Posted on 07/30/2006 12:44:30 PM PDT by wagglebee
Never waver.
Carl Maxie Brashear, the Navy’s first black deep sea diver, must have uttered that mantra repeatedly as he overcame obstacle after obstacle.
It steeled him when Navy officials attempted to keep him out of diving classes. It bolstered him when, after his leg was amputated, the Navy brass thought he was crazy to believe he could return as a diver. It must have been a source of pride after receiving major military awards and seeing his life portrayed in the movie, “Men of Honor.”
Brashear, 75, died this week at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center, the same hospital where he recovered following a shipboard accident in 1966. That accident eventually cost him his left leg, but it couldn’t sap his desire or determination.
“Know your goal and never waver from it,” Brashear, who had lived in Virginia Beach, said in a October 2000 profile by The Pilot’s Mal Vincent. “If you work hard and love your fellow man, there’s not anything you can’t do. And no one will try to stop you.”
Well, folks did try to stop Brashear. But as he proved repeatedly, those were futile attempts.
The son of a Kentucky sharecropper only had a seventh-grade education when he entered the military in 1948. It was the same year that President Truman ordered military forces to integrate, and he faced the racist attitudes of the period.
Despite that, he became the first black diver in Navy history in 1953. After the 1966 ship accident, he was fitted with an artificial leg and proved he could handle the weight of the scuba tanks. He then became the first amputee in naval history to be restored to active duty. He retired from the Navy in 1979.
His lesson to all: Fight back. Don’t accept “no.” Persevere.
Never waver.
Great Advice!
That is a seriously moving movie about his life.
He was a hero in every sense.
Interesting, I was born in Portsmouth Naval Hospital and was raised in Virginia Beach.
What a great man he was, may God Bless him and his family.
Here is a link to video of his funeral yesterday.
http://www.hamptonroads.tv/index.cfm?locvid=108378&tid=r700&fv=1
Rest in Peace, Mr. Brashear.
This is a man who has lived a life worth living..........
"Military History" ping
Truly a man of honor. Thank you for the ping indcons.
Scuba tanks??? I thought Brashear & other Navy salvage divers were primarily "Hard Hat" divers? That's 'surface-supplied' air, as in 'no tanks'.
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