REMEMBERING CARL BRASHEAR! Today, January 19th, we celebrate the life and times of Carl Maxie Brashear (January 19, 1931 – July 25, 2006); the first African-American to become a U.S. Navy Master Diver, rising to the position in 1970. Brashear was born on January 19, 1931, in Tonieville, Kentucky, the sixth of eight children to sharecroppers McDonald and Gonzella Brashear. In 1935, the family settled on a farm in Sonora, Kentucky. Brashear attended Sonora Grade School from 1937 to 1946. Brashear enlisted in the U.S. Navy on February 25, 1948, shortly after the Navy had been desegregated by U.S. President Harry S. Truman. He graduated from the U.S. Navy Diving & Salvage School in 1954, becoming the first African-American to attend and graduate from the Diving & Salvage School and the first African-American U.S. Navy Diver. In 1970 he qualified as the first black master diver in the history of the U.S. Navy. Cuba Gooding, Jr. played the role of Brashear in Men of Honor, a movie inspired by the life of Carl Brashear. Brashear died of respiratory and heart failure at the Portsmouth Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, Virginia on July 25, 2006. He is buried at Woodlawn Memorial Gardens in Norfolk, Virginia.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 13:23:27 +0000
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