Carl Brashear
(January 19, 1931 – July 25, 2006)
Master chief petty officer
The Black American to become a U.S. Navy Master Diver
Awards Navy and Marine Corps Medal
Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal
Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal
Carl Brashear was born on January 19, 1931, in Tonieville, KY to McDonald and Gonzella Brasher was a sharecropper. In 1935, the family settled on a farm in Sonora, Kentucky. Brashear attended Sonora Grade School from 1937 to 1946. In 1948 he enlists in the navy great lakes Illinois, at the age of 17, shortly after the Navy had desegregated. He graduated from the U.S. Navy Diving & Salvage School in 1954, becoming the first African-American to attend and graduate from Diving.
Salvage School and the first African-American U.S. Navy Dive. In 1967, a year after an injury onboard the salvage ship Hoist cost him his left leg, Brashear became the first Navy diver to be restored to full active duty as an amputee in 1968. For many, his courage broke barriers and helped change attitudes about the disabled. . 1970
Master Diver Rank is achieved. 1979 retires from mililitary Carl Brashear Retires from the military. Brashear was the only amputee deep-sea diver to reach the status of Master Diver and the first black man to ever become Master Diver of the U.S. Navy,
a position he held from 1975 to 1977. Brashear retired from the Navy in 1979 after more than 30 years of service. The film Men of Honor was based on his life. Brashear died of respiratory and heart failure at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Virginia, on July 25, 2006.[1] He is buried at Woodlawn Memorial Gardens in Norfolk, Virginia.
a special watch was created by the watch brand Oris for Carl Brashear for consumers.