune in 2002. "It's a sin to stay down."

Brashear went on to become the first African American master diver in the U.S. Navy, and the first amputee to be restored to full active duty as a diver. Brashear, whose story was told in the 2000 film "Men of Honor," died of respiratory and heart failure Tuesday at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth. He was 75.

On edit wanted to add:

I loved the movie - I'll sit down and watch it whenever I see it on TV. What an inspiring film though it makes me angry for what this man had to endure. Thank goodness we had a man like Master Diver Brashear who was willing to fight the stupid prejudice of those in the military and society. May he rest in peace. Truly he accomplished his mission. Well done Navy Diver!

[BOSSHOG]

1. A Hero personified

I met him before he retired as I was a young Sailor in the Navy. He made me feel like I was the most important member of the world's greatest Navy. Total professional.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. Nice to hear that.

Cuba Gooding potrayed an interesting guy but one can never be sure where the line should be drawn between the character in the film and the real person. He had an extraordinary story.

[Ilsa]

2. God rest his soul. What a fighter! The movie was really good,

well acted with Cuba Gooding Jr and Robert De Niro.

[Democrat 4 Ever]

5. He is a hometown hero in this neck of the woods - here is part

of his obit in today's News-Enterprise in Elizabethtown, KY.

(Note - his son, Phillip Brashear, a helicopter pilot with the U.S. Army, traveled home on emergency leave from Iraq to be with his father and was with him when he died.)

The legacy of Carl Brashear 1931-2006
JILL PICKETT/The News-Enterprise

As far as his family’s concerned, Carl Maxie Brashear was destined for his Navy career. He was a mischievous, daring child who would spend most of his free time swimming in the ponds on the farm where his family lived in Sonora.

Once, he took his younger sister, Norma Jean Moore, by the hand and led her into a pond.

“I couldn’t swim,” she said, laughing as she recalled how Brashear kept walking her deeper and deeper in the muddy water until it was as high as her neck. “I kept telling him not to let me drown.”

The pond incident was an example of the determined attitude her brother believed in.

“He always wanted to do the impossible,” the Elizabethtown resident said.

Brashear, 75, died Tuesday at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth in Virginia.

(snip)

rest of the article is at http://www.thenewsenterprise.com/articles/2006/07/27/news/news01.txt -

[RamboLiberal]

4. Just wanted to add that Carl Brashear's Family continues to serve

His son was brought back from Iraq where he is a helicopter pilot in the Virginia Army National Guard because of his father's illness and now death is mentioned in LA Times Obit.

[ChazII]

6. May he rest in peace.

[psychopomp]

7. RIP to a true American Hero

Thank you, Mr. Brashear.

[RethugAssKicker]

8. A true hero !

RIP

[Samurai_Writer]

9. If you have the DVD of Men of Honor

There is an interview with Carl Brashear which is just riveting. He is a true American hero. Rest in peace, Master Chief Brashear.

[TacticalPeek]

10. K & R

What

a

man!

:patriot:

[goclark]

11. A HERO!

[Stinky The Clown]

12. A great man is gone

A man of ordinary background a nd possessed of extraordinary charcter.

I admit to being a sappy old softy, and his story as shown in that movie always makes me weepy.

Rest in peace, Karl Brashear. You've earned the respect of divers, sailors, and people. I wish I had known you, sir.

[Divernan]

13. What an admirable, honorable man

As a scuba diver, I was absolutely engrossed by the movie about Brashear. What a great life he led.

"Sometimes I would come back from a run, and my artificial leg would have a puddle of blood from my stump," he told Stillwell. "In that year, if I had gone to sick bay, they would have written me up. I didn't go to sick bay. I'd go somewhere and hide and soak my leg in a bucket of hot water with salt in it — an old remedy."

Brashear was allowed to return to full duty as a diver, the first time in the Navy's history that an amputee was allowed to do so. Four years after the accident he achieved his goal of becoming a master diver.