經典電影《怒海潛將》主角原型：卡爾·布拉西爾(Carl Brashear)，美國海軍高階潛水員，1954年他成為首位非裔潛水員，在1966年為了尋找遺失在西班牙海域的B-28核彈，在打撈上岸的同時一次纜繩斷裂意外，掃到他的左腿而斷肢，為保住他的性命必須被迫截肢，但經過兩年多的復健努力，1968年重新認證為美國海軍的截肢潛水員，經9年服役後退役，2006年因心臟衰竭辭世，安葬於維吉尼亞州的伍德朗紀念花園
"It's not a sin to be knocked down. It's a sin to stay down.”
- Carl Brashear, US Navy Master Diver and subject of the 2000 movie, "Men of Honor"
On February 25, 1948, at the age of 17, Carl M. Brashear enlisted in the Navy. Twenty-two years later, after losing a leg during a bomb retrieval, he became the first African-American to earn the title of U.S. Navy Master Diver.
The son of Kentucky sharecroppers, Brashear quit school after seventh grade, worked in his parents' fields and at a local gas station, and in 1948, determined to make a name for himself and see the world, joined the Navy.
He served on the USS Tripoli (CVE-64) during the Korean War and in 1954, despite being constantly taunted and even threatened with his life, graduated from salvage dive school.
By 1964, Brashear had become a deep-sea diver, the first African-American to earn the title. The 33-year-old who had always told his family and friends, “I ain’t gonna let nobody steal my dream,” had made history.
But on March 23, 1966, tragedy struck.
After recovering a bomb in heavy seas off the coast of Spain, a tow-line on his vessel snapped, sending a steel pipe flying towards him and his men.
"I was trying to get my sailors out of the way, and I ran back down to grab a sailor, just manhandling him out of the way,” he explained in an interview for the US Naval Institute.
"That pipe flew across the deck and struck my leg below the knee. I was way up in the air just turning flips. I jumped up and started to run and fell over. That's when I knew how bad my leg was,” he said.
For his heroic actions Chief Brashear was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal. His left leg was later amputated, but Brashear, determined to continue serving his country, refused to leave the Navy.
He spent the next two years in rehabilitation, pushing himself physically and mentally to meet the rigorous requirements necessary to return to diving.
"Sometimes I would come back from a run and my artificial leg would have a puddle of blood from my stump,” Brashear later recalled.
"I wouldn't go to sick bay. If I had . . . they would have written me up. I'd hide and soak my leg in a bucket of hot water with salt in it. Then I'd get up the next morning and run again.”
In April 1968, Brashear became the first amputee to be re-certified as a U.S. Navy diver.
Two years later, in a final testament to his courage and perseverance, Brashear became the first African-American to earn the coveted title of U.S. Navy Master Diver.
Postscript:
Master Chief Petty Officer Brashear retired from the US Navy in 1979 after 31 years of service. He died on July 25, 2006, at the age of 75, from heart failure.
Brashear was the subject of the 2000 Hollywood blockbuster “Men of Honor,” in which Cuba Gooding Jr. played the hard-charging Navy pioneer.
“My father overcame five barriers in his lifetime,” said his son Phillip, who served in the military for 38 years, including a combat tour in Iraq flying Chinook helicopters.
"He overcame racism and poverty . . . he overcame illiteracy. He lost the bottom part of his leg and was physically disabled. He overcame his alcoholism, and in 1979 retired with honors.”
"He was the best of the best of what was truly American,” retired Master Diver J. Lamont King said at Brashear’s funeral.
Today we pay tribute to Carl Brashear, his family, and all US Navy divers past and present. We salute you!
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